Google's Dart team terminates contract with Russian vendor over Ukraine invasion

Google's Dart team terminates contract with Russian vendor over Ukraine invasion(twitter.com)

22 points by msantos 4 years ago | 18 comments

zajio1am 4 years ago |

That is problematic. Small, independent, high human-capital companies are best antidote to authoritarian leaders supported by oligarchs and natural resource extraction. If western sanctions selectively restrict the first ones, while keep business for the second ones (because Europe need russian gas), then they are likely worse than no sanctions at all.

vanusa 4 years ago | |

That is problematic.

True. But I think Google's point is that the invasion of Ukraine is (several) orders of magnitude more problematic and needs to stop.

I get that there's a downside to boycotts of all forms. What I don't get is the livid emotionalism in this thread ("absolutely ridiculous and shitty") directed towards the decision to boycott certain companies in response to the current situation -- rather than towards the invasion of Ukraine itself.

sharken 4 years ago | | |

Perhaps it is Russian influence on those posting ?

I also don't get it, this is an extraordinary situation that requires extraordinary measures.

Anything Russian will be boycotted and sanctioned until Putin withdraws all troops.

I have zero problems with the Russian people, but Putins actions have consequences.

ganeshkrishnan 4 years ago | | |

> What I don't get is the livid emotionalism in this thread

because this in absolutely no way helps to bring out peace and rather stokes animosity. We are seeing more and more divisions in our society with such cringe worthy actions.

The US is now arming the right-wing neo-nazi Asov battalion with stinger missiles and arms to fight Russian occupation. Deja Vu?

ganeshkrishnan 4 years ago |

This is absolutely ridiculous and shitty thing to do. At no point in history has punishing people for the mistakes of their leader resulted in a better situation and more peaceful world.

I suspect everyone is trying to one up everyone else and show their "patriotic duty" by punishing Russia. The propaganda and rabid "i got you" displays far exceeds the post 9/11 drum beats.

Don't bring politics into Tech. There is a time and there is a place. This is not the time and this is not the place. If it was, then similar punishment should have been handed out for destroying Syria,Libya, Afghanistan, Iraq, Somalia, Vietnam....

version_five 4 years ago | |

I agree, this all makes me very uncomfortable. The second we decide it's ok to exert political influence over access to tech, there will be a flood of calls for it to happen for every cause you can think of. The goalposts will shift from "we dont do this" to "this is as bad as ukraine, cut them off". Politics don't belong here

vanusa 4 years ago | |

At no point in history has punishing people for the mistakes of their leader resulted in a better situation and more peaceful world.

History is full of huge counterexamples to this claim: the sanctions against South African apartheid. Oh and this whole business of "punishing people in Germany, Italy and Japan for the mistakes of their leaders", known otherwise as WW 2.

ganeshkrishnan 4 years ago | | |

> the sanctions against South African apartheid

This was done by UN. Not by some random company against some individuals.

>Oh and this whole business of "punishing people in Germany, Italy and Japan for the mistakes of their leaders", known otherwise as WW 2

No, that was WW1. And the sanctions led to WW2 after which US recognized the futility of sanctions and provided EU with economic package under Marshal Plan https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marshall_Plan

regardless the whole pom-pom tweeting and thumping chest of how you fired some random russian programmers reeks of cringe worthy maturity of a 5 year old, not a manager from the largest corporation in the world.

thrwwyflttr 4 years ago |

How disappointing that the Twitter crowd is cheering this on. What a sick joke. And what's up with the whole public announcement.

To me, it feels like we think that we can stop the war by punishing some a Russian developer team. Oh, the war didn't stop? It's just you didn't bully and fire enough Russian developers.

I work in an international team, many of us from countries that were either in war or whose leader made some controversial decisions. I'd be appalled if my team mate was fired "because Iran is bad". Let's fire this Polish guy because "abortion is still illegal in Poland, and if he disagrees with that, he should have protested harder".

Unless you are a highly ranked government official or one of the top oligarchs, you have not much say in any of these wars. I'd not like to be judged by the laws and actions my president or prime minister takes. I have zero control over what they do. Trust me, Putin is not trying to invade Ukraine because this software testing company gave their blessing to it.

Also. The hypocrisy... coming from a US company. How many countries is the US bombing now? Most of us probably don't even know, because the narrative is that it's good bombing and necessary to spread democracy or whatever. Maybe Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Syria, and Yemen?

vanusa 4 years ago | |

And what's up with the whole public announcement.

Seems pretty obvious that the whole point of taking such an action is that it be made public.

hnthrowaway0315 4 years ago |

The problem is: once you kick open this door, you are probably going to push more people out of it.

A slightly better solution is to terminate the contract but offer work permits to some of the engineers.

Mikeb85 4 years ago |

Lots of critical comments, however, is Google even able to pay Russian developers now with the sanctions?

markus_zhang 4 years ago |

Interesting. Let's see how this plays out.