PokerStars are suspending all services in Russia

[vapandrei]

I said it before and I'll say it again. Russians are to blame too for what happens in Ukraine. Putin couldn't have been in this this position if he hadn't had the support of the people.. or the lack of interest of the people.

Just like Americans are to blame for the lack of balls on the senile old Joe.

Just like me and my fellow Romanians are to blame for the stupid choices of the 'leadership'.

BUT.. only one example from above is a war mongering, cruel, power hungry dictator.

Sorry Russian people. Maybe it's time for you to make a stand now.

 

[teepack]

Good move. The Russian people need to feel the pain caused by their leader's actions. Maybe they'll be inconvenienced enough to try to exert pressure to bring this already costly war to a hasty conclusion, although I know it's difficult to express opposition in Russia.

 

[fundiver199]

As I have said before making such comparisons is of no use and really is not valid.

Its extremely usefull and valid, because its about either respecting and following international law or not following it. And as a resident of a small country, I am strongly for international law, because it is my best chance to not just be bullied by a larger kid in the schoolyeard. As Ukraine is being right now.

It does make it right but the US public was in shock.

True but being in shock does not give you the right to stop using your brain. Especially not when the shock has already had 2 years to be digested. Also the US public had access to a free press. Back in 2003 no US journalist was sentensed to 15 years in jail for telling the truth about the Irak war, and at least some did. But more than half of all americans prefered to believe the blatant lies of their president and support his totally illegal war in Irak.

Ukraine did not send missiles into Moscow killing 3,000.

But neither did Irak send airplanes into the Twin Towers and Pentagon. It was done by someone else. By this logic it would also have been completely fine and understandible, if the US had invaded argentina in retaliation for the attack on Pearl Harbour.

The invasion of Iraq led by the US and UK, with the US primarily responsible for fabricating evidence was wrong in every way. But there was context.

Its true, that there was at least some context or lets say mitigating curcumstances. There were UN sanctions in place against Irak after the 1991 war, and one of them was about Irak giving up its chemical and biological weapons. So the US government did not totally fabricate this out of the blue. And while the 2003 invasion was not sanctioned by the UN, there was some kind of UN mandate for the occupation, that came after it.

However it was very clear, that once US troops had been shipped off and were ready to invade, this was going to happen, regardless what the UN weapon inspectors found or rather not found inside Irak. So the UN was being kept for fools, and the US just basically did, want it wanted to do, without caring a bit about, what the rest of the world thought.

And basically this is just the point, I was trying to make. When you dont play by the rules yourself, it sounds kind of hollow, when you later complain about others not doing it. But of course none of this justify Russias invasion of Ukraine in any way, shape or form. So lets just end this discussion about the Irak war, which is after all a bit of a derailment of my own thread

 

[razarach_xD]

Finally a move by gambling company... I have to admit - it's a big step since many players are from Russia...
But just to make it clear for Russian players: it's not you to blame about invasion but it's you to blame for having Putin. Only way this war will end if Russian people decide to end it by moving Putin away. And honestly, without sanctions to all Russians, everywhere in the world - you wouldn't do it. It was so cool to be Russian. You wouldn't do it because Putin made a lot of good things for Russia. So at the moment - he is not so good anymore. I have friends in Russia, I know people from Ukraine... My friend from Russia is married to Ukrainian women... Should they fight against each other ?
That is an old scenario.....and it's working obviously.

Another thing is that without interference of U.S.A., Putin wouldn't attack Ukraine.
Yes, it's USA who was pressuring NATO to put more and more forces on borders against Russia.
Yes, it's USA who sees this war as a new income.
Yes, it is USA as the largest weapon producer who really needs a war in the world so they can start their economy again.
And yes, USA made it so many times in history that they already have a full script with scenarios inside.

I was born and raised in exYugoslavia, powerful county with No.3 military in the world. Country that wasn't east or west. Country so powerful that even USA was scared of it. When Russian wanted to attack Yugoslavia, people here said: come on, make my day. We were living more than ok but we were thorn in Europe due to multicultural entity, great geopolitical position etc... We were like Ukraine and Russia... brothers and sisters, neighbors and colleges..... until the day western alliance decided to help us.....
That is so funny....
Country that was helping Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iraqi, Syria, Lybia, Korea, Yugoslavia, bla bla bla bla.. is helping us ?
Everywhere you helped - you created war !

Please don't help us anymore.... never.

