After February 24th, 2022, the world has seen an unprecedented wave of hatred against anything Russian, including its people and even culture.
In the IT world, this has concretized in a number of companies singling out Russia for the invasion of Ukraine, while happily continuing to do business with other countries who have also broken international law and caused hundred of thousands, if not millions, deaths.
Eventually, the war will be finally over. These companies will return to do business as usual, and hope that everyone will forget about their position, in the same way as hundreds of companies were making business with Nazi Germany during World War II and then just washed off their past as if nothing happened.
This page aims to maintain memory about companies who have engaged in russophobia, and also present companies which have, on the opposite, standed out as an example of solidarity and humanity for everybody affected by these terrible events.
If you know of companies which have either stood out in a positive way, or which have followed the mainstream russophobia, please open a pull request (if you are familiar with GitHub PR process) or just file an issue mentioning the company name and a link documenting their stance.
Here is a list of companies and organisations who have decided to penalize Russian users in response to Russia's intervention in Ukraine. A company is deemed to be “russophobic” if it has taken steps against the Russian nation, that it hasn't taken against other nations who have operated similarly. To make a concrete example, if a company has decided to leave the Russian market after February 24th, 2022, but has nothing to say against invasions by other countries (such as the U.S.A., Saudi Arabia, Israel, etc.), this is a case of double standards which is hard not to classify as russophobic. Of course, if the decision to abandon the Russian business is entirely due to financial or logistic issues, then the company should not be in this list (see for example the LEGO company, who left the business citing major force reasons). Also, Ukrainian companies cannot be defined “russophobic“, since it's their own country to be invaded, and one can not speak of double standards in such a case.
| Company | Announcement | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Canonical | Blog post | Stopping business with Russia |
| Canva | News post | Blocking Russian users |
| Disney | Statement | Suspending releases in Russia |
| Docker | Blog post | Stopping business with Russia |
| Electronic Arts | News post | Stopping sales to Russia and Belarus |
| GoG | FOrum post | Stopping sales to Russia and Belarus |
| KDAB | No official announcement | Site has been made inaccessible from Russia |
| Jolla | LinkedIn post | Stopping business with Russia |
| Luxoft | PR post | Russian company closing all offices in Russia |
| Mastercard | Press release | Suspending business in Russia |
| Microsoft | Blog post | Stopping business with Russia |
| Paypal | Press release | Shutting down service in Russia |
| RedHat | Blog post | Stopping business with Russia |
| SUSE | Blog post | Stopping business with Russia |
| The Linux Foundation | No official announcement | Rejecting patches from a Russian company. The Committee was asked to intervene, but found nothing wrong with russophobia |
| The Movie Database | Blog post | Site blocked. |
| The Qt Company | No official announcement | Forum thread; downloads blocked, no business with Russia |
| Visa | Press release | Suspending business in Russia |
Here's a list of websites and companies who have reacted in a noteworthy way.
| Site / Company | Announcement | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Flickr & SmugMug | Statement image | The invasion has been called “unlawful” (which every war is), but there's no political judgement; just good words of encouragement for everybody affected. Russian customers who have been unable to renew their subscriptions because of the financial block against Russia have been renewed for free at the company's expenses. |
| Zorin OS | Blog post | Standing with all the affected people, no politics, no judgement. Donating money to the displaced families. Considering that the authors of Zorin OS have Ukrainian origins, this is especially worth a praise. |