Which, ironically, would have been another "somewhat-a-bit-more-commercially-justified" reason stated to quit Russian market. We have proof that a majority of russian customers violate copyright on our products, so unfortunately...

(This thing is another little bit that can be exploited by propaganda. I studied Fascism in my country: they actually capitalised on older versions of "our enemy even don't allow our teens to buy games"). Now I stop. Being too political. i think it was fair given the exceptionality of the policy but stop)

I think you completely missed the point here. We were talking about Poland's acts of transgressions towards Russia and how outraged you were that a Polish video gaming company deemed to take a stance against your invasion of an innocent country by blocking all Russians, completely ignoring the major acts of aggressions otherwise and belittling them (like sending military equipment to kill Russians).

And it might be war, soldier vs. soldier, but there would be no war if Russia hadn't brutally invaded the country. THey are literally defending their homes. Needless pointless deaths due to a madman dictator's ambitions and ego.

There are so many non-sequiturs here I don't know where to start. If your theory and definitions are accurate, then the countries imposing the sanctions would have to be the ones instigating them. Who instigated the invasion of Ukraine in 2022? Russia is of course completely innocent in this, they can't possibly have anything to do with it, so then it must the big bad America who played Putler like a fiddle to invade Ukraine to get some fossil fuel export money. Some genius dictator that is, am I right? Does any of this makes sense to you? Because to me, it sounds completely absurd and something only a person brainwashed in Russian propaganda would even consider.

There's always an alternative to an invasion, when the reasons for your forced condition is made up from misinformation.

Let me ask you this. Do you think Ukraine deserves to be invaded by Russia to de-nazify it? This is directly from Putler, he said Ukraine needs to be de-nazified. Do you believe this to be true? Do you believe this outrageous propaganda and pretense?

Like I said. Still no one is willing to listen. I am not saying anything about agreeing. Just listen... but no.
Brainwashed me and non-brainwashed you will burn in the nuclear fire at the same rate of combustion. =((

Just a note, if you're going to "de-nazify" a country, maybe choose one that hasn't got a Jewish president. And please don't bomb their Holocaust memorial sites.

Ehm. So just being jewish means you're somehow immune to being a nazi? That is nazi rhetoric. Believe me, I am jewish myself so that means I am an authority on the subject, right?

I don't think you understand. Russia has more nuclear weapons than NATO put together. To threaten Russia by putting missiles next to their door step would be very foolish, especially with a madman dicator at the reins.

Before you were talking about the need for diplomacy, then you constantly bring up nuclear weapons. It sounds me to like you already gave up on any notion of peace.

And how is Russia being threatened by Ukraine? They gave their nukes away (in no small part to Russian 'diplomacy'). Will the nazis of Ukraine invade Russia? Is this the 'Western threat' that you allude to?

Why are you so insistent in not seeing anything bad about the invasion? Can you even call it that anymore in Russia? I thought they banned it. Wouldn't want you or anyone else knowing the truth, right?

Don't feel sorry for me. Enjoy being ignorant.

It never fails. 100% of all geopolitical discussions ultimately end in one or both groups being called Nazis.

Yet this is exactly what NATO has been doing for 30 years since USSR collapsed.

All the remaining shreds of an optimist inside me are hoping for a peaceful resolution. A realist inside me is checking off what I can from my bucket list.

Could you, maybe, quote me where exactly did I said that I see nothing bad about invasion?
FYI I have close relatives in Ukraine hiding in basements and being bombed right now. I see nothing good about that invasion. None at all. I just don't think that punishing regular russian people for it is going to solve anything, instead it is just going to spread hate. Which it does right now as we speak.
Escape into this stuff, called gaming, is about the only thing that is keeping me somewhat sane while I worry about my close ones in Ukraine. And then some f@#s in CDPR decide they should take it away from me. You how that makes me feel? Makes me feel sorry to be russian? No, that makes me angry. Not at Putin. I was angry at him long before that happened.
"Why didn't you do anything then?"
What? Go out, publicly protest and be arrested? I am a sole provider, who's gonna care about my elderly mother and my family? And most important it would be pointless. Completely. For a protest to have some hope of success there has to be at least two centers of power in a country. We have ONE. Which has full support of police forces and army. And a good chuck of a population. And you know what those sanctions are doing? They help to grow that support! Out of anger. Doesn't that completely defeat the purpose?

I don't know how. But I don't buy into that idealistic rhetoric about "mad dictator". Putin is not some fairy tale villain who rules alone with magical superpowers and can kill you just by looking at you. For this invasion to be backed up by all high ranking military and high ranking business elites of Russia they had to be cornered into it. I don't buy into "de-nazification" pretense, but I don't buy into "mad dictator". Even Hitler's atrocities had financial reasons, not: "he's evil cause he's evil".

This thread is another duplicate of the closed one by SmollestLight yesterday: https://www.gog.com/forum/general/suspending_sales_in_russia_and_belarus_8f5a6. Unfortunately I have to close it as well.

Finally we agree on something. I don't know how either to punish Putler without war and without sanctions and crippling his economy. And nobody (except Putler) wants war. So sanctions it is then.

Consider that he and his cronies control the wealth and any trade with Russia will just mean more means to terrorise other countries, or their own populace by spending it on the oppressive regime machine.

What else can Europe and others do? What would you have them do? By not crippling his economy, and continuing doing business with Russia, we would be partly complicit in the atroscities being committed by the Russians in Ukraine.

Will crippling sanctions work to oust him finally? Nobody knows, but at least the war machinery and coffers will be empty for the next invasion.

GOG did the only thing they could, and they took a stance. The actual practical implications of it are small, as Russians will struggle with payments anyways due to the SWIFT ban, plus greatly weakened currency.