Some thoughts/suggestions from a Russian friend.

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I'm in contact with a Russian friend who made some comments and suggestions regarding the Ukraine war. I'm passing them on on his behalf, since he'd rather not be linked to them in any way (as he stated, he'd "rather not taste the polonium tea" ). Here they are:

- Around 300 billion US dollars of international reserves were confiscated from the Russian government. This money should placed at least under partial control of Russian opposition leaders abroad, specifically members of the Navalny team which fled from persecution. That would give the Russian opposition resources to fight.

- There is currently a horrific police crackdown in Moscow, with armed policemen at every crossroad, social media blocked etc. In order to organize any resistance the opposition at least needs VPN. Unfortunately Apple and Google blocked the app stores, so people cannot install VPN. This is a huge gift to Putin.

- Blocking MasterCard and Visa was dumb, as now people cannot pay for Western VPN services to get around the info blockade (Russian credit cards are not working anymore). On the other hand, payments for natural gas have not been blocked, and prices are skyrocketing. Because of this Gazprom is making bank right now.

- If you want to overthrow the regime with a popular uprising then you should strengthen society and weaken the government. The current measures are doing the opposite. People are blocked from everywhere and the government is making a shit-ton of money from increased gas and oil prices. So what the US and EU should do is unblock the services for ordinary people but block Gazprom, and arm the opposition with confiscated funds.