It's not just that. The Russian "government", that is, the mafia, has no accountability to Russian citizens whatsoever. The entire power structure of a vast country is based on fear. Nothing more. It's been that way for centuries. That alone makes it impossible to negotiate in good faith, because what is dangerous to the Russian oligarchy about democracy is
the existence of democracy, anywhere. The existence of democracy, the very whisper of it, as they learned from the Cold War, is ipso facto a threat to their absolute control over their own population. It will always represent a threat. This is
why it's so shameful for America to turn its back on Ukraine, and why no one is surprised that Iran and China and North Korea are friendly with Russia. Their shared interest is in preventing their own masses of people from being allowed to squeak a single word of protest. And they are hollow, weak regimes because of it; they are terrified of the openness of Western societies.
The current modality of "free speech" being the rallying cry for the pro-Russian contingent in the West is all the more absurd on its face for that reason.