Add-on Where do you stand on selling addons to Russian businesses?

Digital Doctor said:
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Big Tech and the Republicans are teammates now.
They have the tool (mind manipulation algorithms of social media) and the funding (Super PACs, etc) to control the elections now. If the Republicans get in again in 2028 it is clearly end of days.
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The whole system is idiotic. FWIW, I’ve never registered as a Republican or Democrat. I’ve always liked to think for myself, I don’t need idiots from any party telling me what’s the best way to vote. We are in a system where people aren’t voting for someone, instead most people are voting for not someone.

Last time I updated my voter registration, I wrote in my political affiliation as, “Think For Yourself Party”. 😂

Hopefully someday we can do away with the two party system like other countries have done, but I also don’t have high hopes for this country I currently live in (as far as it being able to figure its **** out and fixing things)… but again, it’s just a place for me, no different than a street or city. If I lived in a city that went to ****, I move. 🤷🏻‍♂️
 
Every forum has the potential in being a competing forum so you can’t really judge that as for selling to Russia it’s always important to have a strong disclaimer so you can’t be held liable there could be shady business with all counties not just Russia
 
Why would you hold someone accountable based on where they were born? A majority of Russians stand with Ukraine too and don't agree with their countries current actions. Blame the government, not its citizens.
 
Stuart Wright said:
I don't know whether this is the case, but I think most people / goverments would prefer regime change to be driven by a country's people. And if they understand that it's the fault of their goverment, then motivating them to drive forward that change may not be a bad thing. I believe that many Russians believe their state propaganda lies.
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Sanctions (or bombs) don't motivate people against the government (any more than they already are motivated).

From my first hand experience, I've concluded that it in fact makes it easier for the government to stay in power.

I suppose most people can't know that because propaganda says otherwise (in both the sanctioned and the sanctioning countries).

US sanctions in particular always serve the interests of the big capital - not the normal people or any noble goal.
 
Oh, he won't sell to Russia but he'll sell to the US, Israel, middle-eastern countries, etc. 🤦‍♂️

Give me a break and get off your high horse of self-righteousness, seriously.

Here's a reality check for you... ALL GOVERNMENTS ARE CROOKED AND CORRUPT.
 
zappaDPJ said:
That's not how I read it. I saw it as @Stuart Wright asking for opinions from other addon providers and given the international sanctions against that region it's a sensible ask imo.
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The first two posts talk only about "feeling uncomfortable" "doing business with a Russian organisation."

No technical talk about sanctions and legal boundaries, but feelings (i.e. moral judgements).

At least that's what it looks like to me - everyone can read and decide for themselves.
 
I used to live in London, UK, for seven years. In 2002, people who had never seen a Russian already hated Russians, and that had nothing to do with Russia! TV news and propaganda zombify some people! It is a proven fact! If you truly know history and have a morally functioning mind, you would never follow nonsense! Unfortunately, some people still read newspapers! I am glad they have time for it!
I am not Russian, but I have extensive communication experience! The most honest people in the world are Russians; they believe in God, and they never scam or lie to you!

SWIFT does not work in Russia. Visa and Mastercard are entirely out of the country; they have their own payment system, MIR, which works better than any payment system in the world. Sanctions are normal political communication now, which hurts their own country but strengthens the sanctioned country!

Selling to Russia against sanctions is not allowed if you have a registered LLC in countries like the UK, USA, or EU.
& if you still decided not to sell - you shooting yourself in the foot!
 
Stuart Wright said:
Don’t want to get political but I always vet the forums I sell my addons to and I don’t feel comfortable doing business with a Russian organisation. I’m inclined to decline their request to purchase.
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I get your reluctance and I would be too. It's a pretty grey area, I think. If it was the website of a musician, say, then I think you're likely safe, but if it's some sort of business, then perhaps not. I'd have to look at it, investigate it as much as is really possible without big resources and make a decision.

How would you feel about selling to a Chinese site, based in another repressive state that's buddies with Russia?
 
