Founder of Russia's Largest Internet Company Slams 'Barbaric' Invasion of Ukraine (cnn.com) 93
An anonymous reader quotes a report from CNN: The founder and former CEO of Russia's largest internet company, Arkady Volozh, has slammed Vladimir Putin's "barbaric" war in Ukraine, becoming one of the most prominent Russian businessmen to express criticism of what Russia still calls euphemistically its "special military operation." "I've been asked a lot of questions over the past year, and especially a lot of them came up this week. I would like to clarify my position," he said in a statement released to the media. "I am totally against Russia's barbaric invasion of Ukraine, where I, like many, have friends and relatives. I am horrified by the fact that every day bombs fly into the homes of Ukrainians," said Volozh, describing himself "as a "Kazakhstan-born, Israeli tech entrepreneur, computer scientist, investor, and philanthropist." "Despite the fact that I have not lived in Russia since 2014, I understand that I also have a share of responsibility for the actions of the country," he added. "There were many reasons why I had to remain silent. You can argue about the timeliness of my statement, but not about its substance. I am against war."
In June 2022, Volozh quit as CEO of Yandex (YNDX), which also operates Russia's most popular search engine, after he was sanctioned by the European Union over Russia's actions in Ukraine. "Volozh is a leading businessperson involved in economic sectors providing a substantial source of revenue to the Government of the Russian Federation, which is responsible for the annexation of Crimea and the destabilization of Ukraine," the EU said. "Yandex is also responsible for promoting State media and narratives in its search results, and de-ranking and removing content critical of the Kremlin, such as content related to Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine." In his statement, Volozh said after moving to Israel in 2014, he has been working on developing Yandex's international projects. "But in February 2022, the world changed, and I realized that my story with Yandex was over."
"After the outbreak of the war, I focused on supporting talented Russian engineers who decided to leave the country and start a new life. It turned out to be a difficult task that required a lot of effort, attention and caution," he said. "Now these people are outside of Russia and can start doing something new in the most advanced areas of technology. They will be of great benefit to the countries where they remain," he added. Volozh went on to say that when Yandex was created, "We believed that we were building a new Russia -- an open, progressive, integrated into the global economy, known in the world not only for its raw materials." However, "over time, it became clear that Russia was in no hurry to become part of the global world. At the same time, the pressure on the company grew," he said. "But we did not give up, we did our best despite the external conditions. Has it always been possible to find the right balance? Now, looking back, it is clear that something could have been done differently."
In June 2022, Volozh quit as CEO of Yandex (YNDX), which also operates Russia's most popular search engine, after he was sanctioned by the European Union over Russia's actions in Ukraine. "Volozh is a leading businessperson involved in economic sectors providing a substantial source of revenue to the Government of the Russian Federation, which is responsible for the annexation of Crimea and the destabilization of Ukraine," the EU said. "Yandex is also responsible for promoting State media and narratives in its search results, and de-ranking and removing content critical of the Kremlin, such as content related to Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine." In his statement, Volozh said after moving to Israel in 2014, he has been working on developing Yandex's international projects. "But in February 2022, the world changed, and I realized that my story with Yandex was over."
"After the outbreak of the war, I focused on supporting talented Russian engineers who decided to leave the country and start a new life. It turned out to be a difficult task that required a lot of effort, attention and caution," he said. "Now these people are outside of Russia and can start doing something new in the most advanced areas of technology. They will be of great benefit to the countries where they remain," he added. Volozh went on to say that when Yandex was created, "We believed that we were building a new Russia -- an open, progressive, integrated into the global economy, known in the world not only for its raw materials." However, "over time, it became clear that Russia was in no hurry to become part of the global world. At the same time, the pressure on the company grew," he said. "But we did not give up, we did our best despite the external conditions. Has it always been possible to find the right balance? Now, looking back, it is clear that something could have been done differently."
critical of the leader? (Score:3, Insightful)
someone's going to fall out a window, eh?
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they have poisons that can look like an heart attract
Re:critical of the leader? (Score:5, Insightful)
they have poisons that can look like an heart attract
I don't think the Little Spymaster likes his agents using those sorts of poisons. He prefers stuff like Polonium, where it's bloody obvious to everyone that the person was targeted and killed. He wants people to know he's responsible for someone's death - even if he officially denies it in a wink, wink, nudge, nudge sort of way.
Re:critical of the leader? (Score:5, Insightful)
Yeah more effective. Its one thing to silence one person, when theres near infinite voices to replace them. But if you can intimidate 140mil other russians from speaking up, well thats real power isn't it?
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The real power isn't intimidating 140 million Russians from speaking up, the power is in getting the 140 million Russians intimidating each other from speaking up! Stalin would be proud of his mafia protege.
