About war in Ukraine

[voriki]

A flag does not represent the government. A flag carries a history, which is smudged by the current politics. But why does the flag have to be removed?

[thx3811]

The first thing I want to ask is how do you propose to identify users from Russia? Only those who have designated their country? It's easy to fix and play on. The location where the log in is from? Thanks to our politicians, now most of the population knows how to use VPN.
At least - it's useless.

I don't know how but something has to be done. Noone should pretend that nothing happens. And I'm sorry Russians are in this hard situation but it's only your fault, all of you as a society. You've been letting the bloody monster stay in powers to destroy one country after another. You have to understand how freaking not right it feels to let russian players play on BGA as nothing happend while russian army kills civils in Ukraine and destroy their houses. What about their social isolation in bunkers without internet because of russian agression!?

In addition, now the most adequate part of Russians is in a very precarious position. They are hated in their own country, they are hated in most of the world, they are scared of what's going on too. If you think that social isolation motivates to fight, it is not. It shows that you are alone and that it would be better for you to remain silent, because the country where you live is all that you have from now and forever.
Now people are very weak against the military power of their own country, but they try to resist.

Well, apparently you should try harder. It is not our job to comfort you now, cause most of the world's feelings go to Ukrainians. You thought that you could stay passive and let putler do whatever he wants, unless you were not disturbed too much benefitting all free world privileges. This is not how it works. If you want to be a part of global society you have to clean your own house first. Grow up as a society and get civilised. There is no other way to help you with it but cut you off so you could make up your mind what kind of society you want to be.

I don't support xenophobia against Russians as a nation. And I wish there was no bloody war in Ukraine right now so we could play all together on BGA as we used to. But it is impossible. And I'm sure that if you lived in 1930s your attitude towards nazi germany and nazi germans would be the same as ours now towards fascist russia and fascist russians. Do something about it instead of playing online games!

[T72on1]

The first thing I want to ask is how do you propose to identify users from Russia? Only those who have designated their country? It's easy to fix and play on. The location where the log in is from? Thanks to our politicians, now most of the population knows how to use VPN.
At least - it's useless.

I don't know how but something has to be done. Noone should pretend that nothing happens. And I'm sorry Russians are in this hard situation but it's only your fault, all of you as a society. You've been letting the bloody monster stay in powers to destroy one country after another. You have to understand how freaking not right it feels to let russian players play on BGA as nothing happend while russian army kills civils in Ukraine and destroy their houses. What about their social isolation in bunkers without internet because of russian agression!?

In addition, now the most adequate part of Russians is in a very precarious position. They are hated in their own country, they are hated in most of the world, they are scared of what's going on too. If you think that social isolation motivates to fight, it is not. It shows that you are alone and that it would be better for you to remain silent, because the country where you live is all that you have from now and forever.
Now people are very weak against the military power of their own country, but they try to resist.

Well, apparently you should try harder. It is not our job to comfort you now, cause most of the world's feelings go to Ukrainians. You thought that you could stay passive and let putler do whatever he wants, unless you were not disturbed too much benefitting all free world privileges. This is not how it works. If you want to be a part of global society you have to clean your own house first. Grow up as a society and get civilised. There is no other way to help you with it but cut you off so you could make up your mind what kind of society you want to be.

I don't support xenophobia against Russians as a nation. And I wish there was no bloody war in Ukraine right now so we could play all together on BGA as we used to. But it is impossible. And I'm sure that if you lived in 1930s your attitude towards nazi germany and nazi germans would be the same as ours now towards fascist russia and fascist russians. Do something about it instead of playing online games!

This is putting things in a way that is so simplistic that it is hard to come to terms with. If it were so easy, there would not be a single dictator in the whole world. But it is not. This is what a regime based on suppression and fear does.

So yes let's take actions against the Russian country if the action and / or the instance taking them are big enough to put pressure on the Russian government. If not, please don't, because the only ones (mainly) you disadvantage are innocent people who don't want all of this either.

In my opinion that is exactly what was said in the op.

[Heynongman]

I am premium subscriber, I was born and live in Russia, I have friends in Kiev, Sumi and Zaporozhie. Every day I check if they are still alive. Nothing can justify throwing my friends out of their homes. I am helping them the way I can. I did not elect this government and its leader, I always voted against and protested until they made a protest ending in guaranteed detainment. Even now, when it became a crime to express disagreement with the war, I signed a petition against it and I sent a letter to our parliament.
This is nothing compared to losing your home, but we are scared, frustrated and anxious of the future. Board games are one of those rare things which are helping not to go insane these days.
If BGA banned me, some users here would praise such decision. I would understand them. They have nothing to thank our country for.
But would not help stop this ongoing nightmare. This would make guys like me despond and depress even more.
Thank you for saving access and for still playing with us.