Digital Doctor said:
Big Tech and the Republicans are teammates now.
They have the tool (mind manipulation algorithms of social media) and the funding (Super PACs, etc) to control the elections now. If the Republicans get in again in 2028 it is clearly end of days.
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Alas, I think this is likely to be true. It's a bit off topic for this thread though, so I'll just make this one comment.
 
BikeGremlin said:
Sanctions (or bombs) don't motivate people against the government (any more than they already are motivated).

From my first hand experience, I've concluded that it in fact makes it easier for the government to stay in power.

I suppose most people can't know that because propaganda says otherwise (in both the sanctioned and the sanctioning countries).

US sanctions in particular always serve the interests of the big capital - not the normal people or any noble goal.
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Iran 2015
Nuclear program sanctions by U.S., U.N., and EU, pressured Iran into the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action nuclear deal

South Africa in the 1980s
Sanctions by the US and EU, along with diplomatic isolation contributing to ending of apartheid.

Libya in 2003
Sanctions caused them gave up their nuclear weapons & compensated terror victims

Serbia in 1995
Sanctions led to acceptance of peace negotiations in Bosnia War

North Macedonia in the early 1990s
The Greek embargo forced diplomatic recognition.

Paraguay
Sanctions pressured the release of political prisoners, and led to limited political reforms

Panama 1987 through 1989
Targeted financial and diplomatic pressure, led to Noriega losing internal support, and losing power.

Greece from 1967-1974
Arms embargo against military Junta helped push regime to collapse, leading to democratic restoration in 1974.

Turkey 1975 - 1978
Arms embargo after Cyprus invasion led Turkey back to negotiations, and eventually partial troop withdrawals and diplomacy.

El Salvador in the 1980s
U.S. suspended/delayed aid multiple times, each time El Salvador met specific demands such as investigating murders, allowing elections, and scaling back repression.
 
MySiteGuy said:
Iran 2015
Nuclear program sanctions by U.S., U.N., and EU, pressured Iran into the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action nuclear deal

South Africa in the 1980s
Sanctions by the US and EU, along with diplomatic isolation contributing to ending of apartheid.

Libya in 2003
Sanctions caused them gave up their nuclear weapons & compensated terror victims

Serbia in 1995
Sanctions led to acceptance of peace negotiations in Bosnia War

North Macedonia in the early 1990s
The Greek embargo forced diplomatic recognition.

Paraguay
Sanctions pressured the release of political prisoners, and led to limited political reforms

Panama 1987 through 1989
Targeted financial and diplomatic pressure, led to Noriega losing internal support, and losing power.

Greece from 1967-1974
Arms embargo against military Junta helped push regime to collapse, leading to democratic restoration in 1974.

Turkey 1975 - 1978
Arms embargo after Cyprus invasion led Turkey back to negotiations, and eventually partial troop withdrawals and diplomacy.

El Salvador in the 1980s
U.S. suspended/delayed aid multiple times, each time El Salvador met specific demands such as investigating murders, allowing elections, and scaling back repression.
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I agree that in several historical cases sanctions did help achieve their intended goals. But I want to emphasize that the examples you listed are hardly comparable to the situations with Russia and China in terms of scale, economic resilience, and their ability to circumvent restrictions.

Regarding Russia since 2014 (and especially after 2022), we can see that despite heavy sanctions from the EU and the US., it has not abandoned its key foreign policy objectives, has not been pushed out of the game and its economy has adapted (with growth of about 3.6% in 2023). Research also shows that while sanctions caused damage, they did not achieve the goal of “forcing a change in behavior.”

In China’s case, US/EU sanctions run into another problem. China has a massive domestic market, global economic connections and importantly actively participates in sanction-evasion networks. This makes sanctions a much weaker tool against China.

Therefore, your claim that “sanctions work” is overly optimistic. When dealing with large and resilient states, sanctions without additional tools (diplomacy, military pressure, regime change, etc.) usually produce only partial results, which are often overstated in the media. It also suggests that if the US and China were to impose sanctions against the EU in theory, the EU would be able to cope with them.
 
