I'm having trouble following the suspicion here. The founder lived in Belgrade for decades before moving to the US, so opening an office there seems like a straightforward decision: you build where you have roots, local knowledge, and existing connections. That's not a red flag...
As for Serbia itself: yes, it's not in the EU, but it's been in the accession process since 2012. The timeline is slow, but the country is economically integrated with Europe. If we're treating a Serbian office as inherently suspicious, that's a bar most of the tech industry wouldn't clear.
> we have opened an office to easier collaborate with sanctioned individuals
As a Russian living in Belgrade I love how you see "being open to people from Russia" as a negative, and how you just instantly equate being russian with being under sanctions.
I, and everyone I know of, left russia not because they're a weasel trying to help putin move his money in and out of Europe, I moved because I was afraid I'd be forced to go kill and be killed, and because I just didn't want to take part in any of it. And I chose Serbia because it's one of the rare few options that would welcome me without too much restrictions and that's not prohibitively expensive for me to live.
You and maybe other emigrant citizens can be completely opposing war. I'm not disputing that since I don't know you.
Point 1 - I was discussing action of a corporation, not an individual. And that corporation has 1 (one) single office in the whole vast Europe, and it's in a country known to be a base of other similar trade arrangements. It is not an evidence, but it is a big hint based on more than a decade of other cases.
Point 2 - regarding "one of the rare few options", as far a I know not a single EU country has or had a complete ban on immigration of Russian citizens. A few minor tweaks were made, most of them recent, after already a decade of war, like restricting only some subset of visas or restricting asylum seekers etc. Czechia had some bigger restriction just in 2025 afaik. But in most of the EU countries Russian citizen can legally immigrate and work.
Yeah, they were asked explicitly and danced around the question. Really seems like they don't mind the invasion of a sovereign nation and murder of its people - they just don't want to accept any personal risk.
IMO russian culture/society, starting from the very early days of the empire, is drenched with imperialism and essentially a genocidal nature. This can be found from the lower strata of their society to the upper end, including authors like Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, Pushkin, etc.
Sadly for them (and especially their neighbours), the transformation from empire to soviet and later to empire again hasn't changed this factor.
For some reason, there is an implicit assumption, in that culture, of their superiority w.r.t. anybody that isn't American.
I heard funny stories from a professor in the US telling that russians were the only PHD students that he felt like were acting as if he was beneath them, because he was "just" a Western European rather than an American (he had citizenship, but anyway).
This might get me a bunch of downvotes, but it's an unsolved problem that Europe refuses to face, and it has blown up in Europe's face pretty hard. It would be better for everybody involved to dismember russia so that it doesn't have the different *Stans to draw resources and cannon fodder from; but good luck with that. It's likely more pragmatic to "manage" them while they grind themselves out of any significance, but that is costing and will cost more lives.
Given the number of russians that approve of the regime and the war (including those living in the west!), the ongoing hybrid warfare, the ongoing war in Ukraine, AND past history; is it really so difficult to understand why people wouldn't see this as a positive? Or why people don't want to have a russian minority in their own country, perhaps one bordering with russia?
What do you think about Ukraine? Should it be a free country? What about its territorial integrity, to whom does Crimea belong? What does "everyone you know" think about it?
It's fair to worry about the geopolitics of borders and minority groups, but this does not have much to do with a company placing its headquarters in a middle country where maybe (former) members of a controversial state could also work.
People believe all kinds of weird things, and that includes Russians. In secular countries, you're free to believe in what you want, but that doesn't mean you will or should be taken seriously. What a random Russian person believes doesn't matter, unless they have power and it has an effect on others.
Switch Russian with any other ethnicity or nation in the world, and you will perhaps see why the rhetoric of mixing geopolitics and ethnic politics with company policy (or even your own relationships) is not the best.
Kagi also kept using Yandex - a Russian search engine - despite many people explicitly requesting they not provide funding to imperialist invaders (aside the obvious question of censorship skewing result quality).
When they said no, and explained Yandex only gets paid when needed for a search anyway, people asked for a toggle to disable Yandex for their searches. That way at least they aren't funding it. Rejected that too.
