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Russia killed its tech industry

technologyreview.com

51–60 of 285 posts

Re: Russia killed its tech industry

#51
It's only mentioned briefly but a large percentage of emigres ended up in the same place, Cyprus. My wife's Russian dev team all slipped away to Cyprus. Cyprus was once very cozy with Russia and pitched itself as a vacation spot for Russian tourists. It cost them a lot to sign on to sanctions but they found a silver lining by acquiring a whole tech sector almost for free.

Re: Russia killed its tech industry

#52
post #30

I find it heartbreaking. I grew up in the Cold War (my father was in the CIA). Russians were considered brutish, non-creative, and untrustworthy. Then, the Berlin Wall came down, and everything changed. I started to see amazing creativity come from Russia. Music, technology, art, actors, dance, all kinds of stuff. I loved working with Russian engineers. They were some of the best techs I'd worked with. I have a lot o…

Most of the brightest ones have left the country, so I do wonder if it might result in being a net positive for the world, moving a million brightest people from a decaying autocracy into the functional countries with good management, potential investors and a culture of innovation. Russian culture in Russia might be done for though, at least for a while.

In many ways, Russian culture has been preserved better outside of Russia than inside. Russians have had a tendency over last few hundred years to absorb other cultures rapidly, thus changing their own. French, Italian, English, now American. Watching Russian TV now by someone who left in the 1990s is quite strange because almost every other word is taken from English, while a different word was used in Russian 30 years ago.

Re: Russia killed its tech industry

#53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While Russia's reputation is in shatters in the west, I'm not sure if this is true for India, China, Pakistan and other countries. Also Russia's Wagner troupes are currently kicking out European ones in Africa, so I wouldn't be surprised if the reputation of Russia will be good enough for immigration in Africa either. This might very well be a solvable problem for Russia if they really want to.

Good thing Russia is known to be such a welcoming environment for people of colour.

Tbf, it’s not welcoming for everyone. The issue you pointed out is of little to no importance for educated people. For uneducated - yes, but mostly in “the center”. If you understand russian names, you may see yourself in TFA that most of those interviewed aren’t even of slavic origin, at least by father (neither am I, if that’s important for some reason).

Re: Russia killed its tech industry

#54
post #34
post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The greatest Russian writer ever was black, Alexander Pushkin. Further the Russians tend to sympathise with subjects of racism as they for the most parts of the previous centuries were subjected to racism by countries to the west of them.

> The greatest Russian writer ever was black, Alexander Pushkin. Wiki says his great grandfather was black. I am not sure how you jumped to the conclusion that Pushkin was black. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Pushkin

Isn't that the distinction used by at least some people in US - you're black if you had any black ancestors (at least in traced history)?

Re: Russia killed its tech industry

#55
post #39
post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The greatest Russian writer ever was black, Alexander Pushkin. Further the Russians tend to sympathise with subjects of racism as they for the most parts of the previous centuries were subjected to racism by countries to the west of them.

Is this a joke in Russia, i.e. people referring to him as black in order to lessen the view of Russia's outlook to foreigners? I've never heard people refer to Pushkin as being black (and his parents indeed aren't), besides his great grandfather.

I guess you can tell us the percentage of someone’s blood that has to be black for them to be black. What is the percentage?

Re: Russia killed its tech industry

#56
post #47
post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The greatest Russian writer ever was black, Alexander Pushkin. Further the Russians tend to sympathise with subjects of racism as they for the most parts of the previous centuries were subjected to racism by countries to the west of them.

> ever was black 1/64th black…

Nobody says that Obama is half-black...

Re: Russia killed its tech industry

#58

There never was any real high tech industry. Everything good was done in gulags which my Russian schoolbook called "Nauki Gorods" ie science towns. Everything else was substandard garbage. However under harsh military rule labor camps work well to produce high tech. German V2-rockets and Curta calculators prove that. But there is time limit for that. You will run out of people.

What about sending Gagarin to space in the 1950s? Was that tech developed in the Gulags as well?

Re: Russia killed its tech industry

#59
post #46
post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Russia's attractivity to foreign workers depends the availability of convertible money (sending money out of Russia is currently probably a bit of a problem and will stay so for a long time) and their security (which is probably not a given, with the rise of fascist state the security of foreign workers will not be the highest item on the list). So while everyone likes oil money, not many people will be likely to imm…

2/3 of world's population won't have any issue converting currency to yuan if BRICS decide to use it for mutual commerce (though I doubt a WW3 won't happen before this happens).

India will never agree.

Re: Russia killed its tech industry

#60

Russia killed a lot more than just its tech industry. While the real impact of this won’t show up for 20 years the impact will be severe. I’m pretty sure Russia will try very hard to attract foreign labor and immigration in the next years to fill some of the gaps that the country has to fill now.

Russian Federation as a sovereign state is barely 32 years old. You are talking about some impact being visible in 20 years, but that is an impossibly long planning period for RF.
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