Genocide and ethnic cleansing is already in full swing. Too late for "step on a path".
As a Russian immigrant in US, i support kicking out from US or any other country any Russian who wouldn't condemn in straight clear words Putin's fascist regime and the genocide it conducts in Ukraine. Anything less is just a support of what is going on.
For any public figure it is doubly so. Grischuk didn't even use the word "war" in order to not have issues with Russian government. Well, it is a war and one can't be on good terms with all the sides simultaneously, and there is no neutrality when it comes to genocide and ethnic cleansing. Ukrainian civilians get killed being intentionally bombed in their homes just for being Ukrainians (it is called genocide), Ukrainian women and children are running for their lives to Poland (as their lives are in danger just for them being Ukrainians, and such ethnicity based forced displacement constitutes ethnic cleansing), with some walking tens of kilometers in cold winter, and even some women giving birth in-route. If you don't take their side then you really should be kicked out of the civilized world.
This comment makes me think of a piece of relevant literature who’s television adaption is about to end called Shingeki no Kyojin or it’s English translation “Attack on Titan”. I wonder what the reaction of the upcoming episodes will be as the Russian Invasion continues.
That is BS. Government coming upon you for the "war" is exactly a statement one has to make in such situation if one is really against that war. Especially that the government just can't chase everybody uttering the word, and there are a lot of such people.
> Are you claiming Alexander Grischuk allowed Russia to invade Ukraine?
The purpose of the cultural sanctions is not to punish the individual sportsmen or artist or change their opinions, the purpose is to undermine the popular support for the war and the Putin-regime.
The Putin regime have used sports as a point of national pride in order to strengthen popular support. So it stands to reason that excluding Russia from sports would weaken the regime in some degree.
Apparently many Russians are not even aware they are involved in a war due to the massive propaganda and censorship. Maybe Russia getting excluded from all sports event might at least get them to ask some questions about what is going on?
Does it matter? Elections in Russia is not free and fair. Tyrants rarely are good for a country. Sad to see that the Russian people will have more suffering in their future.
> I guess in terms of USA that would be like Democrats and Republicans coming up with a president.
That's totally normal, and happens in a lot of places. For instance, in Canada, you vote for your local representatives (MPs), the party that ends up with the most MPs (roughly speaking) gets their leader installed as Prime Minister. Then, of course, the Head of State is actually the Queen who's represented by the Governor General, who is in turn nominated by the Prime Minister.
I am using both Proton Mail and VPN and am quite happy with it.
In your case deeper problem is that so much of you digital life depends on a single point of failure - your Gmail account and it can go in a blink of an eye.
Trick for a switch is to do one a time. Next time you visit a site, go to setting and set email to your new provider, like timpy+nytimes@protonmail.com or whatever.
Also can advise you password manager, like 1Password, that will make switch and maintenance much easier.
