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Context: Yandex is in the news right now because a couple of days ago its cofounder and former CEO Arkady Volozh was caught trying to hide his Russian past [0],

Context: Yandex is in the news right now because a couple of days ago its cofounder and former CEO Arkady Volozh was caught trying to hide his Russian past [0], and today he finally issued a public statement condemning the war [1], almost 1.5 years after the full-scale invasion began. [0] https://kz.kursiv.media/en/2023-08-07/co-founder-of-yandex-erases-russia-from-his-biography-and-reflects-on-kazakhstan/ https://kz.kursiv.media/en/2023-08-07/co-founder-of-yandex-e... [1] https://www.reuters.com/article/ukraine-crisis-yandex-volozh/yandex-co-founder-volozh-slams-russias-barbaric-invasion-of-ukraine-idINR4N36T02J https://www.reuters.com/article/ukraine-crisis-yandex-volozh...

secondary_op 3y ago
[flagged]
londons_explore 3y ago
> today he finally issued a public statement condemning the war Would you issue such a statement in his position? Think carefully. If you don't, you will probably have twitter brigades trying to smear your name. If you do, your family back home might be at risk, and you will probably never be able to visit them again. Personally, I cannot in good faith demand anyone condemn the war, if to do so, they are putting family and friends freedoms at risk.
- azangru 3y ago
  > If you don't, you will probably have twitter brigades trying to smear your name. Do Twitter crowds actually do that? Do they keep track of anyone more or less prominent, and write in their comments "Have you spoken out against the war yet?" "I haven't seen you denounce the war"?
  - londons_explore 3y ago
    It mostly happens via private messaging, but yes. It's part of the "you are either with us or against us" mentality of many campaign groups. See ~2 years ago when every opensource project was forced to publish a code of conduct and diversity and inclusion policy... Often the people asking for the policies weren't even users of the software involved, let alone interested in writing code for the proect. That campaign seems to have ended, and nobody cares if your project has either anymore.
    - azangru 3y ago
      > That campaign seems to have ended, and nobody cares if your project has either anymore. Has the movement to rename every master branch to main quietened down as well?
      - dijit 3y ago
        Only because it was successful.
        simoncion 3y ago
        There are many active 'master' branches at work, and many, many active 'master' branches on Github. By that measure, the movement to rename every 'master' branch to 'main' has been a resounding failure. (If you look at the events at the time it sprung up, you could pretty safely say that it was encouraged as a way to distract from the then-current "GitHub is doing business with US's ICE!" hatestorm, and man was it successful.)
        dijit 3y ago
        If your only active metric is "all or nothing". Sure, there's a few. But the major git hosting platforms are only using 'main' as the default for new branches, and there is significant enough social stigma for new projects that it's preferred to use main. I don't have precise statistics, but I would happily wager that even though master was the default for so long that the majority of git repositories that have been contributed to in the last 30 days are not 'master' as the default branch name. To change a default with such inertia as to completely skew the demographic in favour of the new rather than the status quo: I would certainly merit that as success.
        justsomehnguy 3y ago
        > completely skew the demographic By 'twitter brigades trying to smear your name'. Great success!
      - 3y ago
  - unsupp0rted 3y ago
    Remember that time a year ago in February when the Namecheap CEO gave every person with a Russian ID, living inside and outside Russia, 1-week notice that their account is terminated and they have to host elsewhere? Including expats, refugees, objectors, what have you. Your contract with Namecheap is terminated for being connected to Russia. Prove to us you're not, if you want to keep your service. His justification? Well we have a lot of Ukrainian staff and you know, we're not with Russia therefore we're against Russia, therefore... > If we were virtue signaling we wouldn't willingly be giving up a not non significant part of our business. This hurts us financially but it's the right thing to do, at least for us. Your leader/country is already killing innocent civilians/ukranians. They are putting it all on the line with their lives. They didn't ask for this yet they are dying for it. Change needs to come and the only way it can is for the Russian population to put it on the line as well. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30505789 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30505789
    - talldatethrow 3y ago
      [flagged]
      - cpymchn 3y ago
        To take you literally for a moment: if anyone can claim land across a border, based on a historical grievance, then no border would stand. 70 years without a border war in Europe, so yeah we should try to push that water back up the hill. Otherwise a recursive "I would like my land back please."