Not going to lie, it is kinda weird how this is happening again.
I haven't followed the particular situation, but if it's as you say it, I agree that's bad company policy not to allow opting-out.
It's still a leap to conclude that "HQ in a neutral country" equates to or results in "Russian influence". The obvious stepping stones between the announcement and the conclusion of the parent comment would need to be that: A) Kagi (intends to) hires many employees of Russian origin, who B) live in Belgrade and C) also evidently and publicly hold imperialist views, which D) have an effect on the company and its product.
Note that this isn't "neutral" as in "I like chocolate" vs "You don't like chocolate". Sometimes being "neutral" is pretty damning, more so if you are providing a "neutral" ground for sanctioned individuals or people waiting the $CURRENT_GENOCIDAL_WAR out.
I agree with you about not likely being there an A->B->C->D conclusion, but it's a signal about the preferences or lack thereof of the ownership of the company. But really, they can do whatever they prefer.
The "maybe (former) members of a controversial state could also work" carries A LOT of weight here. Given the connection with Yandex, I assume the company itself is A-okay with what russia is doing, since the company is working with what is basically going to be russia's wechat.
I disagree that what a random russian believes doesn't matter. And I disagree about the ethnicity argument. Russian is not "just another ethnicity". Countries bordering russia are now (again) under threat (or war) using "muh russian minorities" as a casus belli. Enough of them in a city/province/country, and institutions will start getting conditioned, from within and from without. I am a liberal, but there is being a liberal, and there is self-sabotage.
Deciding to look the other way, as a company, is just another signal about the owner of that company.
If you genuinely hold those views, and aren't just trolling, then I certainly hope you're not responsible for any hiring or people management decisions. If you do interact with people, I'd suggest talking to those you consider adversarial by default, in person. Things seem much more adversarial online.
"Enough of them" really applies to any minority, so if you think Russians are a problem-ethnicity today, there will be plenty more to choose from tomorrow. If you find it difficult to distinguish between manipulation of ethnic conflict, propaganda, and the role of an individual in a society, there's plenty of literature online. It's not blind tolerance or "self-sabotaging liberalism" to maintain a secular state and non-discriminatory employment policies, and to require your employees to leave politics outside the business.
Regarding your interpretation of the parent comment:
1. HQ in Serbia =/= HQ in Russia
2. Controversial use of Yandex =/= Russian influence or support of imperialist policies
3. Hiring of Russian devs =/= Hiring of devs exercising adversarial or imperialist views
And again, I still suggest you do the exercise: find another ethnicity others find controversial and adversarial (but you don't), and switch the terms in your comments. If that fails, at least be open about your views in public, so others can avoid you and your company.
I don't like nor support what the Russian government does, but I don't conflate those actions with those of Russian individuals or the people.
It does not. You are allowed to pick and choose. Try asking any Baltic country if they'd like 2 extra million russians, and tell them they are wrong because their argument can be proven wrong when abstracted enough. Try asking the Ukrainians.
>If you find it difficult to distinguish between manipulation of ethnic conflict, propaganda, and the role of an individual in a society
This is peak irony, I wish russians would read on those topics.
>Regarding your interpretation of the parent comment:
I didn't state those 3 points. But choosing to operate in Serbia, and choosing to use Yandex, are signals about the company that I can decide to operate on. Clearly the company is pretty "lax" when it comes to this. If they have choosen to hire disproportionately more russian devs ( I don't know), that would be another signal. Choosing to opere in Serbia isn't equal to choosing to operate in Russia, mind you. But still, it's a different signal w.r.t choosing to operate in another country, e.g. Poland. I don't have strong opinions against Serbian people, mind you.
>And again, I still suggest you do the exercise: find another ethnicity others find controversial and adversarial
Again, you are still leaning on the fact that, when abstracted enough, we can bend every argument. I don't support discrimination, that doesn't mean I appreciate getting members from an openly hostile society (to say the least).
>I don't like nor support what the Russian government does, but I don't conflate those actions with those of Russian individuals or the people.
