Hi admins,
Are you sure you want to promote Russian business (Verge3D) on blenderartists.org site? Especially in these difficult times and next to the flag of Ukraine.
Verge3D is no longer located in Russia.
While itās just my opinion and clearly not an official answer, here is how I see things :
Even if that was the case, Iām pretty sure blenderartist isnāt against or boycotting russian people or companies. Itās against the political decisions taken by the russian government to engage a conflict in Ukraine.
That conflict caused a lot of death on both sides and itās pretty sad. While the position of russian government about that is quite clear, we canāt tell what individuals and companies from Russia (or other places) thinks about that unless they make an official statement.
Therefore they shouldnāt be punished by default !
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Indeed, this is by no means an official statement, but this site has nothing against the citizens or businesses of any country AFAIK. The actions of a government should always be divorced from the lives of ordinary people in conversations like this 
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So, someone joined 20h ago ( in time I write this ) and immediately post suchā¦ post. Of course, portfolio is empty. Obviously, he ājoinā just becauseā¦ reason.
This is danger when you mix art and politics. This is slippery slope and soon or latter you will end in $hithole.
Blender artists and every other āartistā site must stand away from such things. Otherwise, will be used by various āactivistsā, which only goal is to spread his agenda. Internet is big, so leave art alone, whoever you are, whatever is your agenda.
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āOrdinary peopleā in Russia mostly support the policies of their government, support the war in Ukraine, the killing of Ukrainians, the destruction of their cities and homes. And you say these are different things? Simply no wordsā¦ Please wake up.
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You can consider Josephās statement to be our official one. If you donāt agree thatās fine, but donāt come here as a new user demanding we adopt your point of view. There are plenty of more suitable places to have this discussion, but not here.
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I am not an activist of any kind, and I do not intend to convince anyone. Everyone should have their own opinion and their own āmoral codeā. I occasionally look at the forum, I am a Blender user, and before the war I used Verge3D. Now I decided to create this post, because I was shocked to see an advertisement of a Russian company next to the flag of Ukraine (it doesnāt matter much that they moved their billing department to Estonia to facilitate settlements with the world - in fact, they continue to have their headquarters and R&D in Moscow).
EOT for me. Regards.
I think I recall that Ton mentioned at some point about the openess of Blender and that people from Russia are a part of the community too. I do not think it is in the best interest of open source communities to exclude people and organisations on the sole basis of which country they come from. It would open a can of worms about excluding people from other countries as well, such as China.
Personally I think it is good to separate the actions of the government from individuals. If the organisation in question hasnāt taken any official stance on the issue, there isnāt much reason to condemn either.
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For clarity, let me rephrase my statement to be more definitive:
This site has nothing against the citizens or businesses of any country. The actions of a government should always be divorced from the lives of ordinary people in conversations like this.
As Bart established, thereās no need for further conversation. This is the site policy. Youāre welcome to agree or disagree with it at your leisure, but the policy will not be changed to fit your personal opinions
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According to wikipedia:
Russia is the worldās thirteenth-largest exporter. It relies heavily on revenues from oil and gas-related taxes and export tariffs, which accounted for 45% of Russiaās federal budget revenues in January 2022ā¦
The main product of Russian farming has always been grain, which occupies considerably more than half of the cropland. Russia is the worldās largest exporter of wheat, the largest producer of barley and buckwheat, among the largest exporters of maize and sunflower oil, and the leading producer of fertilizer.
So it is interwoven in the global marketā¦ so how can someone possibly think that any advertisment of any corpoartion who paid for this might in any way āpromoteā russia ?? or the war ???
And even the NASA is using itā¦
(and also the other think the original developer were involvedā¦)
So somone might look onto the label of his/her sunflower oilā¦ ( or anything were it is used as ingredientā¦)
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It should also be noted that those who live in Russia are not allowed to speak out against the war at all, and countless thousands of those who did have likely gone to the gulags (which never closed down as a result of the USSRās fall by the way, they just got repainted and rebranded as āpenal coloniesā).
In fact, it is common in the 21st century for world leaders to be wildly unpopular, but please donāt expect everyone who is against a policy to prove their position by protesting in the street.
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Indeed- anyone who attempts to cut out one country entirely from their personal consumption is in for an extremely unpleasant surprise about our modern globalized world.
