RFE/RL: Here’s an unpleasant question: Are Russians collectively or individually responsible? Are we all responsible for the war?
Sorokin: Yes, I think both. Undoubtedly, as a Russian, I share the collective responsibility for the unleashed war. But I also have to ask myself what it was specifically that I didn’t do to prevent it. So it is for every normal person, I think. And this guilt is going to grow.
All us Russians will have to drink from a bitter cup. Everyone will have to carry a stone upon their backs -- how big and how heavy is for each person to decide for themselves. But we are all to blame, of course -- not just Putin and his team. As in the Stalin years, the regime relied on the fact that there are millions of people like Stalin and Putin -- with the same consciousness, the same ethics, the same vocabulary.