Hey friend,

I really appreciate you expressing all of this. And I hope that more people also understand the impossible position that individuals like you are in right now. It is easy to sit in a distant comfort and safety and tell others they should get out in the square and protest - it's difficult to comprehend what it takes for an individual to take that kind of action knowing the personal risk. Nobody knows how they will react until they are in these dire circumstances.

I mentioned in another post that I was born in Odessa, Ukraine, that I speak Russian, and that I grew up and live in California, USA. As I write this, there are family and friends in Kiev and in Nikolaev sleeping underground, ducking bombs and bullets, preparing arsenals of molotovs, and fighting for survival. At the same time, my own Ukrainian parents, also here in California, are in contact with friends in Russia trying to scheme ways to get them the hell out before the curtain fully closes. The understanding here is that any normal future for decent Russian people has been destroyed for at least a generation. It is going to be extremely dire over a very, very long time as the economic consequences continue to impact every single aspect of life in Russia.

I hope that folks reading this understand and appreciate the nightmare that normal regular people are enduring in Russia as well. It is not one or the other and it is not a competition of suffering. We have plenty of space in our hearts for decent people suffering everywhere.

But again, I physically sit in relative peace and comfort far from all of it - it's easy for me to say. I appreciate the candid and respectful discussions happening on these BGA forums.

slava ukraini and peace to all the peaceful people

[thx3811]

This is putting things in a way that is so simplistic that it is hard to come to terms with. If it were so easy, there would not be a single dictator in the whole world. But it is not. This is what a regime based on suppression and fear does.

So yes let's take actions against the Russian country if the action and / or the instance taking them are big enough to put pressure on the Russian government. If not, please don't, because the only ones (mainly) you disadvantage are innocent people who don't want all of this either.

In my opinion that is exactly what was said in the op.

Sure, so let's do not react at all and still play with russians as nothing happens. Cause they are the poor guys here to be pitied. What about Ukrainians then!? And let's have hope russians we play with are the good ones and not like the russian guy who, when I wrote to him after cancelling game start "Russians stop killing Ukrainians", responded: ***.

*Moderator edit: If a player has behaved inappropriately, you should report them for Moderation by going to their profile, clicking the "Report this Player" button, entering the Table ID and marking all of the inappropriate lines for a Moderator to look at. The Forums are a place for general discussion, and it is not appropriate to bring Moderation incidents into this context.

[Pushkiin]

If BGA banned me, some users here would praise such decision. I would understand them. They have nothing to thank our country for.
But would not help stop this ongoing nightmare. This would make guys like me despond and depress even more.

This is a good example of what Russians are willing to do, sign a useless petition , but if a sanction affects them personally, they cry and say people "please don' make me depressed". I also would like to point one that Russians who have responded to this thread have not suggested any alternatives to banning them. They don't even feel comfortable of temporary banning their flag on BGA, or banning Russians players from Arena or tournament games.

I hope that folks reading this understand and appreciate the nightmare that normal regular people are enduring in Russia as well. It is not one or the other and it is not a competition of suffering. We have plenty of space in our hearts for decent people suffering everywhere.

Majority of of people who live in Russian support the war in Ukraine and many of them have patronizing xenophobic attitudes towards Ukrainians. What nightmare do they live in? Are their cities are getting bombed? Are their children are being killed? Only a very small minority of Russian left the country or protested. They had 8 years to mobilize and they did nothing. They gladly supported the annexation of Crimea and Donbas and they support the war now.

[Zalk]

According to the last survey, 71% of russians completely support war in Ukraine. Do you still think that only Putler is responsible for the war? Do you still think that all other citizens are not responsible for anything and just hostages of the government?

At least show true info about war for the russian players during the login, they have to know what exactly their country are doing in the Ukraine, instead the info that they are seeing on TV.

[Pushkiin]

By they way, they just had a 100 thousand rally in Moscow in support of the annexation of Crimea and the war in Ukraine: https://twitter.com/maxseddon/status/15 ... 8749779971

[robinzig]

By they way, they just had a 100 thousand rally in Moscow in support of the annexation of Crimea and the war in Ukraine: https://twitter.com/maxseddon/status/15 ... 8749779971

The reports I read (in the Guardian's live news feed) said that they were most if not all people who'd been paid to go or otherwise offered incentives - and some that the reporters spoke to said they did not actually support the war.

Never trust anything that comes out of a totalitarian state, especially not expression's of the "people's will" - they're almost always stage managed.

[Pushkiin]

The reports I read (in the Guardian's live news feed) said that they were most if not all people who'd been paid to go or otherwise offered incentives - and some that the reporters spoke to said they did not actually support the war.

Never trust anything that comes out of a totalitarian state, especially not expression's of the "people's will" - they're almost always stage managed.

This is very anecdotal what you are saying, again statistically majority of Russians support the war. Even if some of them are paid, they still had no issues attending basically a pro war rally.