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they have poisons that can look like an heart attract
I don't think the Little Spymaster likes his agents using those sorts of poisons. He prefers stuff like Polonium, where it's bloody obvious to everyone that the person was targeted and killed. He wants people to know he's responsible for someone's death - even if he officially denies it in a wink, wink, nudge, nudge sort of way.
5 years ago he might have, but famous Russians speaking out has become a lot more common. At this point I think trying to knock one off as an example breeds more public outrage.
Of course, the fact that it's becoming safe for famous Russians, particularly overseas ones to show dissident, hasn't stopped certain famous Putin sycophants living in the US from publicly showing their support [wikipedia.org].
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Yup, you want the entire world to know that you did it but they can't prove it. Plus it has to be painful, frightening, and a deterrent to all other former cronies. Polonium is perfect.
R.I.P. (Score:1)
He will be missed.
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But eventually, someone will hit.
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they have poisons that can look like an heart attract
Why would Putin want a death to look natural? What sort of a message does that send?
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Re:critical of the leader? (Score:4, Insightful)
And the Lord answered "I'm not your bitch, do your own dirty work!"
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>a diarchy of the state and the Eastern Orthodox Church,
1) Not the Eastern Orthodox Church, but the Russian Orthodox Church. there are a dozen or so canonical Orthodox Churches, of which the ROC is by far the largest.
2) not a diarchy at all. The ROC was effectively absorbed as part of the bureaucracy of the Russian Empire for centuries before the revolutions of the early 20th century, remained captive to the bolsheviks, and now to the blackheart who fancies himself the new tsar.
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Putin already stole his company. No real need to kill him now.
I understand why not sooner. (Score:5, Insightful)
Usually I'd say "oh that's great, over 500 days into the war, to come out against it now", but seeing that he was busy trying to smuggle all his hackers out of the country under the radar, I think this can be forgiven.
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Dictators suck. It's all fun and games when you're dictator is Young and hurting the people you want hurt. But sooner or later they get old and in this day and age they don't die of a heart attack or cancer before their brains go.
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They've widened the ages of mobilization: what was 21-37 is now 18-40.
I honestly think that right now, Mossad stands a better chance of getting Putie-Pie than the Kremlin has of reaching into Israel. This hasn't been about Volozh's personal safety for quite a while, probably a year. But I can understand just keeping his mouth shut because he wasn't the only person that would face backlash if he opened it.
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The amount spent by US in Ukraine is not large compared to other military actions undertaken by administrations of both parties in the past.
Also, Ukraine is a friend, and it's neighbors are friends, and right now Ukraine is a buffer against the reincarnation of Hitler. We're spending less than makes sense in such a disastrous situation.
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The amount spent by US in Ukraine is not large compared to other military actions
77 Billion [cfr.org] chump change where you come from? Does a country spending $6.7T but taking in $4.9T need to be financing proxy wars that threaten the survival of everyone with nuclear fire because some warmongers wanna war monger? FUCK UKRAINE. They are a bunch of dirty beggars who need to be cut the fuck off, right the fuck now. The war-loving sugar daddies at the Pentagon always wanna assure us this latest war is cheap at twice the price. You can bet they will widen this as far as they can and remember it tak
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"against the reincarnation of Hitler"
Way to quickly and effectively disqualify yourself as someone who can think for himself. Good job.
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This right there. I can feel that it wasn't easy for him to keep his mouth shut, but he had to to get the people out before being able to say what needed to be said.
Vdhshsgsgshseh (Score:1)
Read this three days ago (Score:2)
Wow, I am already feeling nostalgic. Read that news three days ago and here I am re-reading it again.
Brain drain (Score:2)
"Now these people are outside of Russia and can start doing something new in the most advanced areas of technology. They will be of great benefit to the countries where they remain,"
This war well end. Probably by Putin's regime collapsing - somehow.
I'm sort of expecting that Ukraine will see quite a bit of aid in rebuilding the country. And a good portion of people who fled, will return.
Russia, not so much. As a nation, it doesn't have many friends left. Economy is going down the drain, and (temporary?) high prices for its oil & gas exports won't last, volumes will go down. That income not enough to compensate for all other factors that will be hurting Russia's economy. Foreig
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The situation in Russia reminds me a lot of what the situation was like in Austria-Hungary a century ago during WW1. An ancient regime that is trying to cling to a form of government that simply isn't sustainable anymore in a changed time, a country of many different ethnic groups held together by force and eventually an external conflict with a weak enemy to distract from the internal dissolution tendencies that should glue it together but turned out to be the final straw, with the enemy being far stronger
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I don't think you even need to go back that far. The war in Ukraine is the same kind of disaster for Russia that Afghanistan was for the Soviet Union -- only happening at breakneck speed.
