Goodbye from a Linux community volunteer

but claiming someone in Russia who doesn’t stand against Putin is “complicit” in the war is rough.

An alternative viewpoint from someone who has lived in North America and russia for a decade (and speaks both russian and English).

Most Westerners have a pretty primitive and naive understanding of russian culture; you will note how even seemingly reputable analysts that consult senior US diplomatic figures speak in broken russian.

Westerners greatly underestimate the extent to which genocidal imperialism is supported within russian society. Not every single person of course. We are talking strong majority to overwhelming majority support that goes across multiple demographic segments (even ones you wouldn't think would have majority support like younger cohorts or highly educated cohorts).

Consider the annexation of Crimea, which if you live in Ukraine, was the beginning of the invasion of Ukraine. 80-85% support depending on methodology (just a few percentage point delta when using list experiments vs. direct questions).

And don't be naive in thinking that russian society does not recognize the genocidal intent. They most definitely know that Ukrainian is banned, Ukrainian churches are banned, you cannot do anything without getting a russian passport. Tens of thousands of Ukrainians who have the courage to openly oppose this regime are sent to torture dungeons where electrocution torture, cutting off genitals, cutting off fingers, rape, is all a standard procedure.

And russians society knows this, yet they continue to strongly support the invasion and occupation of Ukraine, Georgia (how many russians protested the 2008 invasion?) and Moldova.

Now one might say I am de-humanizing russians. To that I will answer that I am actually treating them as adults that make their own choices and should take responsibility for their actions. There is nothing inherent (in a biological or some sort of cultural essentialism sense) to russian culture that enables imperialism to makes propaganda "uniquely" effective. It's a conscious choice made unfortunately by at least a strong majority of russian society.

This is not directly aimed at you, more of a general comment regarding naive and honestly uneducated takes on the nature of russian society.

What you think Americans are some kind of hypocrites who are all talk but really stand for nothing?

If your comment was true all true patriot Americans would be staging a revolution. And definitely not advocate to vote for the people perpetrating those brutal war crimes.

Because they are a US ally

The contributor above works at Baikal Electronics, which are a defense supplier in/for Russia, and therefore sanctioned.

The Linux Foundation is based in the US and have to bide by those sanctions.

Infosec reasons, allegedly.

Saying "Infosec reasons, allegedly" is not only dismissive but also incredibly irresponsible given the current global security climate. There’s nothing “alleged” about the cyber threats posed by Russia. The evidence is overwhelming, documented, and spans decades of hostile actions across Europe and the U.S.

Russia has engaged in full-scale cyber warfare against Western infrastructure, ranging from the NotPetya attacks that caused billions in damages, to election interference in multiple countries, and the continuous disinformation campaigns meant to destabilize democratic institutions. In the cybersecurity world, you don’t wait around for damage to occur before addressing vulnerabilities—prevention is key. It’s not "alleged" when we have mountains of evidence of Russian cyber operations targeting everything from defense industries to healthcare systems.

Your dismissal of the very real "infosec reasons" undermines a fundamental understanding of modern cybersecurity. Espionage, sabotage, and cyberattacks aren't just hypothetical scenarios; they are ongoing, constant threats. By brushing off legitimate concerns with a sarcastic "allegedly," you're either willfully ignoring these realities or grossly underestimating the scale of the issue. Russia has weaponized the digital space, and whether you like it or not, contributions to critical open-source projects like the Linux kernel are absolutely a potential vector for compromise.

When you throw around "allegedly" as if these are mere conspiracy theories, you demonstrate a lack of understanding about how covert operations work. They don’t come with red flags and announcements—they rely on subtlety, deception, and exploiting weaknesses in systems, both technological and human.

Infosec concerns are serious. They aren't alleged. They are proven, documented, and ongoing. If you don't see the logic in taking proactive steps to secure critical infrastructure projects from a country that has made espionage and cyber warfare a cornerstone of its foreign policy, then you're missing the bigger picture entirely. The Linux kernel is too important to global infrastructure to take any risks, and infosec reasons are very much real, not some "alleged" excuse.

I understand the sanctions part and wanting to head off any potential state interference with projects like this, but "infosec reasons" feels very hand wavy.

I think I'd be a lot more comfortable if we had seen malicious/bad faith actions/communications or maybe some more specific and tangible reasons to suspect them being compromised on the part of the Russian maintainers before they were just removed.