Thousands of Russians have been arrested in their native country for opposing the war in Ukraine.

This shows that not everyone supports President Vladimir Putin’s military campaign against a neighbouring nation.

However, some in the West seem to want to punish the Russian people as a whole.

For example, a former U.S. ambassador to Moscow on March 2 posted on Twitter that there are “no more ‘innocent’, ‘neutral’ Russians anymore”.

The diplomat, Michael McFaul, has deleted the tweet.

Russia has produced many of the world’s finest ballet dancers, opera singers, conductors, musicians, and other cultural performers.

Because of the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine, several scheduled performances and events by these artists across the world have been cancelled.

For example, New York’s Carnegie Hall called off scheduled performances of conductor Valery Gergiev and pianist Denis Matsuev.

In the U.K., the Royal Opera House cancelled a planned residency by Moscow's Bolshoi Ballet.

Tyler Cowen, an American economist and professor with the George Mason University, commented about this in one of his syndicated columns.

“By way of self-disclosure: I am strongly anti-Putin and have favored a vigorous Western response to the conflict,” Cowen wrote in a piece published by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

He continued, “I also have a wife and daughter who were born in the former Soviet Union. Should they be required to speak out politically if they want particular jobs or contracts?”

For Cowen, cancelling Russian artists is wrong.

It’s a “witch hunt” no different from the anti-communist hysteria whipped up by then American Senator Joseph McCarthy during the 1950s.

As Cowen put it, it’s a “new McCarthyism”.

He also questioned the value of cancelling Russian artists across the world.

“Is there any clear evidence that boycotting Russian performers outside of Russia is going to help Ukraine?” Cowen asked.

Going back to recent history by way of comparison, he recalled that American athletes competed against those from the then Soviet Union during the Cold War.

“These competitions were widely known to be formal propaganda vehicles for the Soviet empire, and everyone realized that many of the athletes supported the regime,” Cowen wrote.

He added, “But America didn’t try to cancel them — instead, it proudly competed against them, hoping to show the superiority of American values.”

By the way, it’s not just Russian artists but athletes as well who are facing the brunt of cancel culture in the West.

The International Olympic Committee has called for an international ban on athletes from Russia and its ally, Belarus.

It seems that for some, all Russians are guilty.

But as Cowen wrote, “Witch hunts, by their very nature, do not bring out the best in people, Americans very much included.”