        _v7gu 3y ago
        70 years? I wish I was living in that Europe
        h0h0h0h0111 3y ago
        Kosovo, Northern Ireland, Cyprus
      - unsupp0rted 3y ago
  - vogre 3y ago
    [flagged]
    - jamespo 3y ago
      Oh no, not cancelling
    - scrollaway 3y ago
      Don't generalize. Your statement, as-is, is nothing but flamebait. Some people do that. Some of those people are Ukrainian. I've also seen non-Ukrainians do it, and I know plenty of Ukrainians who aren't doing that, which falsifies your comment from the get-go. With that said, looking at your comment history, I'm just pissing in the wind saying that.
  - whimsicalism 3y ago
    I have seen this numerous times on Twitter explicitly with almost the exact phrasing you are indicating.
- helge9210 3y ago
  > I cannot in good faith demand While some people (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vasyl_Makukh https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vasyl_Makukh ) sacrificed their lives in protest of Soviet Russia invasion into Czechoslovakia, timely public statement is the least he could do.
  - salad-tycoon 3y ago
    “Sir! We demand your sacrifice your life to us now! It’s tour duty.” Not your call, nor for any other arm chair general. Right or wrong.
- risyachka 3y ago
  Nothing to thing about here. He could've left russia long time ago along with family and friends. But he enjoys russian money even though he has more than enough for 100 lifetimes. So yeah, I can in good faith demand from him and most other russians to condemn the war. Because the reason it happened is precisely that everyone does nothing in russia. Most of them flee the country because they don't want to get into army, and even when they are abroad and in safety - they still don't condemn the war. So fear has zero to do with their position.
- mistrial9 3y ago
  randomly opens a "history of lynching" academic paper while thinking about this...
- throw-ru-938 3y ago
  His family has left Russia back in 2014.
  - slashdev 3y ago
    There’s always someone who stayed. It doesn’t have to be the very closest part of your family.
  - mcpackieh 3y ago
    Doesn't really mean they're safe, does it? A whole lot of ex-Russians in other countries have been killed under suspicious circumstances.
    - throw-ru-938 3y ago
      Hmm, on second thought, you may be right and I probably overreacted. I still don't really believe Putin would exact revenge on Volozh — Oleg Tinkoff defected back in spring 2022, and I think his family is quite fine — but relying on Russia not being stupid doesn't sound wise right now.
undefinedland 3y ago
This is the West. You are either with us or against us. Forever.
- keithalewis 3y ago
  https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8717.Perpetual_War_for_Perpetual_Peace https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8717.Perpetual_War_for_P...
- Endy 3y ago
  We have always been at war with Eastasia.
avgcorrection 3y ago
Kazakhstani (born in Kazakh SSR, Soviet Union) ethnic Russian stops mentioning “Russia” in his biography during a period of increased Russophobia. More news at eight?
- 0xDEF 3y ago
  >increased Russophobia Where in the world is there any "Russophobia"? The far-right in the West and around the world loves Russia and Russians.
  - avgcorrection 3y ago
    The far right has (predictably, misguidedly) become apparent Russophiles in reaction to the mainstream Russophobia (the “own the libs” playbook). I don't think that's that significant. But it does prove my point.
    - tri5635hhfgvv5r 3y ago
      [flagged]
- cabbagesauce 3y ago
  >Kazakhstani (born in Kazakh SSR, Soviet Union) ethnic Russian stops mentioning “Russia” in his biography during a period of increased Russophobia. He is jewish. Just like the rest of the "yandex talents" that moved to work at Israeli office. They all get to be jewish when if suits them. UPD. Also, yandex news was (and still is) the pinnacle of russian putin propaganda. And the person in question was complicit with it. Even, given the fact he wasn't living in russia since 2014. He tries to whitewash himself because he is a sanctioned individual. And the protocol to get desanctioned is to publicly state he disapproves the war.
NelsonMinar 3y ago
I'm not sure if that's context or just coincidence. Confiant has been workingon this analysis for 7 months now.
pphysch 3y ago
> “Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is barbaric, and I am categorically against it,” Volozh said in a statement. “I am horrified about the fate of people in Ukraine – many of them my personal friends and relatives – whose houses are being bombed every day. “Although I moved to Israel in 2014, ... Israel cares a lot about what happens in Ukraine because it is in a similar position, a highly-militarized vanguard of the West. If Ukraine falls despite backing from Washington, what does that say about possible outcomes should a (full-scale) war break out between Israel and Iran/Arab states? So this helps us understand Volozh's motivations.
at0mic22 3y ago
Every time some beefy guy makes such statements, you can safely read it as "I got money in a western bank, please don't freeze it"