Recently, itās been trendy for some Americans to announce on social media they donāt support Chinese products in any form (for various dumb reasons that donāt bear repeating here). They neglect, of course, to mention that the phone theyāre making that social media post on was manufactured in China using rare earth metals acquired from slave labor in Tanzania. (And Eygptian silicon, and Chinese glassā¦)
Nor do they pause to consider that the American house theyāre posting from was built with Canadian lumber using Chinese screws and nails, or that the English language theyāre using to make that post is actually mostly German and French, or that the social media site is using Chinese SSDs and server racks in data centers in Israel and the Netherlands.
Of course, the asphalt that the (Japanese manufactured, Chinese parts) delivery truck drove on to get that phone to that American house is from Australia, and the gas that the delivery truck used was from oil originally from Afghanistan. You could go on practically forever here.
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Just some user/member input:
I donāt care what religion someone supports, or does not. Iām not interested in why someone supports a particular war, political policy, social trend - or does not support such things.
I visit this website because Iām interested in reading about what other artists are doing, how they do it, and hopefully we help each other become better at art. For discussions about about politics, wars, social issues, or religion - there are other websites out there that love to host such discussions, and that is where they should be held.
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Iād question how true that really is - and more specifically how true it is of Russian artists especially. Most of the Russian artists Iāve interacted with online have traditionally always been pretty cynical and critical about their government. Iāve gotten more flack for supporting Ukraine from Americans with certain political leanings than from Russians.
Itās important not to confuse the actions of a government with the citizens who live there. Governments donāt always care about what their citizens want, and Russia is not remotely a free, open democracy. Russians have criticized the war, there have been protests, and for people whoāve been too outspoken there are sometimes serious consequences. Among some of the people whoāve been indentured into military service, deserters have been shot and emigration is up.
Most people who blame ordinary Russians seem to be holding them culpable not because they see widespread Russian support for the war, but because ordinary Russians are not doing āenoughā to force an end. Which seems to mean such a widespread willingness to risk imprisonment and death that Putin either gives up or faces a civil war. Blaming people who live in oppressive societies for not dying to change it is easy when youāre privileged not to be one of the people at risk. Yes, change only happens when people take these risks, but most people want to survive with whatever safety and security they can find.
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How do you know? Do you believe Russian state organs and associated organizations and the āinformationā they dispense? Why would you? How can anyone outside ever know when it comes to judging peopleās beliefs under repressive governments? And how does one assess those beliefs? Propaganda is hard enough to dispel under more free governments, itās way more insidious under repressive regimes. When people donāt feel safe to express their true opinions, you canāt know what they really feel, and what that is based on. Not even as an insider, unless you know them very well and they trust you. Only the most courageous people protest in the streets (we know that there are Russians doing that). And if you know anything about activism, then itās that if there are public protests, there are likely 10 times as many who support those protests, even if they canāt afford or donāt dare to be public about it.
But there is more to this. People might support their government against what they perceive as hostile outsiders even if theyāre not particularly supportive of many specific policies. They might not think a war should have been started, but once itās begun they might not want to see their country defeated. They might not have supported mobilization, but donāt want their soldiers demoralized and abandoned. How insightful are the questions asked in polls? Itās complicated.
I know few Russians today, but the ones I do know well are not supportive of their government. Some have been so little supportive that they have left when they could. When I knew more Russians, when Russia was still the USSR, they were also highly cynical of their government. Thatās a highly biased sample because people to whom I am drawn in friendship are not usually the most government-trusting people. Artists in general tend to also not be particularly supportive of governments, and less so the less free the regime is. So I personally know Russians who donāt deserve to be vilified.
No doubt there are many Russians today who buy the propaganda theyāre inundated with. There are always such people, some are true believers, some are skeptical but loyal, some are fooled. Even if one accepts the highest support numbers for the war (I donāt) of 75%, that leaves 25% of people (roughly 37 million people!) against it. Thatās a lot of people to throw under your self-righteousness bus. I donāt ride that bus ā I canāt know about any individual artist, and consider them innocent unless they prove otherwise.
I am glad this website takes a similar stance. And I donāt think that general support of Ukraine in this war is contradictory to that.
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When someone says something like āthey are for/against the warā, thereās some ugly manipulation with words going on. Being against the war doesnāt mean being against the government.
Hereās the thing.
People ARE against the war. Most people wanted it to stop for years. By now your average russian, who follows the topic (or worse, has personal stakes in it), is way past the tragedy fatigue. Itās been almost a decade! People on the whole just want everything to stop already.
