[forcer]

I agree. While Russia has lots of popular services which win over western counterparts (Yandex>Google, VKontakte>FB ...) they still do use Google/Apple devices. Blocking them would cause more powerful force than any government can currently yield.

We have a way to go though - Google generously offered $2M in Adwords credit as a response to Ukraine war. Let's encourage them to do more! (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30476940)

[cjbprime]

The unquestioning desire to inflict serious harm on 100+ million civilians in this thread (by bricking their communication devices) is disturbing to me.

[dunkelheit]

Thanks. This is advocating total cyberwar. This isn't going to be pretty for anyone.

[azeirah]

I agree. From what I understand the Russian people mostly don't want this war. It's Putin's war, not Russia's.

There's a point to be made "if the Russian people feel this, they might revolt against Putin since this is his fault.", although that could easily backfire in the opposite direction "if the Russian people feel this, then that means Putin was right, the west IS out to get us".

Bricking devices remotely sounds terrible for this reason already, let alone the damages regular civilians will feel.

[cjbprime]

> I agree. From what I understand the Russian people mostly don't want this war. It's Putin's war, not Russia's.

I'm no expert, but this is probably not a sufficient understanding. As I understand it, Putin's successful invasion of Ukraine to annex Crimea in 2014 was deeply popular and helped boost his popularity at a time when that was needed. It may be useful to look at this invasion of Ukraine through the same political lens, which you can't do if you see most of the populace as being unsupportive of it.

That's the depth of my understanding of the situation, though. So definitely don't take my word for it. It is fair to imagine that the attractiveness of annexation to the population is less now than it was in 2014.

It is certainly true that there's significant lack of support, though you said "most" which is much stronger.

[journey_16162]

I think there should always be something left on the table. If the west does everything possible to hurt Russia, Russia will have nothing to lose and will be more likely to attack NATO countries. This is something they should reserve in case there is a risk for such event.