The Pope being Pope. This line of reasoning is based upon a premise that Russian people may not be responsible for the Russian aggression. It's always someone else's fault, in this case - the fault of minorities

What is worse, Russian "liberal opposition" shares this conviction

Prediction: should the regime change and the "liberal opposition" take power, this will become the official narrative. Since Russian people/culture are blameless, liberals will declare minorities to be responsible both for Putinism and for Z-invasion

(they already do btw)

Potential regime change in Moscow will *not* mark the break with the official nationalism but rather its revival. New authorities will equate Putinism and minorities and then launch a crackdown on minorities picturing this as a "fight against Putinism"

Should Putin fall, the "anti-Putinist" agenda would be weaponised for concentrating even more powers in Moscow, and completing centralisation and homogenisation of the empire. It gonna be "liberals" who will finish Putin's job hiding behind the "anti-Putinist" rhetorics

Russian "liberal opposition" shares Putin's imperialist philosophy with all its basic premises. They just use different shibboleths but that's it. There's no indication they would change the course except for the wishful thinking of too many Western journalists and politicians

You will understand the Russian opposition better if you just learn its basic premise: it's always someone else's fault. Even if atrocities are done by the Russian army, it's still someone else's fault - in this case the Inner Other, like Buryats