Feel free to keep your head in the sand and live the fairy tale where everything is because of the russian government and not of the people. There are centuries of evidence that this is not the case. I bet you are from a country that has not been under russian rule in the past, or are ill-informed about the history of that society/culture. Not all societies and cultures are equal. "Things seem much more adversarial online", how arrogant. I'm fairly able to distinguish a tribalistic ethnic conflict from something that is not.
Try asking those seemingly complex questions I've asked the russian poster to any russian, including those living in the west. You'll never get a straight answer.
FYI, I've worked with (and hired) people from virtually all over the world, and traveled quite a lot (not vacations, long-term movements), never had an issue. Held friendships with people coming from countries with an "evil" regime, these were normal and kind people. For some cultures a brutal regime is an "accident of history", for others, a tradition.
> It does not. You are allowed to pick and choose.
Of course. You're allowed to choose your narrative and favorite scapegoat. That doesn't make it correct, or useful, or good. But it is useful to your government, I'll give you that.
The Baltic and Ukrainian friends and colleagues I talked to seemed to understand the difference between 1) what the Russian government says and does, and 2) what role their friends, colleagues or family of Russian origin have in that. The Russian and Belarusian friends and colleagues I talked to say they don't support their government's actions. Same with Israelis and Palestinians. So, unless they're all lying, or I'm imagining things, they seem to understand the nuance, even when it's painful or difficult.
I have much more in common with them than I do with any geopolitical warrior, whether they come from the government or just believe in that.
> that doesn't mean I appreciate getting members from an openly hostile society (to say the least)
Aside from the fact that this is a company, not a country, and there's no discussion of hiring let alone getting anyone:
If that's true, why wouldn't these apparently openly hostile Russians join their preferred army? Or do you think they are a fifth column in your country?
Be open about your conclusions. If all or most people of Russian origin are problematic because they come from an openly hostile society, what is your conclusion?
Do you think they should be kicked out? Should they be required to declare and prove allegiance to their host country? If they're as hostile as you say, why would you hire them?
What if they claim they're against their government's actions - are they lying, or should they have to prove it? What if they (falsely) believe in the propaganda of the Russian government - how would you ban this?
How do you feel about people from Saudi Arabia, Israel, Venezuela, the US for that matter? What about the Austrians, Germans, English or Japanese? Kurds, Palestinians, Cherokee? Their governments and/or minority groups have certainly been controversial in various countries and centuries, to say the least.
It's not an abstract subject, it's a question of principles and nuance.
> I bet you are from a country that has not been under Russian rule in the past
My country has been subject to plenty foreign conquerors, adversaries (real or not) and undue influence, including that of various Russian governments. Yet I don't see how the members of those other countries are guilty for that, nor how my hatred for them gets any justice for the pain of my ancestors (or the pain that my ancestors caused). And you don't seem like you have personal grievances that would at least explain your views.
But who knows, maybe scapegoating is more fun, and I'm missing out.
>Of course. You're allowed to choose your narrative and favorite scapegoat
No, that's not it. You are operating under the assumption that every culture is equal; it is not.
>I have much more in common with them than I do with any geopolitical warrior
Since this isn't your first ad hominem, let's get some facts straight. Apparently, you have: 1) Baltic and Ukrainian friends and colleagues, 2) Russian and Belarusian friends and colleagues. "Same with Israelis and Palestinians".
This isn't an attempt at doxxing or anything (you linked to some papers you co-author), you are a Serbian researcher working in Germany. None of your co-authors apparently have these origins, nor any manager/high level people in the company you are working for. I am sorry, but I struggle to believe you have these kind of colleagues, especially in such a nice area like ontologies, protege, etc. AND that happened to discuss with them in depth the russian situation.
I have a similar experience when it comes to Israelis and Palestinians, Belarusians, but not russians, I am sorry. The Ukrainians I know hate russians with a passion.
>Aside from the fact that this is a company, not a country, and there's no discussion of hiring let alone getting anyone
I agree, didn't imply that.
