On the 24th of February 2022 russia started a major escalation in the war in Ukraine. This war began in 2014 with russia first annexing Crimea and then invading parts of Donetsk and Luhansk regions of Ukraine, but three months ago rusia decided that it’s now time to invade the entire country, kill everyone in power and everyone with a pro-Ukrainian position. This decision resulted in a full-scale genocide of Ukrainians with many cities destroyed, tens of thousands of civilians killed (of which almost 300 are children).
After russians where kicked out from the Ukraine’s capital surroundings the world has seen horrible images from the city of Bucha with mass graves, raped children, executed civilians lying dead on a side of the road, etc. Sadly, similar images are seen in every city that russian troops enter. While before Bucha many people in the west believed that Vladimir Putin is the only person who should be blamed for the war, after seeing images from Bucha it became apparent that the entire russian society is infected with the horrible fascist ideology (ruscism). Those horrific atrocities were not committed by Vladimir Putin, but by ordinary russians, over 80% of whom support the war in Ukraine, according to the latest poll data.
Over 50 contries have united against russian aggression and started helping Ukraine. Australia is one of those countries. The atrocities committed by russia also resulted in a legal process of recognising russian actions as genocide and russia as a terrorist state akin to ISIS. Many countries introduced economic sanctions. Many companies took a moral stance and stopped operating in russia. Our objective is to make sure that Freelancer.com also joins these global efforts and stops operating in russia.
Update: The U.S. Senate passes a resolution seeking to label Russia as a sponsor of terrorism.
Why is it so important that Freelancer.com stops operating in russia?
Every war is not only a battle of soldiers and weapons, but also a battle of economies. One of our goals is to make sure that russian economy falls as quickly as possible. Their economy falling would result in the end of the war.
The best-case scenario to end the horrific war that russia has unleashed on Ukraine is for russian people to take on the streets and overthrow their fascist government. This scenario is better than any other alternative both for russians and for Ukrainians. The sooner it happens, the fewer lives will be lost on both sides and the lower will be the economic cost.
This scenario, however, will not materialise until russian people start losing jobs and see other signs of widescale economic devastation. Only then will they realise that this war brought them no glory nor prosperity, unlike what their government has promised. For this to happen, all western businesses must exit russia. Every bit of discomfort for russians, every dollar of lost revenue matters. Sadly, freelancer.com stands in the way of this best-case scenario and refuses to withdraw from russia.
What is freelancer’s position?
Freelancer continues to operate in russia as if nothing happened. They are providing jobs to around 16,000 people in russia and belarus. In their public statement they say nothing about the war in Ukraine and don’t mention that they condemn it. Instead, they complain about economic sanctions and mention that payments can’t be made to so-called DNR and LNR (unrecognised republics in the Ukrainian occupied territory that Ukraine officially recognises as terrorist organisations). By mentioning these republics Freelancer.com, effectively, legitimises russian annexation of Ukrainian territory and promotes russian propaganda. Freelancer.com is the currently the worst ranked Australian company on Yale list of russian collaborators.
By staying in russia freelancer continues to fund russian atrocities and keeps russian economy afloat. By not withdrawing from russia freelancer.com shows to other Australian companies that it is okay to do business in this terrorist state and, effectively, supports the atrocities committed by russians in Ukraine.
More on Freelancer position: Australian firm rejects claim of Russia link as ‘bemusing’ (Australian Financial Review)
Here is the statement from the NSW president of Svoboda Alliance (an Australian anti-war russian organisation) who condemns Freelancer’s decision to continue operating in russia and provides additional arguments contrary to Freelancer’s public statement: