Google to close engineering office in Russia • Hacker News Board

Re: Google to close engineering office in Russia

#181

Post by justincormack » Fri, Dec 12, 2014, 5:21 PM UTC

notjackma wrote: post #176

Yizahi wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Putin has started Russia-Ukraine war in February and Russian troops has downed MH17 using Russian AA complex. So he is responsible obviously. Putin regime has killed several journalists. The gay thing is not so clear, he may be gay himself.

Wow, you must know something the rest of the world doesn't. If you have evidence that Russian troops shot down flight MH-17 then you should present it to the Dutch parliament and the United Nations. Otherwise, like the rest of us, you should wait for investigators to finish their work.

Well I recommend you read the Bellingcat articles https://www.bellingcat.com/tag/mh17/

Re: Google to close engineering office in Russia

#182

Post by okatsu » Fri, Dec 12, 2014, 5:23 PM UTC

pandaman wrote: post #164

okatsu wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's the same law; their logic is that promoting LGBT rights means promoting deviant sexual behaviour, and doing so publicly will inevitably reach children.

"Their" is referring whom exactly? I don't think Russia is a Common Law country, judges there cannot derive something from a law so whomever you think is interpreting the law. Were not media saying that gay athletes in Sochi are going to be incarcerated using the same logic?

"Their" referring to the Putin government.

You can't really use Sochi as an example. The Olympics are a very important international event and Russia wanted the good publicity. You'll also notice that Putin ordered the release of many political prisoners just in time for that event.

Re: Google to close engineering office in Russia

#183

Post by dionidium » Fri, Dec 12, 2014, 5:24 PM UTC

osipov wrote: post #62

danmaz74 wrote: post #28

Putin is increasingly cracking down on any possibility of dissent and threat to his power, whatever the consequences to the Russian economy, and this of course scares foreign companies who work there - even if, with the recent fall of the ruble, Russian talent is even more affordable now. I'm afraid (I have friends in Russia) that we're going to see more of this.

That's a very myopic view and here's why -- virtually all governments in the world are becoming increasingly authoritarian because of the global economic crisis and the civilian unrest that it provokes. For example, replace Putin in your sentence and you'll get "United States is increasingly cracking down on any possibility of dissent and threat to it power". You can support that statement with facts about police in…

You can support that statement with facts about police in Ferguson

Not really. Ferguson represents a lot of things, but I don't think there's any evidence that it's part of some national crackdown on dissent. How would that even work?

Re: Google to close engineering office in Russia

#184

Post by walshemj » Fri, Dec 12, 2014, 5:24 PM UTC

Perdition wrote: post #98

schrodinger wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sorry, but I really don't buy the argument that USA is worse than Russia in this respect. Snowden, while I totally applaud what he did and would love to see him pardoned, or protected under whistleblower laws, leaked a ton of highly classified information. Again, I think he did the right thing, but him being prosecuted is not the same as "if anyone speaks about the actions the U.S. takes in secret they are hunted to…

Yeah, if Snowden had of betrayed the ~~KGB~~ FSS/FIS he would have fallen down some stairs onto some bullets a long time ago.

if he was lucky where lucky one agent for the CIA ended up getting tortured and allegedly burned alive in the basement of the KGB and I suspect the poor sods that Kim Philby burned all got a quick clean death

Re: Google to close engineering office in Russia

#185

Post by voidlogic » Fri, Dec 12, 2014, 5:24 PM UTC

dchichkov wrote: post #115

_wmd wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The value of the rouble has collapsed over the past year, I think he means tech workers would only be too happy to leave.

I think he means that most tech workers there wouldn't be just fired. They would be offered relocation packages. It is better than being just fired, thus it would be well received. (Don't forget that although you think that Moscow is in the middle of Siberia and the city is a one big communist radioactive dump that you saw in the movies, actually, the reality is far from it. People there are surprisingly happy, good…

>Europe is just 3 hours on an airplane from there.

I thought everything west of the Ural mountains/river (including Moscow) was considered Europe? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Europe#Definition

Re: Google to close engineering office in Russia

#186

Post by bad_user » Fri, Dec 12, 2014, 5:25 PM UTC

vadman wrote: post #165

bad_user wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm a Romanian, a country that's pretty close to Russia and I am one that suffers for what the Ukrainians are going through with Russia, because I can see how the same thing could happen in Basarabia (Moldova) and there are already signs of that. Russia historically has been occupying territories, getting rid of any political dissent by effectively killing or deporting people, while crushing their national identity.…

Your country was of enormous help to Hitler while attacking the USSR, and the retribution you had to "endure", given everything you did, was astonishingly mild. So spare me your complaints.

The only reason for why Romania joined the Axis, is because of the Molotov–Ribbentrop pact [1] between Hitler and Stalin from 1939, which amongst other things, for us it meant yielding control of Basarabia and Bucovina to the soviet union. This provided the perfect opportunity for the Romanian parliament to be dissolved and for a military dictatorship to seize power in Romania, which is the one responsible for joining the Axis.

But yeah, thanks for bringing that up - goes to show that what goes around comes around ;-)

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molotov%E2%80%93Ribbentrop_Pac...

Re: Google to close engineering office in Russia

#187

Post by notjackma » Fri, Dec 12, 2014, 5:26 PM UTC

PJDK wrote: post #151

osipov wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are not parsing the text correctly. It is legal to "hold any gay pride events, speak in favor of gay rights, or say that gay relationships are equal to heterosexual relationships" It is illegal "illegal to hold any gay pride events, speak in favor of gay rights, or say that gay relationships are equal to heterosexual relationships _in presence of minors_."

There's nothing wrong with telling Children that it's fine to be gay

Depends on who's telling the Children, right?

Like Larry Brinkin, the former San Francisco Human Rights commissioner and high-profile gay rights activist?

"Larry Brinkin, S.F. Gay Rights Activist Convicted of Porn Charges, Headed to Jail... SF Weekly broke the news in June 2012 when local cops had arrested the high-profile gay rights activist after investigators traced images of children as young as perhaps a year old being sodomized by and performing oral sex on adult men to Brinkin's IP address. SFPD acted after receiving a tip from the Los Angeles Police Department..."

http://www.sfweekly.com/thesnitch/2014/03/05/larry-brinkin-s...

Or famous Terry Bean who co-founded the Human Rights Campaign and Gay And Lesbian Victory Fund?

"Gay rights activist, 66, who raised $500,000 for Obama's re-election campaign indicted for 'sexually abusing 15-year-old boy' with his boyfriend in a hotel. Terry Bean, 66, co-founded Human Rights Campaign and Gay And Lesbian Victory Fund before putting more than $500,000 behind Obama in 2012. He has been charged with 2 counts of sodomy and 1 count of sex abuse"

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2844861/Gay-rights-a...

Re: Google to close engineering office in Russia

#188

Post by jeangenie » Fri, Dec 12, 2014, 5:27 PM UTC

tptacek wrote: post #127

osipov wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's a very myopic view and here's why -- virtually all governments in the world are becoming increasingly authoritarian because of the global economic crisis and the civilian unrest that it provokes. For example, replace Putin in your sentence and you'll get "United States is increasingly cracking down on any possibility of dissent and threat to it power". You can support that statement with facts about police in…

False equivalence watch: what Snowden did was so outside the bounds of established law that he'd face prosecution in virtually any administration in American history. His arguments mitigating the offense might be important at a trial, but we can't know, because he fled the country rather than face that trial. The attention paid to Snowden is not in itself evidence of increased authoritarianism in the US. When I think…

What's your point?

Re: Google to close engineering office in Russia

#189

Post by s_baby » Fri, Dec 12, 2014, 5:28 PM UTC

bad_user wrote: post #133

osipov wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's a very myopic view and here's why -- virtually all governments in the world are becoming increasingly authoritarian because of the global economic crisis and the civilian unrest that it provokes. For example, replace Putin in your sentence and you'll get "United States is increasingly cracking down on any possibility of dissent and threat to it power". You can support that statement with facts about police in…

I'm a Romanian, a country that's pretty close to Russia and I am one that suffers for what the Ukrainians are going through with Russia, because I can see how the same thing could happen in Basarabia (Moldova) and there are already signs of that. Russia historically has been occupying territories, getting rid of any political dissent by effectively killing or deporting people, while crushing their national identity.…

>So spare me rhetoric about every government or country being the same. No, they are not equal. And I hope the Putin administration will receive what it deserves.

Maybe not equal to you. US has propped up almost countless corrupt regimes and cartels for its own interest. You just don't care when it's happening in Saudi Arabia or Mexico.

Re: Google to close engineering office in Russia

#190

Post by SamReidHughes » Fri, Dec 12, 2014, 5:30 PM UTC

colinbartlett wrote: post #177

notjackma wrote: post #163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why discriminate against a Russian company over something that may or may not happen? Russia has elections and they have laws which affect businesses based there - pretty much like every other country out there. As the article states, Google is moving its engineers but the sales team is staying, so this reorganization is less to do with politics and more to do with Google centralizing its engineers in Zurich - just l…

And why choose Zurich over Moscow as the place to center its engineers? Maybe because the business climate is not as conducive and that's very much because of the political situation in Russia.

It's also easier to recruit people to work in Zurich than in Moscow.