There is a popular view in Russia, including within the software developers communities, that "politics" is something bad and dirty; people often ban "politics" in group chats and forums.

As a result, a highly technical person might work on a very complex solution to circumvent the restrictions but will declare (and probably even truly believe) that they are not making a political statement – as opposed to, for example, attending a protest, which is definitely considered a political action, or supporting a politician.

Thanks for clarifying, that's a pretty good summary. Russian developers experienced the same "HN is not for politics" kinds of reaction on Habr (russian HN, more or less) a decade ago, until politics came for them and Habr died. Before that, "being outside of politics" was a stance some people identified with because back then Putins regime didn't repress as much and the situation was "stable". Seeing a take like that still having its followers after our autocracy matured even more is disheartening and sad.

> Seeing a take like that still having its followers after our autocracy matured even more is disheartening and sad.

I suppose it’s more of a CYA nowadays than that. (Well, at least one can hope.)