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Comment by InitialLastName | Hacker News Reader

None of those dead geniuses have the sway to reject the current Russian government and demand changes. If enough Russians are impacted, maybe they will find the will to do so.

> regardless of the ship having no ties to Russia's government

Flying under a Russian flag, registering itself with the Russian government, and agreeing to operate under Russian jurisdiction sure sound like ties to the Russian government to me. Presumably if the ship decided to stop operating under those circumstances, there are other countries who would be willing to accept the ship to their jurisdiction.

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Just imagine this had been done to any other nation: Americans, French, Germans, Japanese, Chinese etc. Do you think any of these would just say "Wtf, let's overthrow the government to make the foreigners happy!"? If you think so, there are some examples to the contrary in not so distant history e.g. with Germany after WW1.

First, it is easy to say Russians lack the will to oppose their government. Had you the will to oppose the American government when it invaded Irak, despite you could do so without facing jail, unlike Russians?

Secondly, a flag means many different things for different people. I do not want to discuss this, I think this is too subtle and sensible a topic to be discussed here and now. Suffice to say it had been considered to change the flag. Meanwhile, they have been flying the Ukrainian flag alongside the Russian flag (you can imagine the risks involved. Now the ship has to be guarded from stupid nationalists from all sides).

Change their flag to the Ukrainian one (or the UN or whatever else) if they want to show they're on the side of humanity.

> Change their flag to the Ukrainian one (or the UN or whatever else)

Ships don't fly flags to signal patriotism or some other virtue. They fly the civil ensigns of the country where they are registered as a matter of international law.

Good luck trying to register a Russian owned ship in Ukraine in the present circumstances.

There is no side in any conflict that is not human.

If you truly believe otherwise please document yourself further, I can assure you you will discover that, once again, all was not black and white (I recommend any book or video from few years ago about the situation in Ukraine).

To get back to the ship, I hope we will manage the situation through dialog, first with harbors, then with people who may be shocked to see this or that flag, patiently defusing locally small bits of the hatred that's been manufactured at such a large scale.

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