>If that's true, why wouldn't these apparently openly hostile Russians join their preferred army? Or do you think they are a fifth column in your country?
It's very simple, life in the west is better. That doesn't mean they believe in its values. Also, once the 3-day SMO got a bit too real a lot of moscow/peter russians decided to bail out. Would they have left if the 3-day SMO succeeded? I don't think so, they would have been happily chanting "russia strong". Yes, some of them are fifth columnists.
If you are still in doubt if the level of infiltration in Europe is through the roof, I don't know what to tell you. But the issue is that, even the majority of the non-fifth columnists harbor pro-imperialist russia values and resentment towards the so-called west. You'll never get a straight answer from them when it comes to these issues, in my experience.
>Be open about your conclusions
Please don't imply things. I am already open about my conclusions. My conclusion is that russia and russians are culturally unfit for being accepted into democratic societies en-masse due to centuries of brutal regimes known for their hybrid warfare and espionage. I think we should re-vet all "refugee" russian visas we have in europe, and reconsider the influence we allow oligarchs to have because they bring some blood money with them.
>How do you feel about people from Saudi Arabia [...]
>Their governments and/or minority groups have certainly been controversial in various countries and centuries, to say the least.
>It's not an abstract subject, it's a question of principles and nuance.
Nothing against them, not sure why you ask. It's you who decided to bring the abstraction up a notch in your previous comment, when saying "'Enough of them' really applies to any minority". And here's my disagreement. Russians aren't ANY minority, nor for their history, not for their culture, not for the implications of having a russian minority in your country. A minority is NOT fungible, because culture is NOT fungible, and history is NOT fungible.
>My country has been subject to plenty foreign conquerors, adversaries (real or not) and undue influence, including that of various Russian governments. Yet I don't see how the members of those other countries are guilty for that, nor how my hatred for them gets any justice for the pain of my ancestors (or the pain that my ancestors caused).
Serbia has never been under russian rule. Like other countries, it has its foreign invaders, adversaries, etc. But, again, NOT all adversaries are the same, because what they did during their history, what they promoted, and for how long, is not the same. Russia is likely in a unique position when it comes to the integral of applied brutality over time/people. It's not putin, it's not "the government", it has been like this forever.
>And you don't seem like you have personal grievances that would at least explain your views.
If by looking at past data (history, books, etc.) and current data (current state of russian society, their behaviour towards conquered Ukrainians, their nuclear-bomb threats every 3 days) you conclude that everything is fine and dandy with the russian people, so be it. That is not my conclusion. I do have personal grievances because the future of the values (and countries) that I believe in is at stake here, for real. I dislike people who are morally "flexible".
I've written a lot in this HN thread. I'll summarize my opinion:
- Culture and civilization are not fungible, thus not all cultures and civilizations are equal.
- I do not separate the responsibility of the russian people from its government. It has been too long.
- Vast majority of russians that live in the west harbor anti-west resentment and hold imperialist values. Those that left after the 3-SMO fiasco left because they risked their skin, not for any political reason. Will likely move back once this is over.
- I think Kagi having a Serbian HQ and working with Yandex is a signal about its moral compass. In hindsight, the latter is worse than the former.
It is doxxing, but whatever floats your boat. I'm not going to post the names of anyone, so if you don't believe me, up to you. Like I said, I can't know if you're genuine or not either. But if you are, there's some chance you could rethink these views, or at least be open about your conclusions.
But yes, these are discussions you can have when you meet people offline. If you live anywhere professionally attractive - like Germany - you'll get to talk with a lot of people. They're mostly not long in-depth discussions, but when you ask or express genuine concern about the situation, you get some responses. It could be a lie, or well-hidden hatred, or a skewed sample, up to you to decide.
If you're happy to spread this narrative - which you seem to be - then I think you fit the bill of a geopolitical warrior. You think it's right to treat all members of an adversarial country as adversaries before they did anything, and I think it's wrong/counterproductive/bad to do so, especially if you're not a member of your country's military or security apparatus or have a personal grievance which explains it. Currently it's Russians for you, tomorrow it'll be the Chinese, Americans, whomever, based on where you live and who now is the adversary.
