[ripe-list] Russia

In message <202208141023.27EANvpw090884 at bela.nlnetlabs.nl>, 
Jaap Akkerhuis <jaap at NLnetLabs.nl> wrote:

> "Ronald F. Guilmette" writes:
>
> > An interesting observation, and a question:
>
>My observation is that you jump to conclusions based on thin air.

I do not.  I observe.

Show me all of the discussions that have taken place here on this list, since
the outbreak of the war, about Russia and its actions, and about what the
proper response to those actions should be among those who value life above
money.

You can't, because there haven't been any.

>If you just did a minimun of research as in a search for "ripe
>Russia" you would have been better informed.

Done!

I see this, which is just a lot of institutional platitudes:

https://www.ripe.net/participate/member-support/the-ripe-ncc-and-ukraine-russia

   "An Open Internet Remains the Goal"

That certainly _sounds_ like a very high-minded and principled response.  But
is it just purely coincidental that this goal happens to align nicely with
the goal of European network operators to maintain their current level of
profitability. despite annoying little interferences like war, carnage, and
human tragedy on a grand scale?

In any case, I would neither have hoped for nor expected anything different
from the various organs of what passes for Internet governance, such as ICANN
and RIPE.  None of these believe that it is their responsibility to intervene
in any way, and perhaps they are right in taking such hands-off posisions.
Time will tell.

My comments were not directed at them, but rather to the myriad individual
European transit providers and IXes that continue to do a robust business
with Russia, even as hundreds or thousands of other western companies have
curtailed or entirely ceased doing business with Russia.  What excuses do
each of these individual companies offer up for their maintenance of both
the pre-war status quo and their own profitable movement of packets?

If the only excuses they can offer up are some lame platitudes about the
free flow of information, e.g. so that the populace in Russia can learn
the truth about what their government is doing, then I have a free clue
to offer:  Six months in and that ain't working.  Like not at all.  The
BBC's recently reinvigorated shortwave radio service is likely doing a
better job of getting the truth to Russians, at present, than all of the IP
packets flowing in or out of the country.  What *is* being manitained however
is connections to Russian web sites, thus allowing Russia to continue selling
its goods and services to China, India, and the other remaining countries
that still desire to do business with this rogue nation.

Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it, and it saddens
me greatly to see that Europe has either forgotten the primary lesson of
the 1930s, or else has failed to learn it at all, i.e. that a failure
to forcefully confront agression at its outset is a mistake that will be
paid for in blood many times over, and usually by people other than the
ones who made the mistake.

Disconnect Russia!

This isn't the job of RIPE, or ICANN, or anybody else. It is the moral duty
of each of you reading these words, as individual ethical and moral beings.



Regards,
rfg