It's not a geopolitical drama or melodrama, Linux Foundation needs to follow the laws of US where it's located. It's the same as any other American company
Linux Foundation was never supposed to stifle collaboration in the kernel. They are supposed to be a way to support Linux in a tax-advantaged way, full stop.
EFF should start a fork if any part of them still stands for what's in their name.
I agree. It's not big deal. The Russian team can just fork the kernel, and manage it under their own legal structures. It's really not that hard. Indeed CentOS was maintained by just one person for many years.
It's not a big deal for Linux either, the code in question is mostly for devices that are not sold in the west. So no loss there.
That's the beauty of open source, you can say no to contributions for any reason whatsoever, and the contributor can fork your code and continue to develop it as they please.
EFF should start a fork if any part of them still stands for what's in their name.