secondary_op 3y ago

[flagged]

londons_explore 3y ago

> today he finally issued a public statement condemning the war Would you issue such a statement in his position? Think carefully. If you don't, you will probably have twitter brigades trying to smear your name. If you do, your family back home might be at risk, and you will probably never be able to visit them again. Personally, I cannot in good faith demand anyone condemn the war, if to do so, they are putting family and friends freedoms at risk.

azangru 3y ago
> If you don't, you will probably have twitter brigades trying to smear your name. Do Twitter crowds actually do that? Do they keep track of anyone more or less prominent, and write in their comments "Have you spoken out against the war yet?" "I haven't seen you denounce the war"?
- londons_explore 3y ago
  It mostly happens via private messaging, but yes. It's part of the "you are either with us or against us" mentality of many campaign groups. See ~2 years ago when every opensource project was forced to publish a code of conduct and diversity and inclusion policy... Often the people asking for the policies weren't even users of the software involved, let alone interested in writing code for the proect. That campaign seems to have ended, and nobody cares if your project has either anymore.
  - azangru 3y ago
    > That campaign seems to have ended, and nobody cares if your project has either anymore. Has the movement to rename every master branch to main quietened down as well?
    - dijit 3y ago
      Only because it was successful.
      - simoncion 3y ago
        There are many active 'master' branches at work, and many, many active 'master' branches on Github. By that measure, the movement to rename every 'master' branch to 'main' has been a resounding failure. (If you look at the events at the time it sprung up, you could pretty safely say that it was encouraged as a way to distract from the then-current "GitHub is doing business with US's ICE!" hatestorm, and man was it successful.)
        dijit 3y ago
        If your only active metric is "all or nothing". Sure, there's a few. But the major git hosting platforms are only using 'main' as the default for new branches, and there is significant enough social stigma for new projects that it's preferred to use main. I don't have precise statistics, but I would happily wager that even though master was the default for so long that the majority of git repositories that have been contributed to in the last 30 days are not 'master' as the default branch name. To change a default with such inertia as to completely skew the demographic in favour of the new rather than the status quo: I would certainly merit that as success.
        justsomehnguy 3y ago
        > completely skew the demographic By 'twitter brigades trying to smear your name'. Great success!
    - 3y ago
- unsupp0rted 3y ago
  Remember that time a year ago in February when the Namecheap CEO gave every person with a Russian ID, living inside and outside Russia, 1-week notice that their account is terminated and they have to host elsewhere? Including expats, refugees, objectors, what have you. Your contract with Namecheap is terminated for being connected to Russia. Prove to us you're not, if you want to keep your service. His justification? Well we have a lot of Ukrainian staff and you know, we're not with Russia therefore we're against Russia, therefore... > If we were virtue signaling we wouldn't willingly be giving up a not non significant part of our business. This hurts us financially but it's the right thing to do, at least for us. Your leader/country is already killing innocent civilians/ukranians. They are putting it all on the line with their lives. They didn't ask for this yet they are dying for it. Change needs to come and the only way it can is for the Russian population to put it on the line as well. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30505789 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30505789
  - talldatethrow 3y ago
    [flagged]
    - cpymchn 3y ago
      To take you literally for a moment: if anyone can claim land across a border, based on a historical grievance, then no border would stand. 70 years without a border war in Europe, so yeah we should try to push that water back up the hill. Otherwise a recursive "I would like my land back please."
      - _v7gu 3y ago
        70 years? I wish I was living in that Europe
      - h0h0h0h0111 3y ago
        Kosovo, Northern Ireland, Cyprus
    - unsupp0rted 3y ago
- vogre 3y ago
  [flagged]
  - jamespo 3y ago
    Oh no, not cancelling
  - scrollaway 3y ago
    Don't generalize. Your statement, as-is, is nothing but flamebait. Some people do that. Some of those people are Ukrainian. I've also seen non-Ukrainians do it, and I know plenty of Ukrainians who aren't doing that, which falsifies your comment from the get-go. With that said, looking at your comment history, I'm just pissing in the wind saying that.
- whimsicalism 3y ago
  I have seen this numerous times on Twitter explicitly with almost the exact phrasing you are indicating.
helge9210 3y ago
> I cannot in good faith demand While some people (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vasyl_Makukh https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vasyl_Makukh ) sacrificed their lives in protest of Soviet Russia invasion into Czechoslovakia, timely public statement is the least he could do.
- salad-tycoon 3y ago
  “Sir! We demand your sacrifice your life to us now! It’s tour duty.” Not your call, nor for any other arm chair general. Right or wrong.
risyachka 3y ago
Nothing to thing about here. He could've left russia long time ago along with family and friends. But he enjoys russian money even though he has more than enough for 100 lifetimes. So yeah, I can in good faith demand from him and most other russians to condemn the war. Because the reason it happened is precisely that everyone does nothing in russia. Most of them flee the country because they don't want to get into army, and even when they are abroad and in safety - they still don't condemn the war. So fear has zero to do with their position.
mistrial9 3y ago
randomly opens a "history of lynching" academic paper while thinking about this...
throw-ru-938 3y ago
His family has left Russia back in 2014.
- slashdev 3y ago
  There’s always someone who stayed. It doesn’t have to be the very closest part of your family.
- mcpackieh 3y ago
  Doesn't really mean they're safe, does it? A whole lot of ex-Russians in other countries have been killed under suspicious circumstances.
  - throw-ru-938 3y ago
    Hmm, on second thought, you may be right and I probably overreacted. I still don't really believe Putin would exact revenge on Volozh — Oleg Tinkoff defected back in spring 2022, and I think his family is quite fine — but relying on Russia not being stupid doesn't sound wise right now.