Re:Brain drain (Score:4, Interesting)
Afghanistan was not a single point of failure, and not the eventual reason for the fall of the Soviet Union. Afghanistan contributed, no doubt about that, but it was only a puzzle piece in the whole tapestry of a long lingering collapse. If there was a single catalyst that pushed the SU down the grave was when Gorbachev wanted to modernize what could not be modernized, and by removing the iron grip that held the Union of failed states together, it fell apart.
This is what probably would have happened if Franz Ferdinand had not been shot in Sarajevo and had ascended to the throne in Austria-Hungary, since he had a very similar plan for his collapsing empire.
Russia in its current form will not survive this war. There will be change, one way or another. What that change is like will also depend on what the rest of the world does with Russia after the war. If we treat it like we treated Germany after WW2, we're probably looking at a country that will even surpass German after WW2 in economic growth, with a big population, used to hard and long work and very likely very willing to rebuild this country, because the love for the motherland is pretty strong in Russia. And unlike Germany, they also have insanely vast resources to deal with, if that's how it turns out, China will get a run for its money. Literally so.
A far more likely scenario, though, is that we will end up with a Germany after WW1. A country, humiliated by a defeat that should have been an easy victory, with a crippling reparation payment debt weighing it down, a world that, not unlike Clemenceau after WW1, wants to make sure that this country is being so bled dry that it will NEVER pose a threat to international peace again... And we know how that ended.
We're allowed to learn from history. Why we don't take the opportunity is one of the great mysteries to me.
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Allowing Western companies into Russia will only corrupt whatever post-Putini is running the joint. The state oligarchs are not going to go away. The Russian military and all its foibles will continue to be there.
They could get another Putini, surely there are several waiting in the wings, the head of Wagoner for instance. The Russian people will no object, they've been taught for centuries that to object means they and their families will get whacked.
I see no hope at all for Russia.
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Clemenceau's plan could not have worked. Under no circumstances. You can not pacify a country and people by subjugating them. The economic pact between France and Germany after WW2 worked heaps better. It essentially meant that neither country could EVER start a war against the other one again without totally crippling its own economy. And it worked. To this day. I don't think there was a point in the history since the West and East Franconian Empire (which later became France and Germany) where there was p
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There's a big difference between making sure this particular government can't get up off the floor, and pinning the whole country down. If replaced by someone sane, Russia will be allowed to get up off the floor. Most "reparations" are going to come out of the pockets of oligarchs.
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I sure hope so, but given the extent of animosity already in the air, I don't know if this will be followed through.
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Having the Soviet Union fall apart was a good thing. All those Soviet states were essentially vassal states. Even more so the non-USSR states in the Soviet bloc. This was the distinct difference between international communism under Stalin in the early days versus other communists around the world - Stalin always insisted that Russia be in charge. Some of the dropout states rebelled because they were treated like shit, and only a small spark got the people to favor leaving.
The problem is that Putin sees i
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I don't say that the SU falling apart was bad, actually, it was necessary. The key problem is that it didn't reach a conclusion. There are still peoples in Russia that still strive for independence, and they will have a considerably negative impact on the stability of the country.
And independent of how this war ends. Actually, if they "win" this war, it will have a considerably worse outcome for Russia than if they lose it.
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Your comment made me think of a fantastic film, The Grand Illusion. It’s about how WW1 was the end of the old world aristocracy. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0... [imdb.com]
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I don't know if Russian economy is failing, but now it is EU economy certainly failing.
Yes, you do know. The ruble is down to 99 to the dollar [xe.com] as of this posting. It's been plunging as the Russian economy crumbles since the country has nothing to export except oil, oil which it's selling at a huge discount because that's the only way to get someone to buy it.
The Russian economy is taking body blows due to sanctions [businessinsider.com] and the more Putin spends to keep things running the worse it will get.
So go back to whateve
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The only warmongers are Russia and its toadies.
There are no buts. There are no ands. There is nothing further to say beyond Russia, and its pathetic bootlickers, is the sole problem.
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Currently it looks like the war will end with Russia getting the slice of Ukraine it currently controls, with no other costs. Ukraine will end up deprived of its oil-rich regions and become an impoverished country, with inadequate aid to rebuild. Biden will declare mission accomplished, and the US will lose interest, as its "leaders" turn their attention to finding some windmills to tilt at to fix the weather. Germany will start buying Russian gas again, and eventually will be allied with Russia, as will
Re: Brain drain (Score:2)
Uh oh (Score:2)
I have a hunch a special defenestration operation is brewing.
Old Problems, Old Solutions (Score:1)
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We're currently at the point where war changes its face again. Tanks were the masters of the (open) battlefield, but they turned out to be quite toothless, the anti-tank weaponry currently available simply outclasses a tank's ability to withstand. Reactive armor is a rather weak counter and in the end, a cheap drone can take out a multi-million tank quite effectively by flying that anti-tank warhead precisely into the weak spots. I wouldn't go as far as saying we're looking at something like the invention o
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It's kind of like elections: it's not about winning party confirming they've won, but about convincing losing side they've lost.