And if you Ukrainian's think that Western alliance will be your bigger Allie than your wife's, friends, colleges, neighbors... (Russians)
then you got yourself this war !
I was in war already, I'm disgusted what I'm looking at TV because it reminds us what we've been through.
Nobody helped us, they were just telling us: you don't need them, you need democracy and we will give it to you...
F.. democracy !
Ukrainians ! If you feel like west is your friend... then take the weapon and fight. Foreign countries won't help you as you might realize but since this is where it is... fight !
At least you can have weapons... we had 7 years embargo on importing weapons and that's why war lasted so long.... You can finish this in weeks, but you have to do it alone.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it ends soon because 3 days ago, plane bomb landed in my city, my kids were worried when they saw me looking at fighter airplanes flying over Zagreb yesterday.... (western alliance will keep us safe.-haha)
because I know the feeling when you can die any second....

And for the end, this is for everybody here: let's just be humans !
Or we won't be at all......

 

[poxerator78]

The United States is doing everything right, Biden is a smart person, it’s just that you are blind and don’t understand anything in geopolitics, like me, and I collect information from various sources and then analyze it. Let me share your goals 1, Biden does what will benefit America - no more and no less, For Biden, it is unprofitable to end the war so quickly, it is necessary to exhaust the Russian Federation as long as possible - this is how they control the process and see how much weapons to give, at what stage of the war, 2, RF JUST USED - they are like blind kittens - they themselves hardly understand what they got into - more than one generation of Russians will curse Putin

 

[DS3]

Its true, that there was at least some context or lets say mitigating curcumstances. There were UN sanctions in place against Irak after the 1991 war, and one of them was about Irak giving up its chemical and biological weapons. So the US government did not totally fabricate this out of the blue. And while the 2003 invasion was not sanctioned by the UN, there was some kind of UN mandate for the occupation, that came after it.

However it was very clear, that once US troops had been shipped off and were ready to invade, this was going to happen, regardless what the UN weapon inspectors found or rather not found inside Irak. So the UN was being kept for fools, and the US just basically did, want it wanted to do, without caring a bit about, what the rest of the world thought.

And basically this is just the point, I was trying to make. When you dont play by the rules yourself, it sounds kind of hollow, when you later complain about others not doing it. But of course none of this justify Russias invasion of Ukraine in any way, shape or form. So lets just end this discussion about the Irak war, which is after all a bit of a derailment of my own thread

We are going to have to agree to disagree on this.

I am intimately aware of both the US and UK perspective because of my background but the first point I made was that the Iraq invasion was not warranted.

What I tried to point out was America was in deep shock, justifiably so and then the public was manipulated. Even then I made no mention of the fact that Saddam Hussein had invaded Kuwait, waged a war with Iran and persecuted citizens domestically. He was not a good actor period. There was a through line for people to go along with the idea of invasion in their eyes. Especially as the US government had linked (falsely) Saddam Hussein to terrorists. In fact at the time even the likes of The New York Times were pro-war

Again you do not seem to grasp I am not excusing the US government actions but I believe there is a case to be made to excuse the American public and what they were led to believe. They are two distinctly different things.

And this is what does not match up in an way with the Russia Ukrainian conflict.

There was no Ukrainian aggression and they were not bad actors. Russians were being fed baseless propaganda and I am sure most knew it was BS. I do not think the two conflicts bear comparison. But that is my method/perspective.

If for example I spend time on the Vietnam war (as I have in the past) I look at it as a unique episode and try to understand it in a unique context - I try to remove myself from generalities.

And I think we both need to be aware we are way off subject here, so as I said, agree to disagree.

 

[barbados]

Yes, in the current situation, it is reasonable to use all opportunities to stop military operations in Ukraine. And pokerstars made the right decision by suspending its activities in Russia.

 

[Moroccanbluff26]

Well to be Honest All the big online platform have been taking action against Russian, Well it’s a good point to put the pressure to the Russian civilians so they can be against the People taking decisions.
And hopefully this strategy will help to stop this war soon.

I think some actions against Russia due to this war are fair. But what kind of benefit can the PokerStar boycott bring? Perhaps pressure from the Russian people? Do you think this intimidates Putin? I personally find this difficult!

 

[Gritz18]

Vamos semear a Paz

I think Pokerstars must have their reasons, of course the banning of Russians from the tables, in my opinion, is not the best solution., the vast majority of the Russian people are not to blame for this war. What I want is peace.

