I am a Russian passport-holder who spent most of my life in the UK and US. I’ve been a quiet member of the EA community for a couple of years now. Happened to be in Russia when the invasion started. I’m in the middle of grad school application (Australia), and been told that visa applications requested by Russians have been put on hold by several countries, Ukrainians are being given the easy paths. It seems like Hollywood’s cancel-culture is being applied towards the country. Universities are cutting ties with schools in Russia, same goes for museums, businesses, and of course, financial institutions. The public pressure to cut ties is massive, but who is the public?
It seems like the world is trying to get people to go out to the street. And people are going out. At the same time, the sanctions imply that even the people who are against the war and Putin (vast majority of people, almost everyone who has access to more than the government news, in my current view) will not be welcome or get any help for doing so. People who are willing to move their money outside the country, leave, and pay their way through it, are unable to do so due to private companies pulling out. At this point, people who have skills, some resources and do not support the regime are turning to Asia, because Asia is not closing its doors, financially and physically. The global-minded professionals, programmers, researchers and entrepreneurs are being left no choice but to either quietly stay, risk everything they have and be arrested at a protest or for calling the “Special Military Operation” a war, or (very generally, of course) go to China.
I am a Russian passport-holder who spent most of my life in the UK and US. I’ve been a quiet member of the EA community for a couple of years now. Happened to be in Russia when the invasion started. I’m in the middle of grad school application (Australia), and been told that visa applications requested by Russians have been put on hold by several countries, Ukrainians are being given the easy paths. It seems like Hollywood’s cancel-culture is being applied towards the country. Universities are cutting ties with schools in Russia, same goes for museums, businesses, and of course, financial institutions. The public pressure to cut ties is massive, but who is the public?
It seems like the world is trying to get people to go out to the street. And people are going out. At the same time, the sanctions imply that even the people who are against the war and Putin (vast majority of people, almost everyone who has access to more than the government news, in my current view) will not be welcome or get any help for doing so. People who are willing to move their money outside the country, leave, and pay their way through it, are unable to do so due to private companies pulling out. At this point, people who have skills, some resources and do not support the regime are turning to Asia, because Asia is not closing its doors, financially and physically. The global-minded professionals, programmers, researchers and entrepreneurs are being left no choice but to either quietly stay, risk everything they have and be arrested at a protest or for calling the “Special Military Operation” a war, or (very generally, of course) go to China.