13 Mar 2022 4:46 pm
Apparently, the Ukrainians are able to pressure western corporations doing business with Russia:
[b]Shaming Apple and Texting Musk, a Ukraine Minister Uses Novel War Tactics
https://www.yahoo.com/news/shaming-apple-texting-musk-ukraine-151230727.html[/b]
After war began last month, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine turned to Mykhailo Fedorov, a vice prime minister, for a key role.
Fedorov, 31, the youngest member of Zelensky’s Cabinet, immediately took charge of a parallel prong of Ukraine’s defense against Russia. He began a campaign to rally support from multinational businesses to sunder Russia from the world economy and to cut off the country from the global internet, taking aim at everything from access to new iPhones and PlayStations to Western Union money transfers and PayPal.
[color=#e74c3c][b]To achieve Russia’s isolation, Fedorov, a former tech entrepreneur, used a mix of social media, cryptocurrencies and other digital tools. On Twitter and other social media, he pressured Apple, Google, Netflix, Intel, PayPal and others to stop doing business in Russia. He helped form a group of volunteer hackers to wreak havoc on Russian websites and online services. His ministry also set up a cryptocurrency fund that has raised more than $60 million for the Ukrainian military.[/b][/color]
The work has made Fedorov one of Zelenskyy’s most visible lieutenants, deploying technology and finance as modern weapons of war.[color=#e74c3c][b] In effect, Fedorov is creating a new playbook for military conflicts that shows how an outgunned country can use the internet, crypto, digital activism and frequent posts on Twitter to help undercut a foreign aggressor.[/b][/color]
Fedorov said his goal was to create a “digital blockade” and to make life so unpleasant and inconvenient for Russian citizens that they would question the war. He praised companies that had pulled out of Russia but said Apple, Google and others could go further with steps such as completely cutting off their app stores in the country.
A technological and business blockade, he said, “is an integral component of stopping the aggression.”Fedorov, speaking via videoconference from an undisclosed location somewhere around Kyiv, also brushed off concerns that his actions were alienating urban Russians who might be the most likely to oppose the conflict.
On Feb. 25, he sent letters to Apple, Google and Netflix, asking them to restrict access to their services in Russia. Less than a week later, Apple stopped selling new iPhones and other products in Russia.
[color=#e74c3c][b]The next day, Fedorov tweeted a message to Elon Musk, founder of Tesla and SpaceX, asking for help in obtaining Starlink satellite internet systems that are made by Musk’s company SpaceX. The technology could help Ukrainians stay online even if Russia damaged the country’s main telecommunications infrastructure. Two days after contacting Musk, a shipment of Starlink equipment arrived in Ukraine.[/b][/color]
Fedorov’s work is not the only reason that multinational companies like Meta and McDonald’s have withdrawn from Russia, with the war’s human toll provoking horror and outrage. Economic sanctions by the United States, European Union and others have played a central role in isolating Russia.
[color=#e74c3c][b]But Peter Singer, a professor at the Center on the Future of War at Arizona State University, said Fedorov had been “incredibly effective” in calling for companies to rethink their Russia connections.
“No celebrity, let alone nation, has ever been more effective than Ukraine at calling out corporate brands to name and shame them into acting morally,” Singer said. “If there is such a thing as ‘cancel culture,’ the Ukrainians can claim to have honed it in war.”[/b][/color]
[hr]
[size=200][b][color=#aaaaaa]1[/color] Nomination[/b][/size]
[url=https://liberalforum.net/memberlist.php?mode=viewprofile&u=918]Phelix_Dacat[/url] [size=85]Mar 12, 2022[/size]
[url=https://liberalforum.net/viewtopic.php?p=1969273#p1969273]Go to original post on Mar 13, 2022 5:29pm[/url]
[b]Shaming Apple and Texting Musk, a Ukraine Minister Uses Novel War Tactics
https://www.yahoo.com/news/shaming-apple-texting-musk-ukraine-151230727.html[/b]
After war began last month, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine turned to Mykhailo Fedorov, a vice prime minister, for a key role.
Fedorov, 31, the youngest member of Zelensky’s Cabinet, immediately took charge of a parallel prong of Ukraine’s defense against Russia. He began a campaign to rally support from multinational businesses to sunder Russia from the world economy and to cut off the country from the global internet, taking aim at everything from access to new iPhones and PlayStations to Western Union money transfers and PayPal.
[color=#e74c3c][b]To achieve Russia’s isolation, Fedorov, a former tech entrepreneur, used a mix of social media, cryptocurrencies and other digital tools. On Twitter and other social media, he pressured Apple, Google, Netflix, Intel, PayPal and others to stop doing business in Russia. He helped form a group of volunteer hackers to wreak havoc on Russian websites and online services. His ministry also set up a cryptocurrency fund that has raised more than $60 million for the Ukrainian military.[/b][/color]
The work has made Fedorov one of Zelenskyy’s most visible lieutenants, deploying technology and finance as modern weapons of war.[color=#e74c3c][b] In effect, Fedorov is creating a new playbook for military conflicts that shows how an outgunned country can use the internet, crypto, digital activism and frequent posts on Twitter to help undercut a foreign aggressor.[/b][/color]
Fedorov said his goal was to create a “digital blockade” and to make life so unpleasant and inconvenient for Russian citizens that they would question the war. He praised companies that had pulled out of Russia but said Apple, Google and others could go further with steps such as completely cutting off their app stores in the country.
A technological and business blockade, he said, “is an integral component of stopping the aggression.”Fedorov, speaking via videoconference from an undisclosed location somewhere around Kyiv, also brushed off concerns that his actions were alienating urban Russians who might be the most likely to oppose the conflict.
On Feb. 25, he sent letters to Apple, Google and Netflix, asking them to restrict access to their services in Russia. Less than a week later, Apple stopped selling new iPhones and other products in Russia.
[color=#e74c3c][b]The next day, Fedorov tweeted a message to Elon Musk, founder of Tesla and SpaceX, asking for help in obtaining Starlink satellite internet systems that are made by Musk’s company SpaceX. The technology could help Ukrainians stay online even if Russia damaged the country’s main telecommunications infrastructure. Two days after contacting Musk, a shipment of Starlink equipment arrived in Ukraine.[/b][/color]
Fedorov’s work is not the only reason that multinational companies like Meta and McDonald’s have withdrawn from Russia, with the war’s human toll provoking horror and outrage. Economic sanctions by the United States, European Union and others have played a central role in isolating Russia.
[color=#e74c3c][b]But Peter Singer, a professor at the Center on the Future of War at Arizona State University, said Fedorov had been “incredibly effective” in calling for companies to rethink their Russia connections.
“No celebrity, let alone nation, has ever been more effective than Ukraine at calling out corporate brands to name and shame them into acting morally,” Singer said. “If there is such a thing as ‘cancel culture,’ the Ukrainians can claim to have honed it in war.”[/b][/color]
[hr]
[size=200][b][color=#aaaaaa]1[/color] Nomination[/b][/size]
[url=https://liberalforum.net/memberlist.php?mode=viewprofile&u=918]Phelix_Dacat[/url] [size=85]Mar 12, 2022[/size]
[url=https://liberalforum.net/viewtopic.php?p=1969273#p1969273]Go to original post on Mar 13, 2022 5:29pm[/url]