Standing up to a dictator: The brave women taking on Putin

But that's exactly what a cohort of brave women are doing, defending their countries and their rights, from Vladimir Putin. 

For 16 months, Russia has bombarded Ukraine in an illegal invasion that has seen the casualty count tally over 130,000. 

The devastation across Eastern Europe and the target of innocent civilians by Putin and Russia has left the world outraged – and none more so than the female leaders from bordering countries, Finland and Estonia. 

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In a powerful counterforce that Putin never anticipated, it's a strong group of fearless women who are using their voices as weapons to fight a war. 

Former Finnish prime minister Sanna Marin ushered her country into NATO (the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation), giving Finns the best protection they could have from Russia.

NATO, established in the aftermath of World War II, is a collective security system, with its 31 independent member states agreeing to defend each other against attacks from third parties. 

"I think the situation is very black and white," Sanna told Tom Steinfort.

"Russia has brutally attacked Ukraine illegally. We have to be awake. We have to make sure that we are prepared in any situation.

"When Russia attacked Ukraine, I knew that Finland will join NATO and that it will get the big support from the citizens that it did get."

Estonian prime minister Kaja Kallas is also not afraid to stand up to Putin. 

"Appeasing the dictator is like feeding a crocodile, hoping that you are the last one to be eaten," Kaja said.

"I don't want to be that."

Kaja credits NATO for the reason Putin hasn't made a move to take Estonia yet.

"This is all to give the message that, don't even think about us, because you can't win here," she said.

"Ukraine clearly is the first bite. If our response is weak, then every next time, or every next step is bolder."

"We have to make sure that Russia will lose," Marin says.

"We have to do what is right.

"We are now in the changing point of history, and we have to be on the right side of history." 

Even at home in Russia, where Putin has made it a crime to condemn him, he's failing to silence brave women who are risking their safety by taking on the dictator. 

The fearless Russian women, including Marina Ovsyannikova and Ksenia Sobchak, are putting their lives on the line to speak the truth about their own leader. 

Marina Ovsyannikova was working as a journalist in Russia, unable to criticise anything Putin did – but her job became unbearable when he sent more than 100,000 troops into Ukraine and expected the Russian media to hide the carnage. 

Marina took action in a way that defied the leader, interrupting a live TV broadcast to condemn Putin's war. 

"I realised [to] myself, I can't keep silent anymore and I must protest against the propaganda machine, against this criminal war," Ovsyannikova told 60 Minutes. 

After a 14-hour interrogation and a night behind bars, Ovsyannikova was put on house arrest and plotted her escape. She ended up fleeing to another country in the middle of the night, changing cars seven times on her way to a new life in Paris.

"I played Russian roulette," Marina said.

"I thought maybe I'd spend two or three years inside a Russian jail. But it doesn't matter to me at the moment. I perfectly understand why I must sacrifice my life for this war criminal." 

Like Ovsyannikova, Ksenia Sobchak is a Russian woman fighting for what's right – and she's a courageous freedom fighter from an unexpected background.

From being known as her country's answer to Kim Kardashian to making a shift to politics in 2018 and running against Putin for resident, Sobchak said despite rumours she was planted by Putin, she was desperate to give Russians the chance to vote against him. 

For decades, Sobcha's parents have been close to Putin, with many believing she is his goddaughter, a rumour she denies. 

While she won't answer whether she thinks Russia would be a better place without Putin as leader, nor say if she hopes Russia will lose the war, Sobchak says she wants Russia to become a "liberal country open to the world".

"I can only say that, of course, I think that the war should be ended as soon as possible," she said.

"For me, the main question is, what can be the victory for Russia in this war? I honestly don't see what can be counted as a victory." 

Kaja Kallas wants Putin to be held personally responsible for the devastation his army is causing in Ukraine.

"It's very important that aggression, as a policy tool, can't pay off. It can't be so that you invade a country, you attack another country, [and] you just walk off with more territories and nothing happens to you," Kaja said.

"How the world responds to the aggression by Russia, also gives the message to all the aggressors or would-be aggressors in the world." 

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