It assume it depends on how things are structured. If you are effectively running everything from Russia and are just using a EU corporate entity on the "frontend" with no actual business operations within the EU, that type of setup would likely be illegal in most countries.

But if you have two separate entities with clear split responsibilities things should work just fine. For example the EU-based company takes care of running the the product and contracts development services from a Russian company.

It's fairly common to have multiple businesses to reduce the blast radius. Often staff are employed by one company which has zero assets in case an employee tries to sue.

They have like 100 people in Prague, another 100 in Munich and then 1000 in Russia. Safe to say they are a Russian company with an EU "presence" for tax purposes.

It's amazing how much people will close an eye if they like the product!

JetBrains should be boycotted too.

My guess is they make more than $50k/yr.

Russia is certainly about to lose some serious technical talent. I can't imagine any devs would want to stick around in that country. Hope Putin doesn't block all ways for them to emigrate.

He basically aims to reinstate the Soviet Union "glory" days so reinstating the iron curtain isn't a big stretch...

I still hope this can be settled. If Ukraine gives up the areas that were basically constant civil war anyway... Continued escalation is to nobody's benefit. I don't think the Russian population wants this war either.

PS for what it's worth I also was really opposed to my own country helping the US to invade the middle East (eg Iraq, Afghanistan). But two wrongs don't make a right.

It was never a civil war; from the beginning, it was a Russian invasion implemented partially with some locals as a proxy.

And for more info lookup "little green men" on Crimea and the history of trying to transfer Russian population to the region. This video was linked in some other comment (although on youtube) and I found it interesting: https://invidio.xamh.de/watch?v=nK-yJD_fAtk

And lets not forget that guy: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Igor_Girkin

True, I was following the official wording because even us in the west didn't want to call that an invasion for fear of inciting Putin. Of course that ship has sailed so we can now call it what it is.

But basically the status quo is that these areas would be no good for Ukraine anymore because they're shot to crap and full or armed rebels (or green men). It's not like it's actually useful territory for building housing or running commercial activities etc. It's also pretty clear Russia would keep playing that game even if they retreat.

I would assume they'd gladly give up this territory (and Crimea) at this point for the war to stop. And then go full NATO or at least EU for future protection. I don't think Russia will ever give up the war without some kind of compromise because they would lose face.

Either way, I hope a consensus will be reached soon because this BS war is killing real people.

Donbass got a lot of coal, and we still need coal. Donetsk was a very rich city before 2014, and we want to restore that. Donbass history is rooted in Ukrainian and German history, not Russian.

Good point but I wonder if this is achievable at this point.

Energy independence is a great thing to have but not relevant if you have no country left :( I doubt Russia will give up without any kind of compromise. And the rest of the world can't make this into WW3 by intervening.

It would be great if you could kick Putin out altogether but he does have a lot more spare rersources. I just have a feeling that soon there will be nothing left to fight for :( Hope I'm wrong.

We're a lot more optimistic. Everyone thought Russia is a superpower, until this reality check.

There are huge coal deposits that Ukraine relies on. Some export of coal was going on even during years of Russian occupation. Ukraine needs them to be energy-independent.