Given that Russian vodka is blacklisted from stores in USA (and Finland!) and replaced with message "we stand with Ukraine", it's not really surprising.
I read interview with somebody from Russia yesterday, russian tracks getting their tires punctured in EU and get stuck because credit cards don't work anymore. Ships refuse to offload goods in Russian ports and drop them of "wherever in Europe". Russian companies can't buy/rent containers to bring goods to Russia.
It's a lot of collateral damage.
On the other side my brothers in law family in Kharkiv sleeps in hallway for past few days while outside blow up cluster munition delivered by MLRS systems https://twitter.com/YWNReporter/status/1498271572292952064?s...
Edit: just to add, I myself was born in Kyiv. Company where I work now has officies both in Ukraine (in one of hotter places) and in russia. I am equally trying to help my colleagues from both offices to GTFO. Collateral damage is unfortunate for private person but frankly not surprising. What is "surprising" it's that a big chunk of Russian population is surprised by it
Truly awful. If you listen to Russian news (propaganda) they're claiming Ukranians want Russia to come liberate them and save them from poor living conditions. It's almost as if they forgot that people have the internet.
Internet doesn't help. I saw screenshots of bunch of chats between relatives in Ukraine and Russia in first couple of days. People from Russia claim that Ukrainians are brainwashed, russia comes to liberate them and only neo-nazis are fighting back and shooting into cities.
There is also articles on official new sites (like RIA) that neo-nazis are executing Ukranian Military personal that doesn't want to fight.
Internet doesn't help. It's all about bubble...
As very unpleasant example, my father who lived most of his live in Kyiv but lives in Germany for past 15 years or so, is consuming only russian media. He is sure that Ukraine is ruled by neo-nazis from bunkers in Kyiv and whatever Russia is doing it's appropriate. This was his opinion after first day. Don't think that it changed
> Internet doesn't help.
Just ask anyone who has moved to Seattle, but has conservative family back in their home state. Folks believe we live in an anarchist hellscape. Myself and several friends have had the experience of being called liars by family members who trust Fox News over the word of their blood relatives. It's absolutely maddening.
I mean, Seattle is a hellscape to me lol. I mostly kid, i live south of Tacoma, i just hate the homeless problem in Olympia, Seattle. The roads in southern Seattle also make me want to die hah.
Anyway, just making local-jokes mostly. Not actually attacking Seattle :)
edit: Is it because i was kidding, or is very mild criticism of Seattle not appreciated? It's not like i live in Texas and have never been there lol.
I think it's because it is off topic, and also HN generally does not like humor, unless it's particularly clever.
Fair, thanks for the reply. It was only half humor though, as a local i do genuinely hate much of the city. However, i'm not "city local" if that makes sense.
But it's not unique to Seattle. Tacoma and Olympia (where i live) is bad too. Cities just suck these days it seems.
Same thing in Portland. People think Antifa burned the city to the ground.
Washington state isn't a paradise, there are lots of wrong things going on primarily with government overreach and the abuse of emergency powers. It's setting a dangerous precedent.
I actually moved out of Seattle after 4 months in 2021 because compared to the cities I was used to in Canada, it was quite literally a hellscape. Shuttered stores, screaming homeless people, and parks which resemble refugee camps.
I understand it was exacerbated by covid and the BLM riots of 2020, but I don’t think people are exaggerating when they say that much of Seattle is a pretty shocking place to be.
Genuinely curious, how does he see the US, UK, EU etc helping Ukraine? Does he think all those countries are ruled by neo-nazis as well? Or does he not know the country he currently lives in is helping Ukraine because he only consume Russian media?
He thinks that all of this western propaganda and lies and western media fabrication. I frankly couldn't have this conversation with him because this is just god damn hard. Asked my brother who lives with him to do it. He tried once and dropped topic completely.
Think q-anon level of brainwash. Or some cult, donno.