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Ferry said:
I agree that in several historical cases sanctions did help achieve their intended goals. But I want to emphasize that the examples you listed are hardly comparable to the situations with Russia and China in terms of scale, economic resilience, and their ability to circumvent restrictions.

Regarding Russia since 2014 (and especially after 2022), we can see that despite heavy sanctions from the EU and the US., it has not abandoned its key foreign policy objectives, has not been pushed out of the game and its economy has adapted (with growth of about 3.6% in 2023). Research also shows that while sanctions caused damage, they did not achieve the goal of “forcing a change in behavior.”

In China’s case, US/EU sanctions run into another problem. China has a massive domestic market, global economic connections and importantly actively participates in sanction-evasion networks. This makes sanctions a much weaker tool against China.

Therefore, your claim that “sanctions work” is overly optimistic. When dealing with large and resilient states, sanctions without additional tools (diplomacy, military pressure, regime change, etc.) usually produce only partial results, which are often overstated in the media. It also suggests that if the US and China were to impose sanctions against the EU in theory, the EU would be able to cope with them.
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"Sanctions work" is not the absolute I said. What I did was show your absolutes, aren't absolute:


"Sanctions (or bombs) don't motivate people against the government (any more than they already are motivated)."​

I gave examples where they have.

"From my first hand experience, I've concluded that it in fact makes it easier for the government to stay in power."​

My examples included instances where the opposite was true.

"I suppose most people can't know that because propaganda says otherwise (in both the sanctioned and the sanctioning countries)."​
​
Of course, most people don't know your absolutes, because the facts are your absolutes are inaccurate.

"US sanctions in particular always serve the interests of the big capital - not the normal people or any noble goal."​

Again, I gave examples which clearly show this isn't the case.

Of course, sanctions aren't going to change regimes in all cases, but that's not always the goal. Russia, for instance, yes they can work with other countries but the sanctions make their war much costlier and historically that has helped bring a party to the table to negotiate. Technology sanctions against China isn't going to stop them for achieving their goals that need the technology, but it does slow them.
 
Ferry said:
I agree that in several historical cases sanctions did help achieve their intended goals. But I want to emphasize that the examples you listed are hardly comparable to the situations with Russia and China in terms of scale, economic resilience, and their ability to circumvent restrictions.

Regarding Russia since 2014 (and especially after 2022), we can see that despite heavy sanctions from the EU and the US., it has not abandoned its key foreign policy objectives, has not been pushed out of the game and its economy has adapted (with growth of about 3.6% in 2023). Research also shows that while sanctions caused damage, they did not achieve the goal of “forcing a change in behavior.”

In China’s case, US/EU sanctions run into another problem. China has a massive domestic market, global economic connections and importantly actively participates in sanction-evasion networks. This makes sanctions a much weaker tool against China.

Therefore, your claim that “sanctions work” is overly optimistic. When dealing with large and resilient states, sanctions without additional tools (diplomacy, military pressure, regime change, etc.) usually produce only partial results, which are often overstated in the media. It also suggests that if the US and China were to impose sanctions against the EU in theory, the EU would be able to cope with them.
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I'd argue the US sanctions against China are designed to force American companies to diversify their sourcing and that is working.
 
MySiteGuy said:
Serbia in 1995
Sanctions led to acceptance of peace negotiations in Bosnia War
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Take this one example where I have reliable info:

No.

Sanctions were at best a convenient excuse for the Serbian politician(s) to "save face," but that's as far as it goes (even that is a stretch).

Regarding that "Bosnia War" - my comments on the decent BBC documentary:
https://www.bikegremlin.net/threads/death-of-yugoslavia-for-real-based-on-the-bbc-documentary-series.581/


Not sure about the other examples. Maybe there was a situation where sanctions helped. But in the vast majority of cases they are used as a big capital tool (which uses the US army as well), nothing more.

Did the war in Ukraine stop?
While Cuba is still suffering for not letting the US take everything from them.

Same old.
 
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