Serbia has had plenty of experience with "undue Russian influence" and conquerors of similar profiles, but sure, it's not the same. I think the Russian government isn't very different from other imperial powers, which are notoriously not representative of their people, and problematic for neighboring states and their people. If this wasn't the case, Russians wouldn't be on your radar. Simple as that. You don't have to equivocate cultures to notice a general pattern in geopolitics, and you don't have to tolerate adversaries to treat normal people normally.
As far as those other examples go, ask an LLM of your choice, preferably in Incognito mode: "What has $COUNTRY done that would explain why others hate $COUNTRY_MEMBERS?" See what comes out.
It's not; it's information you willingly shared and I haven't added to it in any way, I just mentioned that the information available online doesn't fit with what you are telling me. In fact, you have now conveniently shifted to the fact that you do not really have in-depth discussions, but you got some responses from "people".
FYI, Germany isn't really that attractive for high-paying jobs. I have lived in different, more attractive countries, and I wouldn't touch Germany bureaucracy-wise or salary-wise, maybe it's good for public sector jobs, I don't know. I can assure you, I am more traveled than you (visiting a random city for a couple of days conference doesn't really count as traveling, sorry). I happened to be in Berlin right after the war started, and the only russian I met was ECSTATIC, literally "we are back" vibes.
>If you're happy to spread this narrative - which you seem to be - then I think you fit the bill of a geopolitical warrior.
I've yet to see a counter-argument from you. You keep saying I am a "geopolitical warrior" and that I am spreading a "narrative".
>Currently it's Russians for you, tomorrow it'll be the Chinese, Americans, whomever, based on where you live and who now is the adversary
Again, pushing this kind of "hater" narrative. Please just f*** stop, it feels like I am talking to a sophomore doing classroom debate.
> I think the Russian government isn't very different from other imperial powers, which are notoriously not representative of their people
You pass this as a fact, but it is not. Not in the case of russians, sorry.
>If this wasn't the case, Russians wouldn't be on your radar. Simple as that.
Not sure I understand the implication here.
Your argument is just an abstract straw man about the fact that, since hating is wrong (it is), and you classify my opinion as hate (it's not), you conclude that my opinion is wrong. This shows up again when you propose to use variables in place of a country, because countries are somehow interchangeable.
Another irony is that you live in Germany, a country that was dismembered and re-educated from the ground up after their atrocities in WW2, in an effort to correct/roll-back the cultural/societal rot that had taken place due to nazism. This succeeded, and German people are, generally speaking, very nice. Had it been 70 years ago, I guess you would have told me that it's just Hitler or the government. In hindsight, we have evidence it wasn't.
I think the gist of it is that I do not separate the responsibilities of the russian people from their government(s), you do. We have different interpretations of the history of russian society, but you must admit that it's quite a coincidence for there to not be any correlation between the russian people/culture and the outcome of their nation, for centuries?
Don't we have ample evidence that deresponsabilization is NOT working?
In my experience, the less one is read about their history and/or the further they are from the blast zone for when they go for the next genocidal war, the more they're willing to look the other way, because doing the opposite is, of course, more tiring.
> What do you think about Ukraine? Should it be a free country? What about its territorial integrity, to whom does Crimea belong?
Just wanted to let you know that asking those questions as if there can be any variation in my answers really shows you are judging russians from the outside. The Crimea question has been akin to a meme for a decade at this point. I'm obviously not saying "everyone" is thinking one way or another, because there's no "everyone", and there's also no "almost everyone". There are huge chunks of the population that are very much on the opposite ends of the spectrum, and judging one chunk by opinions and action of another one is highly disingenuous, imo.
Couldn't you just answer those simple questions? Why is that question a meme? I've yet to find a russian that "just didn't want to get involved" able to provide me straight, simple answers to those questions. I wish other Westerners would wake up to this behaviour, because even navalny was just another russian imperialist (see his past comments about Georgians, for example).