My wifes parents are in same "state". It took her a few years to come to peace with it :/ Logical discussions with them not possible
Got links to those screenshots?
They are days in the past in the LJ. It's eternity. Not possible to find. But once in a while somebody from ukraine posts messages from friends in russia that "soon you will be liberated and you will understand everything" or something like this.
One of the best that i saw it's claim that because what is Putin doing is okay under russian law and was approved by duma, there by definition can't be anything wrong with it.
Ah. Classic.
Living in <western ccountry> for <more than a decade> [0], telling how putin's russia is a heaven, and west is rotten gay propaganda hellscape.
Asking why they are not moving back to russia usually leaves them speechless.
russian propaganda/troll machine is next level, I could give them that. goebbels would be proud.
[0] If there's a significant russian speaking diaspora it's not unusual that such people do not understand local language almost at all, even after living for decades.
The internet, right? How else will they learn that President Trump (not the illegitimate so-called-president Biden) supports our great leader Putin!
Putin has really been playing up the West’s “Russophobia” leading up to the invasion and I worry that social media has caused some of these “sanctions” to get out of hand really quickly with everyone piling on to the point some of the actions are, indeed, Russophobic. Cutting off service for Russian people who aren’t even living in Russia seems like it crosses that line to me.
Unfortunately this is a double edged sword.
Many times the West was very hesitant on acting against russia's shenanigans (most notably Georgia and Crimea), because "it will hurt the common person and not those who are making decisions".
Now russia is in de facto conventional war with Ukraine and in information/business war with __all__ of the West. putin is out of ideas and freaking blasting cities with bombs like it's London 1940. The West is still not enganging russia in conventional war, due to nukes, but if it's war why one side needs to cry, run, starve and die, when other nation can sit by their propaganda tv and eat the kool-aid.
In this new information age it's the only possible resistance against the regime - Iron Curtain 2.0. The West cannot win informational war inside russia. Those who know english and know how to use internet are mostly young Moscovites, everyone else is sucked into propaganda, there's not enough critical mass. Propaganda is at the same level that Germans did not know or believe that there are concentration camps next door.
Either topple the regime, leave [0] or be living under Iron Curtain 2.0 stand in lines for bread with your money that are worthless.
I believe the West tried for the longest time not to play into this "russophobia" card. The sanctions definitely work together with russian propaganda ("look wht those evil gay nazi imperialist west are doing for simple russian people"). And for the longest time big players like DE, UK, FR did not understand putin, compared to how post-soviet countries like the Baltics and Poland warned. DE for the longest time that you can work with putin like any other liberal democratic leader. Now all this is in the trash and everyone is united against putin.
I am repeating myself - but I guess it's the only way to work against putin. Conventional war with other superpowers will most likely mean nukes, i.e. end of the human world.
[0] I bet many young people from Moscow or Peter will attempt to do this.
Not that it makes a whole lot of difference, but those explosions don't appear to cluster munitions.
Probably some kind of fragmentation rocket fired from a grad[0].
[0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BM-21_Grad
They been finding cassetes. Most likely uragan. grad is more straight-forward. Also in another bombardment were found scattered around those lovely things https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PFM-1 . It's also been shot by uragan
These do look like submunitions, though: https://twitter.com/_____Tweety____/status/14983843018298941...
At least I don't see any rockets in any of the frames. And the explosions don't seem that big.
With a cluster bomb/submunitions, you should see a bunch of impacts all at the same time, in this video the impacts all seem to be spaced apart at a rate similar to the fire rate of a grad.
With the frame rate and resolution of the video, it isn't surprising that it's hard to see a rocket.
The rockets look like fragmentation warheads, you can see a lot of shrapnel get thrown off on each impact, frag explosions won't look as large or bright as other kinds of HE warheads.
Do non-submunition warheads separate from the rocket in the air? Because rockets are 3m long, and I don't think they'd just disappear after the warhead explosion. In other videos you could see rocket bodies sticking from the pavement after impact, etc.
