I don't know if that's accurate, but seems feasible. If so I'm 100% behind it.
It'd be nice to know the exact reasoning for this, rather than just see a commit without any context of why they're being removed. I'm pretty sure we'll know in due time.
I highly doubt anyone banned will even try to send "sufficient documentation". The wording is as vague and arbitrary as it gets, and the underlying tone sounds to me not like "we have such and such requirements", but like "some Russian-sounding names are banned, but we still have to demonstrate there is a due process".
Reminds me of banks. Banks are fined for not having processes for detecting money laundering. Not money laundering, mind it, just having "inadequate" processes. If such a process flags someone, that someone is blocked and they should provide "sufficient documents", but the bank is not allowed to tell them why or what, that would be "tipping off", which is illegal. And then it all comes down to bank's internal policies (that the bank is not allowed to disclose) or even a personal relationship with a branch manager.
Isn't that how most compliance regulation works? You can't force companies to have a perfect record of preventing something, no matter how you structure things, so instead of trying to do so, you setup something that will at least preventing it somewhat. And then you fine the companies who don't do anything to prevent the issue.
That's not true! There are still many Russian maintainers in the kernel, but they are not based in Russia. They only banned individuals, based in Russia, who are employed by sanctioned companies.
They just happened to still use their older .ru email in the MAINTAINERS file.
Not much exact reasoning added, if you ask me. Quoting:
> Ok, lots of Russian trolls out and about.
> It's entirely clear why the change was done, it's not getting reverted, ...
> And FYI for the actual innocent bystanders who aren't troll farm accounts - the "various compliance requirements" are not just a US thing.
> If you haven't heard of Russian sanctions yet, ...
> As to sending me a revert patch - please use whatever mush you call brains. I'm Finnish. ...
is it? the actual specifics of the sanctions matter, I don't think any of the US sanctions would prevent them from participating in kernel programming.
I saw some comments on Reddit about people with @gmail.com (I think), but other comments pointed out that these people were not actually removed and were just present on a screenshot.