About the "everyone", you mentioned that "I, and everyone I know of, left russia not because [...]", so I assumed you must know at least a bunch of like-minded people that share your opinion on the aforementioned facts (not that we know your opinion yet).
About the "huge chunks" on a certain spectrum, I am not sure that chunk is huge at all. It's likely a tiny minority that would very much put an asterisk next to their answers to those questions. That minority has been quite silent, regardless of their geographical location and relative safeness.
Did you consider the possibility that not all people in the world enjoy such a huge degree of freedom of speech? If I had family in Russia and I didn't want them to fall out a window I would also "avoid getting involved". For the same reason I also recommend you don't try using Tiananmen 1989 as a conversation starter when talking to Chinese people.
I did. He has a 6-month-old account with apparently no personal information attached. And, if there is personal identifying info in some comment, it will conveniently allow him to "not get involved" for his own security. But he felt the need to tell us how we should be welcoming of russians. Worked well in the past centuries; I am sure it will work well in the future.
Then why does Kagi use a search engine (Yandex) from such a repressive nation with such powerful censorship that someone in Siberia needs to watch their back simply supporting Ukrainian sovereignty? Insofar as pushing back against their customers asking them to stop funding them, or at least providing opt-out.
Serbia is probably less attached to Russia today than at any point in the last 200 years.
Secondly, Belgrade is a city with a million+ people, and a great one at that. The company is almost certainly opening an office there because it's a cool place to be, and not because they are trying to make a geopolitical statement. For some reason, opening an office in a larger country (all of which have similar ethical issues) doesn't come with accusations like this.
Milion, not milions :)
OK, a bit over 1M.
I also don't think it is about geopolitics. It's more about nostalgia (owner is from Belgrade) and marketing. Based on their location, it looks more like marketing than practicality. It's dead center of downtown, almost everyone would have to commute trough heavy traffic. Anywhere in New Belgrade would be more practical (but less prestigious). And that's if you really want to be in Belgrade. Otherwise, Novi Sad is probably better.
And yeah but then you wouldn't get many Kagi customers (not employees) or visiting employees to visit, which seemed like the main point of this IMO. Being in Novi Sad or New Belgrade only makes sense for local employees.
That's not saying much, everything is relative. If the man in Belarus decided to step down and have "free and fair" elections tommorrow it would be the farthest it has been to Russia in quite some time. But you wouldn't rush to put a tech hub there.
Has Serbian infrastructure been tested by a sustained Russian cyberattack like some other Easter European countries? That's what would matter at the end of the day.
Have you spent any time in Belgrade? Because if you did, I think you'd find these kinds of comments nonsensical at best.
And no, Serbia is in no way comparable to Belarus. Serbians have cultural and historical reasons for feeling close to Russia, but as I said, this is absolutely at a low tide. This is not "relative" to Belarus, which is extremely tied to Russia geopolitically. Entirely different situations.
Yes I have. My point has nothing to do with culture or where it stands now relative to its past. It is a basic question that is important for a tech company that wants to be based in Serbia: Has Serbian infrastructure been tested by a sustained Russian cyberattack? You could have simply answered that question.
Nowhere in the post do they say anything about infrastructure. Nor are they going to be "based" there. They are opening an in-person community hub for their customers and employees. I imagine their infrastructure, like most other large tech companies, is distributed around the world.
You're stubbornly refusing to read comments in good faith and preferring to nitpick things that don't affect the general point and avoiding to answer a relevant question.
At the end of the day, both being based there and creating a hub require significant investment by the tech company. I'm trying to assess whether they made a forward-looking decision or a hasty one. The stability and robustness of Serbian infrastructure would be one important criteria for me when considering whether to create a hub there or not. Them not mentioning it in their post does not protect them from its effects or shortcomings in the future.
I have no idea what point you're trying to make. They obviously chose Belgrade because it's a cool city and because one of the founders is apparently from there. It's a community hub, not a infrastructure site. My guess is that they're spending a few thousand dollars on rent, and that's about it. Full stop. Your comment chain is not engaging with the actual post in good faith, at all.
