And what power do Russian expatriots have to effect change in their home country exactly? Huge numbers left precisely because they disagree with the politics, which poses a huge demographic problem for Russia. Forcing them to go back would be counterproductive, not to mention plain xenophobic.

You can't simultaneously call Russia an authoritarian dictatorship and say that its people have the power to change the country's trajectory.

Because the only way to force change in a country, is to push it’s people to make that change.

The correct way to say this is: "the only way to force change in a country, is to push the people who can make change to make that change".

Intentionally targeting civilians is a war crime.