The tricky part is: itās not really up to Russia, and not even up to Ukraine. Russians canāt stop without abandoning the people, and Ukrainian government canāt stop without their supportersā approval.
The point is: the people are (naturally) against the war, but most donāt blame russian government for starting it Many support the operation though, just as they supported humanitarian help for years before that (and losing people in the process), even as other countries still blamed Russia for āinterferingā. Just take a walk outside and there are plenty of little personal āZā signs on buses, painted on cars and walls, and worn on t-shirts.
And from russian point of view itās the other way around. Especially when someone uses words like āgulagā, āoppressive governmentā and ābrutal arrestsā with a straight face 
And then, having the ever expanding internet access, people can listen to the foreign news-channels and wonder āHow exactly the government here is worse than what they have over there?ā and āIf they are spreading so many factual untruths about Russia and her people what else are they wrong about?ā.
So, you are Not Activist? Yet, you make account here and immediately make such post? Not only that you use some generic name like titaniumā¦ Do you really think that someone believe in such bs?
Personally, I find this very offensive, donāt love when someone treat me like naive fool.
Fact is that you make this account with only purpose to spread your ā¦ agenda and make noise, disturb one community, divide people, etc.
I hate warā¦ And also hate people which use war for his purpose. Mean people which arenāt part of solutionā¦ instead they are part of problem. Not to mention than majority of people which talk about this $#!t donāt have clue about topic.
But maybe you are Real EXPERT for this region, history, religion, politics, etc.
In this case you will know why I write thisā¦ in this way.
ŠŃŃā ŃŠø Š¼Šø ŃŠ°Š“ ŠæŠ° ŃŠø? ŠŠ°Š“Š½ŠµŃ ŃŠ°ŠŗŠ¾ Ńā ŠŗŃŃŃŠŗŠµ Šø ŠæŠ¾ŃŠ½ŠµŃ Š“Š° ŠæŠ°Š¼ŠµŃŃŃŠµŃ Šø Š“ŠµŠ»ŠøŃ Š»ŠµŠŗŃŠøŃŠµ.
ŠŃŠ½ Š¼Šø ŃŠµ ŃŠ°ŠŗŠ²ŠøŃ
. ŠŠ»ŠµŠ±ŠµŃŠµŃŠµ Šø Š»ŃŠæŠµŃŠ°ŃŠµ ŠŗāŠ¾ ŠŠ°ŠŗŃŠøŠ¼ ŠæŠ¾ Š“ŠøŠ²ŠøŠ·ŠøŃŠø. ŠŠµ Š“Š¾ŃŠøŃŠµŠ¼Šµ ŃŠµ ŠŗŠ¾ ŃŠø Šø ŃŃŠ° ŃŠø. ŠŠ½Š¾ ŃŃŠ¾ Š·Š½Š°Š¼ ŃŠµ Š“Š° ŠæŠ¾ŃŠ¼Š° Š½ŠµŠ¼Š°Ń Š¾ ŃŠµŠ³ŠøŠ¾Š½Ń Šø Š£ŠŗŃŠ°ŃŠøŠ½Šø. ŠŠøŠæŠ° Š“Š°Š»Š¾Š±Ń, ŃŠ°ŃŠŗŠµ Š½ŠµŠŗŠ¾Š¼ Š“ŃŃŠ³Š¾Š¼.
PS. Itās better to lock this thread. This ā¦ person try to abuse this forum for his selfish purpose. Make account just because political reason.
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I just wanted to point out a certain glaring inconsistency in blenderartists.org approach to the war in Ukraine. I did not expect such a furious of russian trolls.
To those defending āordinary Russiansā: Aleksandr Nezvorov, a Russian writer and former Duma deputy, said that nowadays being a Russian is like being a German during World War II. Were all Germans bad? Of course not, but they were the ones who mostly elevated Hitler to power and supported him. There was also propaganda, fooling the public, and this public did not want to know the truth. The main difference is that the Third Reich was a well-organized, disciplined system with a large scientific-industrial-technological potential, and āRussia is a country built of sh*t and sticksā (sorry for the words, but this is a quote from Alexander Nezvorov), fortunately for Ukraine, because of this they have a good chance of winning this war.
I think this topic has run its course and Iām locking it. This is not the right platform for political discussions
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