This will be a brief one.

This post attempts to let go of the anger that has consumed me since February 24th. I spent the first few days of that period in a dopamine rush: how can I profit from all this. But later, a little excitement of profits turned into full-scale desperation. This invasion was unlike anything I've seen in my lifetime. No one could predict this, and seeing all the experts inside Russia making this statement and apologizing for not connecting the dots beforehand assured me even more. But inside the country, people hoped for a quick resolution and punishment for the country's leaders – the same people who decided that it's okay to wipe out an entire nation from the face of the Earth.

And then the sanctions struck.

I get it. I get all the necessary steps to choke the military financing and the army. The EU and the US must have frozen the Russian Central Bank's reserves to keep the money flow away from the war points. The Russian leaders must have been sanctioned, and the state-owned banks too. All economic methods are viable as long as the world is turned out involved in WWIII.

But you know you turned out to suffer from these sanctions the most? Ordinary Russians. The builders. The entrepreneurs. The very same people who never approved this violent behavior of their government. The people who spend the last 20 years building a better country despite political turmoil. All this economic growth and prosperity evaporated on February 24th, 2022. We're now stuck in this country, fully aware of how fucked up all the things are. How fucked up we are. All the instruments that I cared deeply about and believed to help me build a better future not only for myself but for as many people as possible are gone. The businesses – gone. Any attempts at creating international collaborations – are gone. And to be even more dramatic: I can't even fucking pay with my Visa card for a subscription service, like Adobe, or can't make a deal on Upwork, or can't use Binance, etc.

The last two weeks have destroyed our team, our developing projects, motivation, and energy. Many people left the country; the remaining few (myself included) cannot leave for now. We are stuck in a dysfunctional dictatorial economy, with zero hopes of international collaboration and no viable instruments at our disposal. We cannot interact with the global economy; the Ruble is fucked and losing its value every second. And somehow, for people in the West, all this seems like a victory. They say that the evil Putin can't use his nasty dollars now to continue the invasion. He won't stop this quickly, you know.

And the saddest part is that all of us who are stuck in Russia isn't able to stop him without putting our lives and the lives of our families in danger. The government took all the political power from us, and now the West took the minor parts we had of the economic power. We're stuck. And we're angry. I see with my own eyes the radicalization of society. I see the desire to fight back – not against the government, but rather against the collective West. The same West that took their H&M, Bloomberg terminals, and Mcdonalds. The West abandoned them to fight on their own.

All that has left for us is the Internet. Information – is our only hope to overcome this and fight back. And to eventually build a better country. A better future. Stop choking the Russian civilians. Don't let them win and put the country back centuries ago.

The truth will prevail. Now, back to work.

This will be a brief one.

This post attempts to let go of the anger that has consumed me since February 24th. I spent the first few days of that period in a dopamine rush: how can I profit from all this. But later, a little excitement of profits turned into full-scale desperation. This invasion was unlike anything I've seen in my lifetime. No one could predict this, and seeing all the experts inside Russia making this statement and apologizing for not connecting the dots beforehand assured me even more. But inside the country, people hoped for a quick resolution and punishment for the country's leaders – the same people who decided that it's okay to wipe out an entire nation from the face of the Earth.

And then the sanctions struck.

I get it. I get all the necessary steps to choke the military financing and the army. The EU and the US must have frozen the Russian Central Bank's reserves to keep the money flow away from the war points. The Russian leaders must have been sanctioned, and the state-owned banks too. All economic methods are viable as long as the world is turned out involved in WWIII.

But you know you turned out to suffer from these sanctions the most? Ordinary Russians. The builders. The entrepreneurs. The very same people who never approved this violent behavior of their government. The people who spend the last 20 years building a better country despite political turmoil. All this economic growth and prosperity evaporated on February 24th, 2022. We're now stuck in this country, fully aware of how fucked up all the things are. How fucked up we are. All the instruments that I cared deeply about and believed to help me build a better future not only for myself but for as many people as possible are gone. The businesses – gone. Any attempts at creating international collaborations – are gone. And to be even more dramatic: I can't even fucking pay with my Visa card for a subscription service, like Adobe, or can't make a deal on Upwork, or can't use Binance, etc.

The last two weeks have destroyed our team, our developing projects, motivation, and energy. Many people left the country; the remaining few (myself included) cannot leave for now. We are stuck in a dysfunctional dictatorial economy, with zero hopes of international collaboration and no viable instruments at our disposal. We cannot interact with the global economy; the Ruble is fucked and losing its value every second. And somehow, for people in the West, all this seems like a victory. They say that the evil Putin can't use his nasty dollars now to continue the invasion. He won't stop this quickly, you know.

And the saddest part is that all of us who are stuck in Russia isn't able to stop him without putting our lives and the lives of our families in danger. The government took all the political power from us, and now the West took the minor parts we had of the economic power. We're stuck. And we're angry. I see with my own eyes the radicalization of society. I see the desire to fight back – not against the government, but rather against the collective West. The same West that took their H&M, Bloomberg terminals, and Mcdonalds. The West abandoned them to fight on their own.

All that has left for us is the Internet. Information – is our only hope to overcome this and fight back. And to eventually build a better country. A better future. Stop choking the Russian civilians. Don't let them win and put the country back centuries ago.

The truth will prevail. Now, back to work.