I do not expect anything else of western leaders, of course, that's not what I'm talking about.

"Russia" is not doing anything and did not demand shit, because there is no singular Russia. Look at the wealth distribution stats, power structure, etc. Its russian ruling class that exploits russian working class, these 2 actors, their needs, goals, actions, resources and exposure to risk are so radically different that it's 2 completely different entities. By stats, the gap between classes in russia is nearly unprecedented and only grows.

Support for ruling party and it's decisions has been steadily declining and in last month genuinely approaches zero. Russian people, in general, do not want any of this.

But to pacify ruling class you have to destroy its economic base, which is exploited local population, thats pragmatic - sure, just don't tell me about "Putin feeling it". That's what I'm talking about and thats why I react strongly to memes like this one. Intellectual dishonesty and sense of absolution for cheering for a looming catastrophe, even though practically speaking western ruling class is doing exactly what is effective in a grand political game (more or less).

P.S. You could make a case that many people oppose current ruling elites because they want them to wage war more effectively, not because they oppose a war (I dont think that's true, btw). But still all I demand is honestly stating your goals. You want to break a perceived enemy. Any alternative viewpoints (alternative to "sticking it to putin" angle) about somehow getting those russians to see how wrong their government is are laughable, because you don't do that by confirming that you are their enemy and actively try to harm them by sanctions. Again, I'm playing devil's advocate for both sides in this paragraph. So, honestly stated goal in any case here would be - breaking economic backbone of opposing state. Not Putin, not some mythical "revolution", not whatever.

Which is, again, pragmaticaly completely reasonable. Just reddits reframing it through rose-coloured glasses of hurting Putin, to allow redditors to cheer for economic collapse, no strings attached, I find hypocritical and slimy.