[jeroenhd]

If the Russian invasion was the cause for this removal, it's rather late. The invasion started back in 2014 and strengthened two years ago. There probably also wouldn't be any lawyers involved.

My guess is that some secretive agency got in contact with the Linux team. Whether this is about infiltration of kernel development or an attempt to stop Russia from powering its war machines by Linux I'm not so sure, but I don't know about any laws that would require this specific process.

As for "none of the maintainers today has done that aggression": they haven't _yet_, but they can be made to by their government if that's what Putin wants. Countries bordering Russia are on edge, and, as has been proven in Georgia and Ukraine, rightfully so. The current anti Russian sentiment isn't a consequence of any historic events as much as it is an anticipation of a Russian invasion in future.

I would much prefer knowing why exactly removing Russian contributors would be legally required, but given the secrecy surrounding it, I don't think there's much public information around it.

[Hamuko]

>If the Russian invasion was the cause for this removal, it's rather late.

Sanctions don't move lockstep with military actions and neither do the courts that interpret and enforce the sanctions.