> Serbia: Has Serbian infrastructure been tested by a sustained Russian cyberattack?
There is Microsoft software development center in Belgrade (for 25 years). I heard they moved Azure development team to Belgrade Hub recently. Does that answer your question?
It's not nothing, thanks for the constructive comment.
Microsoft is pretty much a US asset defended by the US government at this point, so their risk profile would be quite different than a much smaller tech company. I doubt they were depending on getting the 400 mil financial commitment they made to Ukraine any time soon a few years back, for example. That and many actions seem to be done in support of US foreign policy so they can retain the preference of the US government (ie other contracts etc) in the long term, as opposed to a normal tech investment decision.
But like I said, it's not nothing. As a smaller tech company if Microsoft steps in when the shit hits the fan and aids in keeping Serbian cyber infrastructure running smoothly, as a smaller tech company you would indirectly benefit.
"Sanctioned individuals" from Russia would have a hard time working in Belgrade, since it is under a lot of pressure and scrutiny from "the West". These individuals would have an easier time in Hungary, Moldova, Turkey, Malta or UAE.
The vast majority of Russians affected by the war, especially those with technical expertise to be Kagi employees, are not "sanctioned". Many situated people (which software engineers and adjacent roles often are) who left Russia have also reached the EU.
The US is also "openly flirting" with Saudi Arabia, Israel and (even) North Korea, if you like that language, but geopolitically controversial relationships between state officials don't and shouldn't determine the relationships between the people.
You are, and should be, free to employ and associate with individuals coming from China, Russia, Israel, Saudi Arabia, or US, even if the state you're a member of designates their (former) state as adversarial, unless you have reasons to believe that particular individual is adversarial or bad.
Sanctioned individuals would have a hard time working anywhere for the simple fact they cannot open a bank account, practically all banks everywhere deny services to sanctioned individuals or face the wrath of OFAC
Just in case you need sources: Kagi is using [1] Yandex and paying them as of June 2025. This is a long-standing position, which was also voiced [2] in November 2024.
Regarding Yandex. The founder sold [3] the assets (seemingly including the index and Yandex trademark) to VK (Mail.ru) in 2022. VK are known supporters of the war [4]. The founder subsequently renamed [5] his original company to Nebius Group and pivoted towards compute for AI.
Yandex is as entrenched in Russia as anyone could be. It's quickly becoming the state's goto IT company with products for all aspects of everyday life (many of them in leading market positions). It's the 'everything' company in there that is fully controlled by the state China-style.
I may be wrong here, please correct me if needed, but from what I understood from the news it was actually reverse of that. Yandex during the "smaller" war period, had a Netherlands parent holding to play pretend they are European company, and last year that holding sold their shares back to some Russian companies. So it looks like that it's Europe left Yandex, and not Yandex left Russia. But again, the whole house of shell cards is so complex there that I'm not sure about it.
> Plenty of European countries sits at the crossroads of East and West. But only one is openly flirting with Russia and is an entry point for Russians in Europe.
It should be easy to imagine that the russians committing war crimes in Ukraine and the russians fleeing conscription/political persecution for opposing the state by moving to the few countries that would take them are not the same group of people
Maybe you misunderstood his comment, because russians can actually get into europe, and once you are in a schengen area country it's a free for all. And what he mentioned can be easily verified.
Not exactly true, soldiers returning from the front can actually leave and move abroad. Also, with the amount of "hybrid-warfare" taking place in Europe it's safe to say not all russians "fleeing" russia are exactly well-intentioned. Let's skip the discussion about the advantages of having russian minorities in your own country, shall we?
edit: Would love to get a real argument instead of downvotes, but I'd say this speaks for itself
I am sure most russians leaving have left because they are against imperialist expansion and would prefer a free Ukraine, not because they have realized they might have more skin in the game once the 3-days special operation has failed.
Wasn't meant to be racist, but a subtle joke at the fact that many MAGA and russian-appreciating posts on twitter happened to be backed by indian users, and that was discovered thanks to a short-lived new feature. Not sure why that would be racist.
