Thibault Ukraine Russia Moral Standpoint

Some time ago I posted a question regarding Russia remaining on Lichess. [There are many similar questions from many other players both before and since].
The Russian fraternity responded with typically aggressive comments.
Lichess has stated its position to be one of neutrality.
Thibault's profile displays the Ukrainian flag in support of the valiant defenders.
As time has moved on murder, rape and torture carried out by the Russian invaders is now commonplace. Russian rockets continue to pile into civilian targets.
I love Lichess should I be 'forced' to play with men (and very occasional women) that are in support of the invasion? That may actually be involved in the war?
Some argue that there may be Russian players who are against the war. There is no certainty in that assumption. There is certainty in the fact that Russian has invaded a sovereign country.
The international community has shunned Russia but Lichess has not. Is it showing support?
What is the correct moral standpoint?
Some people liken Putin to Hitler. There certainly are many similarities that are hard to ignore. Should the international community have continued to play games with the German people when their country is carrying out atrocities?
Perhaps a democratic vote could be taken. Should that vote include Russia? If not why not?
I am seeking sensible, reasoned argument as opposed to aggressive vitriole (but perhaps the 'innocent' Russians that would like to voice their opinions are afraid to do so).
In any war there are always going to be casualties - we in the west have not had our families taken from us and marched into the depths of Russia - we can afford to be magnanimous - but is that morally correct?

Why am i forced to play with Chinese who are in the support of raping Tibet?

Freedom of religion is a basic human right as far as i know, yet the Chinese government chooses the Dalai Lama.

The dignity is a basic human right. Ofc not if you tibetan,

@Smike

About Russian players playing on Lichess, there is a clear answer. In the Lichess blog "Lichess Statement on the War in Ukraine" (lichess.org/blog/Yie1MhIAACAAk6OQ/lichess-statement-on-the-war-in-ukraine), published on March 9, Lichess clearly spoke out against the invasion of Russia. In addition, there are 7 points in the article that clarify Lichess's position towards Russia, or the war, respectively, explain it in practice.

This includes things like that Russian state tournaments are not officially broadcasted by Lichess and that glorifying or publicly supporting the war on Lichess will be punished with timeouts or further sanctions against the user in question.

Why am I writing about this?
It is quite simple. Lichess has publicly spoken out against the war and is putting this into practice with the points mentioned above, or in the blog. But it is quite clear discrimination to exclude Russians (and Belarusians) from Lichess because of their nationality (by e.g. IP-bans). As long as a user does not express themselves pro-war, they have just like everyone else on this platform the right to play. Anything else would be double standards. Shouldn't we then also ban US-Americans from playing, since the USA has committed many war crimes in the last decades (just an example, there are way more countries that could be named here)? In addition, there are certainly many users with a political opinion that would be rejected by Lichess. All this is irrelevant. Lichess is open to everyone as long as they abide by the ToS. So if you don't express your pro-war or anti-human stance publicly, you are allowed to play on Lichess, otherwise Lichess wouldn't be able to check it anyways.

As a polish - one of the most anti-russian, pro-western country in the world I dont mind playing against Russians although I think many of the could not provoke with their flag. There are constantly some war going on and we dont need politics here and this war is more politics than ever since its beginning. Not every Russian is pro-war and most of them under heavy influence of propaganda. Last but not least I think these playing here are more open - minded.

@Smike said in #1:
> Some time ago I posted a question regarding Russia remaining on Lichess. [There are many similar questions from many other players both before and since].
> The Russian fraternity responded with typically aggressive comments.
> Lichess has stated its position to be one of neutrality.
> Thibault's profile displays the Ukrainian flag in support of the valiant defenders.
> As time has moved on murder, rape and torture carried out by the Russian invaders is now commonplace. Russian rockets continue to pile into civilian targets.
> I love Lichess should I be 'forced' to play with men (and very occasional women) that are in support of the invasion? That may actually be involved in the war?
> Some argue that there may be Russian players who are against the war. There is no certainty in that assumption. There is certainty in the fact that Russian has invaded a sovereign country.
> The international community has shunned Russia but Lichess has not. Is it showing support?
> What is the correct moral standpoint?
> Some people liken Putin to Hitler. There certainly are many similarities that are hard to ignore. Should the international community have continued to play games with the German people when their country is carrying out atrocities?
> Perhaps a democratic vote could be taken. Should that vote include Russia? If not why not?
> I am seeking sensible, reasoned argument as opposed to aggressive vitriole (but perhaps the 'innocent' Russians that would like to voice their opinions are afraid to do so).
> In any war there are always going to be casualties - we in the west have not had our families taken from us and marched into the depths of Russia - we can afford to be magnanimous - but is that morally correct?

Zelensky is coming to the UK today, I don't think his country has given up just yet.

Sir, we're here to play chess.

What's with how every time a new moral fashion is sweeping the western world, we get nonsense like "the Skyrim modding community stands with Black Lives Matter" or some such. Farsical.

And before you jump to conclusions about me: I'm Polish, we're very invested here in Ukraine's success, and I'm personally involved in helping Ukrainian refugees. But it never would have occurred to me to object to playing chess online with Russians. Like the average Russian has any control over what the Putinmafia does.

People are so silly.

EDIT: you also might not understand this, but Russia is not a country, it's a colonial empire. Russia is Moscow and St. Petersburg, most everything else is colonies, filled with черные, non-Slavs, subhumans. A dude technically from Russia is just as likely to be really from a subjugated country. You wanna ban the Tatars, the Armenians, etc.?

@Smike Im just trying to play chess peacefully-... and I see all these things related to war in general chess forums. Personally though, I don't feel like lichess even has the time to go ban all players with russian flags. Theres nearly 100,000 players in lichess

So are you just going to let england off the hook for their murder, rape, and torture?

I'll support banning russia as long as we ban everyone from the usa for the second gulf war, including those americans that were against the second gulf war.

Lichess are a chess website.
All players should be welcome to Lichess, but not for war supporters!
Why should we be affected by a war?