I think it is high time this site bans the flag of Russia. It has been the 8th month of their barbarian invasion of Ukraine. Players from Russia should be welcome to play under the UN or unspecified flag.
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Welcome to OGS.
It’s nice that you’ve shared that you think the site should ban the Russian flag.
It’s also nice, from my perspective, that many people think this would be the wrong thing to do, and it is very unlikely to happen.
Forcing Russian citizens to hide their nationality isn’t going to solve anything.
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There has already been a long discussion about the topic that is now closed, you can read it here: Players who wave the Russian flag
I am not strictly against re-opening that discussion, but there would have to be some new perspective to discuss and I would be very adamant for people to stay stricly on topic and far from any personal accusations and outbursts, so
I would like to politely urge any new respondant to read the aforementioned topic first, and really take the time to word their responses (if they think they have something new to add) in a constructive and respectful manner.
Thank you 
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I feel it is exactly the same as in 1943 we would have players with the flag with the Svastika. The logo of the website has the Ukrainian flag, and yet, we tolerate waving the flag of the country who is implementing genocide in a neighbouring country. This is exactly the reason why the Russian sport teams are suspended in many disciplines.
Adam, the issue has not been solved with the thread you mention. And in light of the new Russian crimes I feel it is high time and it is most proper to raise this topic again. I hope you don’t mind that as a contributing member I use this forum to raise my doubts concerning this site?
I actually do agree that as time goes on, and more actions unfold, it could be appropriate to reassess.
However, likening the Russian flag to the Swastika is not appropriate. The Swastika was explicitly the symbol of the Nazi ideology.
That is not the case for the Russian flag. If Putin were to create a movement and a flag, I’d actually support banning display of it. But that is not the case: the current Russian flag predates Putin and the specific policies regarding Ukraine by about 20 years (AIUI).
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There is significant international agreement that the Nazi flag is a hate symbol.
I’m not aware that this is the case with the Russian flag.
When I google “is the Russian flag a hate symbol?”, I get references to the “Z” symbol, but not much about the official flag.
So I don’t think there is much international (or even just Ukrainian) support for the claim that the official Russian flag is a hate symbol.
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Yes, the Russian flag predates Putin and his regime, just as much as the Russian football team predates them etc. However, in the current context and in the OGS environment (which allows one to play without specifying one’s nationality), using the Russian flag is a political statement in support of Putin’s regime.
This is why I think using this flag in our community should be suspended until the genocide in Ukraine by Russia is stopped, and hopefully judged and punished. At the moment however, the state using this flag continues to pursue its genocidal policy. And thus is why, this flag should be banned.
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Why not ban the use of ALL national flags until the war is over. The message would be the world is one and we would sanction ourselves until the war ends.
Also, in the case of a Chinese invasion, should we also ban their flag? Should we ban the flag of the Saudi given their obvious war crimes that are literally indistinguishable from Putin’s, against a group uprising against fake elections? Oh, and Vladimir Putin gave Mohammed bin Salman a hi five since they’ve not lowered oil prices. The US also launched an illegal war in Iraq that’s not too different in nature to the invasion of Ukraine, and literally invented a new pro-war law to go into Afghanistan. And we haven’t even mentioned US warcrimes in Vietnam. During ALL those times, if you believe that the US flag should Also be banned, then it would make more sense. When Hayao Miyazaki refused to visit America over there war in Iraq, some in America criticized him. Everyone is entitled to there own view, that’s what the book I’m writing is about.
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You have no evidence of that, and there are a number of Russian players here who are explicitly against the war and Putin regime.
So far, you have said nothing not previously discussed in the other thread
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You can proudly support your country while simultaneously being violently opposed to it’s leader’s actions.
The flag represents the Russian people, not the current conflict.
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Which war?
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The majority of the Russians support Putin’s policy in Ukraine. We don’t see protests like the ones for example in Iran.
Thus, I think it is not too much to expect of decent Russian players these days not to wave their flags, also out of respect for their fellow players of Ukrainian nationality.
The use of the Russian flag should be banned on OGS. We can come back to this discussion when good Russian people massively take to the streets.
The Russian war in Ukraine, they invaded them massively on 24 Feb 2022. Recently they have been bombing civilian infrastructure like power stations, children’s playgrounds etc. Terrorising the people.
Anyway, if this community doesn’t decide to ban that flag, I am stopping my monthly contribution towards the website. It is not much, I realize, but if you ask me the questions you have asked me above, this means this community as a whole has no sense of decency.
I am sure Russian players will support the website instead.
I agree that Russians SHOULD do all you said, although don’t trust Kremlin propaganda that tries to inflate the number of people supporting them in Russia. However I want to be able to SEE for myself which Russians do the right thing and who doesn’t on their own accord. And maybe Saudi’s could do the same. Also Russia uses a lot of justifications similar to Israel—it’s a Rabbit hole we do NOT want to go down if we start banning flags discriminately. We should ban all flags for the duration of the “Special Military Operation”.
Let me repeat, we should not allow using this flag in the first place out of respect for our fellow Ukrainian players, in the second place because currently this flag is a symbol of war crimes, murdering civilians, tortures, rapes etc etc.
Russian players who back the war would support a website with the Ukraine flag and has given financial breaks to Ukrainians!?!? That’s not very logical
But where will you stop? Thats why I asked “which war?”.
Which war has to stop before we allow flags back at OGS?
There are always wars. If we’re not allowed to display our nationality using a flag during times of war, then we will never have that feature.
The Russian flag may be a symbol of those things to you. This is not a widespread sentiment.
Many of us here really appreciate the efforts - life threatening efforts - many Russians have taken to oppose their leader. “Russia” does not mean “war” any more than “US” or “Australia” mean indefinite detention without trial. These are deplorable things that the leaders of those countries do, but they don’t define those countries.
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Perhaps a complete ban on the discussion of any infringement of the rights of players on the basis of national, religious, racial and other characteristics could help to avoid such meaningless discussions in the future.
Also, I’m wondering why such discussions appear in the “Support” section of the OCG forum? Isn’t it offtopic to find this kind of discussion in this section of the forum?
Also, I consider it my duty to share with the respected community a small observation of my own. Like previous discussions of this kind, this discussion was created from an account that was registered very recently and, I believe, specifically just to create this discussion.
In conclusion, once again, just in case, I will say that, in my opinion, the prohibition of any flags, etc. actions do not carry any meaning and do not lead to any positive results at all.
Regards to the community and apologies for my poor English.
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