Anyway, I guess you're right. Even if this was edge of the killing field with a mix of submunitions from various rockets fired at different times, there's be a lot of noise in the video from the other submunitions hitting nearby.
I don't understand how "collateral damage" is relevant. Aren't people supposed to minimize collateral damage? Namecheap didn't HAVE to do this. The chose to do this in a very particular way, which hurt its customers, especially those opposing Putin's regime and currently fleeing the country.
I'd be open to making exceptions in cases that are anti-regime.
That sounds very "you're either against us or with us".
Yes, this happens very quickly in war time.
No, it sounds like a superpower attacked a sovereign country for no other reason than conquest, and we all do what we can to fight back.
The middle ground is an infinitesimal wide line between Russia and Ukraine called 'the border', and more accurately the line is right now around Russia, Belarus and Chechnya soon to follow. If you are on the other side of that line then you will suffer economically, but not nearly as much as when you are inside Ukraine where you could very well lose your life.
Chechnya it's actually part of russia
It is now. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chechen%E2%80%93Russian_confli...
If you're an economic actor in Russia & aren't actively aiming to end the current regime, you are the target. It's not a coincidence. Invoking Orwellian analogies stops making sense when it's a war.
I don't think it's possible for a private company to implement a process that can provide "anti-regime exceptions" though. Would you request evidence of anti-regime activity?
(Edited for clarity)
Why not just migrate the domains at that point and be done with it?
I understand the arguments about individuals and how it could be a burden with all that's going on, but a private company? What's the argument?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_foreign_agent_law
The best|worst situation here would be if NamecheapCEO would think this is how it should be. I would laugh my ass off on this hypocrisy.
So after five plus years of being a client, a private company will be deciding whether I'm worthy of their service or not based on whether I got my teeth kicked in during the protest actions for the past few days?
Should I e-mail some photos of my bruises left by police batons on my ribs? Or maybe I should kneel?
This is humiliating, and you know it. You're just making more problems and creating more danger for absolutely innocent people, just in spite.
This is the essence of cancel culture, now on a national level.
Sadly its either these actions or tanks. And if the west would send tanks to Ukraine it'd be WW3. Its the lesser evil now sadly.
Apologies for the language -- but are you mental?
I do get the idea of sanctions -- I'm legally prevented by publicly commenting on this due to some Russian law -- but I understand if a foreign business body has to terminate its business relations with a Russian one.
But kicking out paid customers just based on their nationality, knowing that they have no direct control over situation, and still blaming them for it? This is f**d up, I'm sorry.
Please don't cross into personal attack. I know you're under pressure, and other people are in terrible situations. We can't allow HN users to start taking that out on each other.
https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
It would be much preferable for Russians as a whole for the West to send tanks to Ukraine to engage the invading troops. And no, it wouldn't automatically be WW3, either. It would be if the tanks crossed the Russian border, but they don't have to do so to break the invasion.
Putin called for the nukes to be put on High Alert before there was any threat of direct NATO action (and there is still no talk of any). What is the next step? "Higher" alert?
MORE direct combattants, _especially_ from other superpowers, is the last thing that we need. Adding additional powerderkegs to the existing fire does nothing to stop it.
>What is the next step? "Higher" alert?
Essentially yes. The current step is the equivalent of DEFCON 3.
To extend on your fire analogy, it's not just a fire, it's arson - and the arsonist is still there, sprinkling gas around and throwing matches. You can't extinguish the fire without dealing with the arsonist.
As for Putin, he's basically a gopnik. There's a Russian word for what these guys do - "быковать", literally "bulling", but it's basically a display of aggression to establish oneself higher in the hierarchy and to make the victim afraid to fight back. If you acquiesce to gopnik's demands, he will come up with more, until the point where he "justifiably" takes away your phone and wallet.
