Memes

To be fair it's never clear cut. Government is made up of people in a democracy. Russia still labels itself a democracy, obviously it's been somewhat hard take their word for it given the anomalous approval ratings and the long standing history of corruption as well as the oligarchic roots that are still running through the country.

You're both right and wrong, the government is an extension of the citizens as to represent them. However, this government might not be representing them realistically anymore. So if you say the average person is responsible, that means they need to risk their and even their families safety and freedom. I think that's not fair, I don't know if I would be capable of this.

In conclusion (and because we know this from experience out of 1940s Germany) we need to burden them some responsibility for not revolting, but we can not punish them the same as government.

This excludes the specific perpetrators. If they have actual knowledge of the crimes, there is an argument to be made for moral implications from direct culpability and thus their actions underly a heightened level of criminalization and ethical scrutiny.