That’s not a mature, responsible response to doing something that ends up frowned upon.
They should own up to their hastiness, otherwise what I get is “yep, we really are the kind of person who would throw something so inconsiderate out there. It wasn’t a one-time thing, we kinda are more like that than not…”
A couple of days ago I felt that Russian players should still be welcome to participate under a “neutral
flag”.
But I have to say that my opinion is shifting a bit. Critisizing Putin may be dangerous for Russian go players, so asking that from Russian go players is too much. But that also means that I don’t really know how Russian go players feel about Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. And from some of the responses I have seen, I get the impression that self pity dominates over sympathy with the victims of the invasion. Perhaps more that I expected actually believe Putin’s rhetorics about “denazification” of Ukraine?
I have the feeling that Kyiv is going to end up looking rather like Berlin did given the current tactics of Putin. A lot of Eastern Europeans experienced at first hand the perils of the Soviet Union, in interviews Putin has said that it is his dream to restore its boundaries. If he has begun to do that militarily, I don’t see any problem with imposing sanctions. Those should be on the Nation though, the Russian national team, not the individual players. With no airplanes with which to visit Europe, it’s unlikely they willl visit many tournaments anyway, even with the end of the Covid pandemic.
This is neither a call for help nor an attempt to achieve peace! I know they are not in the mood for subtleties since they are under attack and are literally bombed to pieces, but this is not good diplomacy.
The public supports the Ukrainians because they are under attack, not just because they are the Ukrainians. (Or at least that’s how I understand it). This kind of attitude is not helping.
I don’t know about everyone’s personal opinion of course, but I don’t think that scrutinizing personal responses, when there are really huge things happening right now, is the way to go.
Maybe one of the captured Russian soldiers is the person’s cousin. Maybe they already have someone in custody for speaking out.
Putin has very loud, very powerful, very obvious teammates, let’s please not start the cleansing from the normal folk up. There are obvious targets to take down and we’re focusing on people like us to do enough to stall our bloodthirst…
That’s unfair.
I see. I had chosen to share that sentence because it struck me (positively). I saw it as an admission of guilt and a willingness to sacrifice. But I’m not good at these things
You are not referring to the same quote. Cchristina talked about the Ukraine2 quote and you are referring to Natalia Kovaleva’s quote I think.
From the Ukrainians? I think I’m confused by the chain of responses, maybe it’s the thread?
I’m sorry, I thought it was an answer to my post
I mean that you clicked “reply” on my post and I thought you were referring to me. I’m sorry.
Ah no, you replied to one of my posts, but not the last one.
About Kovaleva, I don’t know what much else she can say.
“sure, 100 lashes if you think it’ll help”
… but it never really does, does it? In the long-term and not just to take out our frustrations?
And you say you can read complex Go moves? 
(joking!)
I should have used quotes but I couldn’t make myself reproduce any part of the text, sorry.
I feel most people here simply don’t care. Not because lack of sympathy but because to us it’s “putin doing dumb and dangerous things that we will have to suffer for episode #1billionth”. Maybe if it was as new to us as these news are to the world then more people would’ve been more enthusiastic about it. But to us it’s just a yearly thing at this point, or maybe bi-yearly even.
I don’t expect Russian go players to publicly denounce Putin’s war. I understand that can be dangerous.
I even feel pity for the Russian soldiers who were sent into Ukraine, who were made to believe they would be welcomed as liberators. I read the stories about the Russian army not suplying its soldiers with anything to sleep on, not even food or water.
I suppose they would think that if Putin knew how to play go then things would be different
As an ex-military officer, I am more likely to believe that the sun is made of corn, than believe that a whole army moved to an actual field of operations without water, supplies and basic equipment.
This just does not happen, not even in movies.
On the topic, I am hearing that the result of the EGF conference was reasonable. 
I think the idea of massive sanctions and isolation from the international community is to make this time not episode 1 billion, but different: invading Ukraine is much worse than the other dumb and dangerous things. If you can’t get food, can’t buy your phone apps, can’t see the Russian team in sport events, can’t buy a computer, can’t buy a car, can’t connect to the internet etc. then maybe you will think that instead of keeping your head down and putting up with Putin because at least he brought stability and relative prosperity after the turmoil of the Yeltsin years that actually, no, Putin and his war policy makes life totally suck and it’s so bad you might actually do something about it because the alternative is worse. (Or maybe such action would make people rally around Putin, I really don’t know.) Yes, it is dangerous to speak out / protest in Russia, it takes bravery that I’m not claiming I have, but in response to “I’m not doing anything to alter Russia’s behaviour because there’s no point, I have no power”, I can’t help think “You know who has even less influence on the policy of the Russian government? The people of Ukraine. And they are suffering a far greater deal because of it”.
What do you think would be an effective way to stop this war?
Hm, for who and how can you tell?
I suppose Putin could do even dumber and more dangerous things (like a nuclear strike on China or the US), but how would discussing that contribute to anything?