I hate to break it to you, but Russia started a war! Russia, the place where Russian citizens live, protected by an army of Russians. Russia is not some ephemeral theoretical quantity, it's a state governing its people with their consent. The preferences of their citizens are not a priority and, if you feel that consent has vanished, the only one who can do anything about it is you.
I'm not sure how this relates to anything in my comment.
>And if the west would send tanks to Ukraine it'd be WW3
that tired misconception should be dropped. West can send any weapons to Ukraine, and volunteers from West, trained tank drivers and pilots, can drive those Abrams tanks and fly those F-16 planes. Russia and China has been doing "volunteer" trick just fine.
World needs to start to learn to deal with such situations. China/Taiwan is coming and total sanctions regime wouldn't be possible with China.
I cannot shake the weird feeling that in the united states almost everything is left to the free market, even sanctions.
> This is the essence of cancel culture, now on a national level.
We need to lose that term. It's not cancel culture to decide who you do and don't want to associate with, or do business with. That's freedom. The people being rejected only think their own freedom matters. Unless they are a protected class, that simply isn't true.
It's not even spite. Spite at least has some emotion in it. This is lazy virtue signaling of the kind that sounds impressive when you've been bought enough drinks to forego further explanation of who this is actually helping.
To reduce the actions of a company protecting the interests of Ukrainian employees to Western political buzzwords is facile.
It's a shitty enough situation that some of those things would seem to be necessary in order to persuade your service provider to keep service up. Automatically billing your credit card for a few years doesn't really say as much.
I find what Russian government doing completely disgusting and savage. I'm totally against this war. Any war for that matter.
I have many domains at Namecheap and I will not be able to afford transfer them out due to financial situation.
Is there any way I can still keep domains at Namecheap? Which cases are anti-regime?
> Is there any way I can still keep domains at Namecheap?
Use a Russian registrar. Or leave Russia. This sucks. War sucks. But I don’t see how anyone can continue doing business in Russia while maintaining a clean conscience.
OK. What should I do if I don't fall under a refugee description, don't have any immediate family in the EU, my diploma means nothing to EU, and have no bag of gold to immigrate illegaly?
This is me, plain and simple. I would like to immigrate, but I have no legal grounds.
Serious question, no gimmicks or laughs: should I die or be cancelled by the rest of the world?
> should I die or be cancelled by the rest of the world?
You should not die. But you don’t have an inaliable right to thrive in your country.
Again, not trying to be a dick. War sucks. I am truly sorry you’re hurting. And I am not suggesting it’s your duty to join a resistance movement or whatever. But these are considerations and costs we must all weigh when our governments do horrible things. Most of the time, sadly, the world won’t care. We (America) have war criminals who should be in jail. But occasionally, the world gets horrified and rises to the occasion. Even that occasional threat is better than nothing.
This is a nice sentiment, but in the meantime, we're getting F'd for the actions we tried to stop. We failed, but we did the best we could, without resorting to violence.
I agree, this is not enough. But this is by no means an excuse to cancel an entire nation.
Agreed, but it beats having your country invaded, your cities shelled and starved. That's what is in the balance, compared to that you have a luxury situation.
That's the point. I'm not the one shelling another one's country, even so -- I'm doing everything in my power to prevent it. Instead, commercial service decides to capitalize their PR value on it, and decides to cause even more harm than already have been caused.
This cannot be justified.
No, this is not about PR, this is about their employees. This isn't a press release, it was a message to a customer.
What bugs me is that they did not make a distinction between private individuals and corporations, if I were in their position I would have let the private individuals go, they are Russians, not Russia.
Even so: every Russian citizen and every Russian company that is currently relying on businesses in the West such as Amazon, Google, Microsoft and so on should expect those services to be cut off at some point in the near future.
> You should not die. But you don’t have an inaliable[sic] right to thrive in your country.
The most disgustingly american thing ever said.
Political asylum.
Please consider: you might loose some domains. Ukrainians are losing their lives.
