While there are reports of isolated anti-war vigils in a number of Russian cities, which were quickly suppressed by police arrests, liberal Russian intellectuals are expressing horror and deep shame at their country's military incursion into Ukraine.
The editor-in-chief of Novaya Gazeta, Dmitry Muratov, justifies this shame by saying that there is no one who can stop this war.
In a video speech, the Nobel Peace Prize winner said that President Putin was playing with the nuclear button like he was playing with the key to an expensive car.
In any case, his remark about an "vengeful weapon" apparently threatens the world with a nuclear strike.
Out of solidarity with Ukraine and because his colleagues would never see the neighboring country as hostile, Muratov assured
Novaya Gazeta produced a bilingual edition in Ukrainian and Russian.
Muratov concluded with the dramatic declaration that only a Russian anti-war movement could save life on this planet.
Kerstin Holm
Editor in the Feuilleton.
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The writer Boris Akunin admits that until the very end he did not believe that Putin would get involved in this absurd war.
But madness won out.
Russia is being ruled by a mentally ill dictator and, what is worse, the country is obeying his paranoia.
He knows, Akunin said, that "Putinland" and Russia are not one and the same, but for the world there is now no difference between the two.
Even the émigré satirist Viktor Schenderowitsch is amazed that, as he says, there was not a decent person in the entire political elite who would have tried to stop the catastrophe.
This war, which Putin instigated out of hurt self-love, is a crime by Russia.
Therefore, all his compatriots are accomplices, for they allowed such a kite to emerge,
Like Hitler's campaigns of conquest
Even opposition politician Alexei Navalny, who is being tried again in the penal colony, demanded that his demand that this war be ended be recorded in the record.
Navalny said he was cut off from communications with the outside world, but this war was unleashed by bandits and thieves to divert attention from Russia's problems.
Like many, fantasy author Dmitry Glukhovsky compares Putin's war to Hitler's campaigns of conquest, his capture of the Sudetenland and the partition of Poland.
Like many Russians, Glukhovsky notes that he is watching tyranny escalate and liberty suppressed.
And the rapper Vlady admits that he wishes for himself and his compatriots to see the time when Russia officially recognizes the crimes of the current rulers as such.
Political scientist Kirill Rogov is convinced that this war will not only cost thousands of lives, but will also bring no benefit to Russia.
On Facebook, he predicts that his country's decline will only accelerate.
What matters now is how quickly Western countries can find a substitute for the fossil fuels they get from Russia.
Although this will be painful for Europe, it is only a matter of time.
In the medium term, Russia will lose its economic model and become a satellite of China, predicts Rogov.
NATO will consolidate all the more on its western border.
In shock
Politics professor Ekaterina Schulman warns her compatriots that they are just witnessing the "dawn" of a war that will unfortunately last a very long time.
Many opponents of violence are currently in a state of shock, so the proponents and the Kremlin bots are more visible.
But the first casualty of every war is the truth, and things were not going well in Russia before.
According to Schulman, everyone is afraid now, and that can also be expressed in cheers.
But public opinion will change.
It's important not to panic now, Schulman advises.
All those who have nothing to do with this war should fulfill their professional and family obligations all the more conscientiously and perhaps exchange views on social networks - as long as they still exist,
which may soon no longer be the case.
In any case, for the time being, Schulman writes on Facebook that she is not calling anyone to do anything, because that could be irresponsible.
Unfortunately, the events develop according to the worst scenario, the university lecturer and publicist notes, her compatriots face a long corridor of misfortune.
The previous life is over, a new one is beginning, which is poorer, more dangerous and more restricted.
The restrictions would come both from within, through security orders, and from outside, through sanctions.
"Take care of yourselves" is a silly request, Schulman says.
Nevertheless, she asks her readers to take care of themselves, for the sake of those close to them and for the sake of their homeland, which has fallen into a great tragedy - because it could be that they are still needed.