>I wonder at which point this current hunt for (civilian) Russians only drives them into the arms of Putin. To me it feels petty and ultimately counterproductive trying to exclude every Russian from the world community.

This is certainly an interesting point. For example, russian chess community for the most part has spoken out against the war. FIDE has withdrawn basically all chess out of Russia and I believe they are moving much of it to India. Which makes sense to me. Tons of awesome Indian chess players. Yes, Russia is attacking Indian citizens in Ukraine and has even killed at least one. Those Russian chess players impacted by the move of chess out of Russia will force them to ask wtf. This won't push them toward Putin by any means.

I suspect the same for other sports and interests will be true.

On the otherhand, the economic sanctions will effectively push the Russian people into demanding from their government to be sure. Economically they need their government to stabilize the situation. They are being pushed into the hands of Putin, but excuses of 'something something nazis' is not going to be enough.

>If you seriously want to boycott "Russian" software, why don't you start with this Sergey Brin guy - sounds Russian to me /s

I can get behind that, though I'm pretty sure Brin hates Russia.