 

[toots babos]

Bring back Russians, mixed games are dying without them!

 

[blef121]

Hello, in my opinion this is wrong, because pokerstars is not politics, what does it mean for him, he is just a simple poker room where people play, does it make sense to ban? maybe there are many Russians who have invested their lives and a lot of money, why are the people out of touch, I can’t understand if the president decided so? I'm not from the side of Russians, I'm from the side of justice, because all our countries could have happened like this

 

[dino]

Like I wrote before, I wish they block russia from all of the western institution, not only PS, but all of them.
Until they change their government.

 

[Smitch70]

Correct decision

I applaud PS for putting a ban on players from Russia... i feel for the people who are not political and also for those who are suffering at the hands of a monster....but surely.... If there are sanctions being imposed on Russia, this should also be applied to the people of Belarus too. No?

 

[Alex70793]

Good news for Russian players who made a deposit via webmoney, pokerstars opened money withdrawal via webmoney for them.
And this is good news for me because I made a deposit via webmoney
But I didn't withdraw all the money, I left a few dollars just in case, I still hope that pokerstars will unlock access.

 

[gigantbil]

I myself am from Kazakhstan, but there are many acquaintances and friends from Russia and I am not pleased that the ps have left and now we will not gather again at the poker tables in ps

 

[dreamer13]

I think that players from Russia deserve it,because they are passive in the war with Ukraine and do not go to mass protests against the Kremlin against the war.

 

[andreyfrost]

I am from Belarus. I have nothing to do with the military operation. I just love poker
I think poker is a sport. And sport should be out of politics. But everyone has their own opinion.. -_-

 

[Mati532]

In my opinion, it is a mistake to suspend the participation of these citizens, since they would surely look badly on the invasion of Ukraine and, as always, the weakest will receive the punishment that corresponds to characters so ruthless that they think they are great. at the moment they do not put the chest to the bullets.

It doesn't seem like a very wise decision to me, those who play poker in Russia are the people, not the government, the people always pay the consequences of bad governments.

 

[DS3]

In my opinion, it is a mistake to suspend the participation of these citizens, since they would surely look badly on the invasion of Ukraine and, as always, the weakest will receive the punishment that corresponds to characters so ruthless that they think they are great. at the moment they do not put the chest to the bullets.

It doesn't seem like a very wise decision to me, those who play poker in Russia are the people, not the government, the people always pay the consequences of bad governments.

it is a mistake to suspend the participation of these citizens, since they would surely look badly on the invasion of Ukraine...

Unfortunately not true and even underlined within Cards Chat as some Russian members have been vocal about backing Putin's actions.

Further the very point of imposing sanctions is being wilfully missed.

The aim of sanctions is to make regular citizens aware their government has transgressed to turn opinion against them. There is little to no point in imposing sanctions against a government if they have zero effect on the average citizen, precisely because they would not care.

 

[Poker Orifice]

Bring back Russians, mixed games are dying without them!

this ^

Pretty soon it's gonna be the SUNDAY HALF MILLION wtf?

 

[fundiver199]

Pretty soon it's gonna be the SUNDAY HALF MILLION wtf?

Not quite that dramatic I think. The anniversary edition, which will finish today, slightly exceeded its 10M quaranty. As far as I know, the regular Sunday Million has not yet run after the withdrawal from Russia, so it remains to be seen, how that one will perform. Cash game volume (7 day average) dropped from 5.200 to 4.400, but is now back at 4.600. Small swings but maybe the first sign, that at least some of the russian players will eventually be replaced with players from other countries?

 

[Figaroo2]

Glad to see Sochi is off the Pokerstars live events list. I was complaining to Stars back in 2017 not to go to Russia.

 

[4give4live]

The people of russia voted him in and they are getting what they
deserve, if they want to play again, get rid of putin.

"If you want to play, get rid of Putin"..... This is the most stupid thing I've ever heard in my life. You apparently do not quite understand what it means to live in Russia. And that not a single adequate Russian has ever voted for him. And that elections as such never took place. But it is easier to judge than to think.

 

[Ac3 Meister]

A week ago I ve spoken with a russian player about this.He was very sure that pker would not be affcted by the war. Seems faith had other plans. I hope everything will end soon.

 

[bugiardops]

My opinion is that this is totally unfair and ridiculous with the people of Russia.