How do you reconcile your actions with your claims of protecting free speech and the First Amendment? (https://www.namecheap.com/blog/internet-freedom-the-state-of...)
Where do you get off reneging contracts and fleecing people of their money based solely on longitude and latitude and TLD?
> Where do you get off reneging contracts and fleecing people of their money based solely on longitude and latitude and TLD?
They’re terminating their contract, not reneging.
>re·nege
>verb
> go back on a promise, undertaking, or contract.
If you entered into an agreement to provide service (eg. provide domain registration for one year), and one side unilaterally terminates the relationship, that sounds pretty close to reneging. In addition, the CEO have promised refunds for some services, but not domain registrations. In that case you quite literally paid for one year of service, and are not getting that.
In this case, the two are not mutually exclusive. Every Russian domain purchaser and every individual with a domain under the aforementioned TLDs that had, even as recently as yesterday, purchased a 1-year registration from Namecheap is now being provided a week of service at best. You tell me how that's not reneging.
The first amendment makes speech protected from state action. The government of the United States of America is bound by law to not suppress the political speech of its citizens. I don't think it is relevant to international boycotts, in letter or in spirit.
The point is that Namecheap parades itself as a defender of the First Amendment, while simultaneously robbing people of a vehicle of self-expression that these people have paid for. I know the language of the First Amendment doesn't prohibit Namecheap from saying the will no longer initiate or do any business with Russians. However, it's hypocritical all the same when they criticize the similar actions being taken by the US government.
>I don't think it is relevant to international boycotts, in letter or in spirit
Of course the First Amendment is relevant to international boycotts. How else would Namecheap half-assingly justifying its premature pullout? If they don't want to renew those domains after a year is up, I wouldn't have a problem, but that's not the case.
My issue is not Namecheap's boycott in and of itself, but the process of damning a host of individuals on the barest of relations to the Russian government while having the gall to take their money and run away.
> The point is that Namecheap parades itself as a defender of the First Amendment, while simultaneously robbing people of a vehicle of self-expression that they have paid for.
I think this is conflating two issues that are altogether very different. In the first, Name cheap was pro section 230 protection, because without it they believed that they would have no choice but to censor people due to the potential for legal liabilities incurred without those protections. They were not advocating for the right of people to not be deplatformed due to their speech. And that isn't even what is happening here, namecheap is deciding to boycott Russia because of the actions of the Russian government, not the speech of the individual Russians. The first amendment in spirit is about protecting citizens from the state and absolutely does not mandate who you do business with and why. There are other laws for protected classes in the US but the whole issue of US law just seems absolutely disjointed in my mind.
> Of course the First Amendment is relevant to international boycotts. How else would Namecheap half-assingly justifying its premature pullout?
I don't follow at all, sorry. They make no reference to the first amendment, they simply believe it is not in their best interests to do business with Russian citizens at this time because of the actions of the Russian government. This kind of boycott strategy happens all the time.
As I've said before, this is about Namecheap's self-portrayed values. It defends its Section 230 protection on the premise of protecting its and others' rights to speak freely. Given today's circumstances, it seems that reasoning is false.
To quote Namecheap:
"As citizens ourselves, we embrace the joy of hearing all voices. The power to regulate or restrict speech or expression concentrated in the hands of only a few big tech companies is not how we want those decisions made for us."
And what has it done today? It's nakedly hypocritical that Namecheap engages in those same restrictions against its own customers. If they just said "We're a business for free speech when said speech is convenient to our interests. Take it or leave it", that wouldn't be so much of an issue.
> the actions of the Russian government, not the speech of the individual Russians
> they simply believe it is not in their best interests to do business with Russian citizens at this time because of the actions of the Russian government. This kind of boycott strategy happens all the time.
Then why dissociate on the basis of TLDs of which many Americans may be domain holders? Or why is it that individual Russians citizens are having their websites taken down for the actions of their government? Namecheap is not being selective or proportionate.
