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Ask HN: How to Pay Russian Contractors?
Unfortunately we have some Russian developers who are caught out due to the various payment related sanctions against Russia.
I am not debating the sanctions but wanted to see if anyone has any ideas about how to pay them from the Western world? Preferably a long term option in case the payment sanctions escalate further.
I hope this does not cause political debate as we all are completely against the war. Thanks.
- Norovy 5y agoHi there! You can use Solar Staff. This service automates all paperwork and payments to freelancers and distributed teams. They work with largest companies in Russia for 7 years already. You can pay to bloggers, developers, designers and etc. Hope it will help and your team will be fine!
- obilgic 5y agoBitcoin
- readytoaskhn 5y agoInterested in this. Do you know many companies that pay contractors or teams via Bitcoin?
- rdtwo 5y agoIt’s going to be hard to do taxes for that though
- joshxyz 5y ago1. Lots of factors come in play here like transaction fees, transaction speed, trading slippage. Usually the best way is to work with OTC desks (like FTX OTC for example) which involves KYC at some point. 2. For accounting and taxes, there are actually companies out there whose business is in helping people sort this out. varies country to country, and due diligence of course.
- readytoaskhn 5y ago1. Thanks! Investigating that currently. 2. Yes I figured there must be others who face the same challenges. It doesn't seem too difficult from our point of view but not sure from a contractors point of view. Will check those companies out in the meantime.
- emteycz 5y agoHave them move out of Russia and pay them by usual means there. Help them with the relocation if you can.
- readytoaskhn 5y agoThanks. Yes pursuing this option but hopeful of an alternative in the meantime.
- codingdave 5y agoBut you are debating the sanctions, if you are asking how to get around them. Keep track of what is owed, pay it after this all is over.
- readytoaskhn 5y agoNot necessarily. I am looking for ideas on legal methods to pay contractors in Russia that are not impacted by the sanctions. That doesn't mean I am for or against the sanctions. Just looking for legal alternatives. It is still legal to make payments, just more difficult.
- FrenchAmerican 5y agoEven if it is legal, it's still morally problematic. The point is no about the persons you want to pay, but because you send dollars to a country that needs these dollars to sustain its war to Ukraine. Of course, the EU sends €1B ... per day to Russia to pay for its petroleum and natural gas. As if we could not drastically cut our energy use if we wanted to. Many will protest that it is indeed impossible but Covid has shown that confining whole countries for three weeks is possible ; it has also shown that the EU could find €1 trillion to save its economy - a sum that was said to be impossible to find to save the planet from climate dereliction and collapse of biodiversity. If the EU stopped suddenly paying Russia, the war in Ukraine would be shortened for certain. That would imply of course to share the available energy between the EU countries ; our politicians are really fierce on helping Ukraine - except if it impacts our economies. I'm ashamed as an European, really. NB: yes, I do realize the EU level of dependency towards Russia. Yes, that would be difficult. But that's the price to show the world that we are really to fight for democracy. Putin thought he could invade Ukraine because of his perception of our lack of will to fight for democracy, precisely. He was not wrong: it's only the Ukrainians' incredible spirit of resistance that forced the West to really oppose it with supplies of weapons and sanctions. Had the Ukrainians not resisted that well, it would have been like Crimea. China is watching. We must do more in the EU and close all the pipelines from Russia.
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