In war, this used to be done on the battlefield, by inflicting a decisive defeat onto the enemy. These days... let's just say there are other methods. The battlefield has moved from tanks, planes & artillery to political / economic pressure, cyber warfare, muffling free press, influencing social media to sway public opinion, etc. Military might may still work, but is oldfash
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Formal war between organized units on the battlefield is going away. Unfortunately, it's going to be replaced with guerrilla warfare / terrorism.
Once anybody with a few hundred bucks and a soldering iron can take out a tank... that will be used to justify a police state, and honestly we'll be begging for it because that crazy guy down the street can now do a lot more than just poison your flower garden.
Re:What about Palestine? (Score:5, Insightful)
Yeah, what about ism?
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I fail to see how talking about Palestine changes anything about that, though. So why bring it up?
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Re: What about Palestine? (Score:1)
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Your choice of a hook for your argument is as well thought out as that of a RINO tweeting about evil grooming drag queens after having rubbed one out in the bathroom of one of those creepy child beauty pageants.
This is Luckyo level of bullshit. You're better than that.
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What makes Palestine so special? There is also Kurdistan, Tibet, Syria, and Myanmar's Rohingyas. Why don't these other groups get so much attention? Perhaps the specialness is who is occupying Palestine.
The specialness is that we are funding Israel, and not those other countries.
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What makes Palestine so special? There is also Kurdistan, Tibet, Syria, and Myanmar's Rohingyas. Why don't these other groups get so much attention? Perhaps the specialness is who is occupying Palestine.
The specialness is that we are funding Israel, and not those other countries.
... funding it and justifying their settler colonialism on Capitol Hill and in the Oval Office.
Re: What about Palestine? (Score:1)
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What makes Palestine so special? There is also Kurdistan, Tibet, Syria, and Myanmar's Rohingyas. Why don't these other groups get so much attention? Perhaps the specialness is who is occupying Palestine.
Well your "also" are all examples historic nations that stuck in countries that are oppressing them.
What's happening with Israel and Palestine is an example of a country occupying another nation and slowly annexing it's territory. So not really comparable (annexing territory by force is a BIG no-no).
The other part is race, a bit of that is antisemitism sure, but mostly it's the other kind of racism. In your other examples the offending parties are Arab or Asian states while Israelis are white, culturally we
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Chechnya was conquered and annexed by Tsarist Russia in the 1720s.
Awful what's happening, but historic.
China annexed Tibet in the 1950s.
Forgot this. It's an illegal annexation like Crimea, though it's gone on 70+ years so the situation is somewhat stabilized. Plus, in 1951 the no conquest rule was still kinda recent.
Kurdistan is more complex. After the Collapse of the Ottoman party, Kurdistan declared its independence,but the Iraqi army, with the aid of the British, moved in and quashed Kurdistan. All three of them can be considered colonized states. The Kurds and Chechans have been treated worse than the Palestinians.
Pre-1945 borders were a lot more mobile, which is precisely why there were so many more wars. The point of the UN is to set the standard that borders should be very, very hard to change, and they should absolutely never be changed by conquest.
Africa is a great example, the borders were drawn
Re: What about Palestine? (Score:2)
Re: What about Palestine? (Score:2)
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We can talk about Israel's subjugation of Palestinians in a thread about that topic. This topic is about Russia and its attack on Ukraine.
Stay on topic or be prepared to get an offtopic mod.
Judge rules: the whataboutism is valid (Score:2)
Because Arkady moved out of Russia and into Israel and because Arkady is criticizing misdeeds of countries, it is valid to bring up his missing criticism of his current home country Israel. Sure, Russia's misdeeds are greater but Israel's have been going on for decades.
BTW just visit https://www.aljazeera.com/ [aljazeera.com] and you'll see all the Israel criticism not found in the Western media.
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> the Israeli apartheid state
Ah yes, the "Don't shoot us, we're just trying to live our lives" Apartheid. You guys are so delusional with your American Activist Geopolitics, you don't even live in reality anymore. Slashdot used to have more intelligent people on it.
Re:Whataboutism (Score:2)
Whataboutism - the technique or practice of responding to an accusation or difficult question by making a counteraccusation or raising a different issue.
Bastard still makes his money in Russia (Score:2)
"Slams" it, because he's now a citizen of some Israel or other, has exited successfully and needs a clean slate.
Typical rosyan oligarch level hypocrisy, would profit more if option available.
Not much different from the rest of the whole international lot of his kind.
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Blah blah blah........nobody even reads your fascist shit anymore razzchist. It doesn't work. You screwed the pooch.
only russians apologize (Score:1)
If only that had all spoken at once. (Score:2)