I think you really have to stretch the "we enjoy hearing all voices" line to get it to read "we should do business with a regime threatening the world with nuclear war."
I don't agree that closing up shop in a neighborhood after someone there threatens you with violence, is a free speech issue, even if the shop was selling posterboard and markers you could use for signs to exercise free speech.
> Then why dissociate on the basis of TLDs of which many Americans may be domain holders? Or why is it that individual Russians citizens are having their websites taken down for the actions of their government? Namecheap is not being selective or proportionate.
I agree this is fair criticism. I don't know enough about their business to know if there is a better way they could be selective.
An obsession with the right to free speech over all other rights is invoking Poe's law if it's now being advocated for in the case of a warmongering adversarial state. While it's not the aim of this move, during every war, communications of the enemy are hindered. The First Amendment would never have been written if the authors valued the rights of British Soldiers as much as their own.
The Russian government is not marching on Ukraine. There are no bureaucrats and politicians driving tanks. Russia's army is. And it's Russia's people who give power to the state to direct them. It would be absurd for an uncaring Russian individual to complain about essentially paltry financial or logistical issues as while being complicit in the erosion of Ukranian individuals' right to life.
>An obsession with the right to free speech over all other rights is invoking Poe's law if it's now being advocated for in the case of a warmongering adversarial state.
Should US citizens have been cut off from registrar providers in 2003 because of the war in Iraq? Let's be consistent here. If you think that a state being an adversarial warmonger is the requirement to deny it's people a service they paid for, even the one's who never wanted a war, then every person on the planet is liable by proxy of their current or previous governments.
>While it's not the aim of this move, during every war, communications of the enemy are hindered.
By an army against another army, not a private organization against civilians. Namecheap is not a military or paramilitary organization. Namecheap is a private business, and is still subject to US laws as a private business. Hindering communications of an "enemy" isn't a justification for outright financial fraud.
>The First Amendment would never have been written if the authors valued the rights of British Soldiers as much as their own.
I'm not able to follow what this is supposed to mean. British soldiers at the direction of the Crown violated the rights of empire's own subjects under the Coercive Acts and initiated violence in Concord & Lexington. The soldiers made their bed. The Bill of Rights were not ratified until until 1791, well after the war.
>The Russian government is not marching on Ukraine. There are no bureaucrats and politicians driving tanks. Russia's army is.
Who's directing the army? Who's the one in control of those nuclear warheads being brought out. The civilians aren't the one's driving BMPs or flying MI-8s. Most if pressed, couldn't even point to Kyiv on a map. I don't know if you're either absolving Putin of his actions as though he doesn't have free will or claiming everyone in Russia is as guilty as he is for being Russian, but this is a terrible argument.
>And it's Russia's people who give power to the state to direct them.
This is a false premise. It's almost laughable. You're conflating American jurisprudence with the politics of the Kremlin. In case you haven't noticed, the Russian government is not a government by the people or for the people.
>It would be absurd for an uncaring Russian individual to complain about essentially paltry financial or logistical issues as while being complicit in the erosion of Ukranian individuals' right to life.
In short: "Ukrainians have it worse, so Russian civilians should accept what's doled out to them". If you can think there can only be one victim at any one time, then I've got news for you.
I dunno, did you try to get a registrar from a provider in Iraq? I don't think you would have much luck.
>This is a false premise. It's almost laughable. You're conflating American jurisprudence with the politics of the Kremlin. In case you haven't noticed, the Russian government is not a government by the people or for the people.
They have far more influence than the people of Ukraine.
>In short: "Ukrainians have it worse, so Russian civilians should accept what's doled out to them". If you can think there can only be one victim at any one time, then I've got news for you.
So Ukraine's people should not shoot back?
Independent of my feelings on this - how is doing exactly what the contract states reneging?
