The truth is, I had been wanting to learn Russian since before all the… you know. Russia is a place whose culture fascinates me probably as much as that of Japan. Rachmaninoff, Tchaikovsky, Shostakovich, Stravinsky… you can’t tell me that their music doesn’t all slap. Hyperbolic geometry just wouldn’t be the same without Lobachevsky. And besides, am I truly a nerd if I have expressed zero desire whatsoever to read War and Peace as the author intended?
Sure, I’m a Russophile, but no, I do not support the actions that the people in the Kremlin are doing in Russia’s name. Any country that is independent has the right to remain such, and in no way, shape, or form is Ukraine an exception. Cities are being occupied, entire futures destroyed, and I will not stand for that.
It is necessary to stress that the root of the problem is not the nation of Russia itself, nor its average citizen (even many Russians themselves stand with Ukraine), but specifically the ones who happen to currently be in charge of it. No one country is entirely good nor bad, but in this particular case, the people in charge of Russia have values that do not line up with the first article of the UDHR:
All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.
My final point is that politics should not deter you from learning a language. If you paid attention in history class, you may have heard the phrase “the sun never sets on the British Empire”. That phrase was created as a way for the UK to brag that they invaded places all around the world. Spain has invaded a particularly large area of land, too. Does any of that stop people from learning English and Spanish?