undefinedland 3y ago

This is the West. You are either with us or against us. Forever.

keithalewis 3y ago
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8717.Perpetual_War_for_Perpetual_Peace https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8717.Perpetual_War_for_P...
Endy 3y ago
We have always been at war with Eastasia.

avgcorrection 3y ago

Kazakhstani (born in Kazakh SSR, Soviet Union) ethnic Russian stops mentioning “Russia” in his biography during a period of increased Russophobia. More news at eight?

0xDEF 3y ago
>increased Russophobia Where in the world is there any "Russophobia"? The far-right in the West and around the world loves Russia and Russians.
- avgcorrection 3y ago
  The far right has (predictably, misguidedly) become apparent Russophiles in reaction to the mainstream Russophobia (the “own the libs” playbook). I don't think that's that significant. But it does prove my point.
  - tri5635hhfgvv5r 3y ago
    [flagged]
cabbagesauce 3y ago
>Kazakhstani (born in Kazakh SSR, Soviet Union) ethnic Russian stops mentioning “Russia” in his biography during a period of increased Russophobia. He is jewish. Just like the rest of the "yandex talents" that moved to work at Israeli office. They all get to be jewish when if suits them. UPD. Also, yandex news was (and still is) the pinnacle of russian putin propaganda. And the person in question was complicit with it. Even, given the fact he wasn't living in russia since 2014. He tries to whitewash himself because he is a sanctioned individual. And the protocol to get desanctioned is to publicly state he disapproves the war.

NelsonMinar 3y ago

I'm not sure if that's context or just coincidence. Confiant has been workingon this analysis for 7 months now.

pphysch 3y ago

> “Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is barbaric, and I am categorically against it,” Volozh said in a statement. “I am horrified about the fate of people in Ukraine – many of them my personal friends and relatives – whose houses are being bombed every day. “Although I moved to Israel in 2014, ... Israel cares a lot about what happens in Ukraine because it is in a similar position, a highly-militarized vanguard of the West. If Ukraine falls despite backing from Washington, what does that say about possible outcomes should a (full-scale) war break out between Israel and Iran/Arab states? So this helps us understand Volozh's motivations.

at0mic22 3y ago

Every time some beefy guy makes such statements, you can safely read it as "I got money in a western bank, please don't freeze it"