> Namecheap expressly reserves the right to deny, cancel, terminate, suspend, lock, or modify access to (or control of) any account or any Services (including the right to cancel or transfer any domain name registration) for any reason (as determined by Namecheap in its sole and absolute discretion), including but not limited to the following: <SNIP MORE OF THE SAME>
from - https://www.namecheap.com/legal/universal/universal-tos/
Those terms of service documents that no one reads are part of, if not all the of the contract. Most service providers have the same (effectively anyway) clause in them. They also have clauses that allow them to modify their terms of service any way they want.
Unless someone has a different, specifically negotiated contract with the company that states otherwise - this is not a violation rightly or wrongly. This is why a lot of B2B involves contract negotiation that takes a long time, those businesses can't tolerate the instability of a contract that can be terminated or changed on a whim.
I'm aware that almost every registrar has similar terms. However, according to ICANN's registrant benefits and responsibilities page, a registrar can't just take someone's money away. To quote Domain Name Registrants' Rights, Paragraph 3
"You [Domain Name Registrant] shall not be subject to false advertising or deceptive practices by your Registrar or though any proxy or privacy services made available by your Registrar. This includes deceptive notices, hidden fees, and any practices that are illegal under the consumer protection law of your residence"
https://www.icann.org/resources/pages/benefits-2013-09-16-en
IANAL, but I'm quite sure that failure to render services for payment counts as an illegal action under consumer protection laws in Russia and elsewhere.
you have to think twice and careful before getting involved in political ideas hitting people like me even not Russian. If you want a war with me, I'm ready, it's exactly what you did, you are provoking ordinary people againt you.
A lot of sites (with domains in non-RU tld) that coordinate, help, inform people about what's really going on are under great pressure from Putin's regime. Sites are getting blocked, people are getting fined and jailed.
Now you are joining this effort on behalf of Putin. Good job, товарищ! Please report to Russian embassy to get your 30 silver pieces.
I don't want to start flame war, and I really feel bad for your situation for for situation of many other people who opposed Putin regime who got majorly f(&d today (my head was spinning last few days as I saw russian economy falling through the bottom while city where I born is shelled), but... actions (or not actions) of Russian population over past 20 years created today's situation (don't tell me that you don't know the common opinion in russia that Ukrainians not really nation and do not deserve their own state). You are unfortunately collateral damage of your own actions, not of those of EU. EU and rest of the world trying to do damage control.
I really do sorry for your situation, I really hope that namecheap will work out with you. I do hope that EU and other countries will extend humanitarian visas to people that try to escape russia now before iron curtain will fall down. Yet, at this moment, it is what it is.
The only way to make change is to inconvenience people.
This is what sanctions are. Blocking bank accounts also hurts the people trying to flee, but it's one of the standard sanctions. It seems that everyone is hoping that making the Russian people's lives more difficult will make them stop supporting Putin and he will end the attack because of that. Why a dictator would care at all whether citizens support him or not is unlear to me, so I can't imagine any of this is going to be particularly effective.
> Putin’s public approval is soaring during the Russia-Ukraine crisis, but it’s unlikely to last
> Approximately 69% of Russians now approve of Putin, compared to the 61% who approved of him in August 2021
https://theconversation.com/putins-public-approval-is-soarin...
How is that any relevant? It's still nearly double Biden's "public approval" and yet...
Historically I can't find any significant example of sanctions that helped topple a dictator from outside (Iran, Cuba, Syria, ...)
It might very well be inflicting lots of suffering on the populations, for no result.
What would be the better alternative? It seems direct military action by NATO/else is far removed from the table. Should the rest of the world remain silent and allow this to continue without any repercussions?
I am genuinely asking, as I have not been presented with any preferable alternatives.
Sanctions did a lot to end apartheid - granted, not a single dictator
I think there's a solid chance that they can twist it in a way that bolsters support for Putin.
He's long said something like "when the West hates me, that's when I'm on the right path." (My paraphrase from memory)
So the population is perhaps primed for another conclusion.