Red Hat pulls out of Russia

Major Linux and open-source companies -Red Hat and SUSE are the recent ones joined in the band of the companies taking off their operations in Russia, given its invasion in Ukraine. 

With employees both in Russia and Ukraine, probably it was a tough decision for Red Hat. 

In a staff e-mail Paul Cormier, President and CEO, Red Hat stated that effective immediately, Red Hat is discontinuing sales and services in Russia and Belarus (for both organisations located in or headquartered in Russia or Belarus). This includes discontinuing partner relationships with organisations based in or headquartered in Russia or Belarus.  

Red Hat has helped employees in Ukraine and their families move safely to nearby countries and “continue to help those who remain in the country in any way possible.” Red Hat has “organised buses have safely transported several dozen of our Ukrainian associates’ family members across the border to Poland.” 

SUSE CEO Melissa Di Donata expressed in a blog post that she “continues to watch the shocking developments in Ukraine and the growing refugee crisis with a deep sense of despair.” And that SUSE remains committed to supporting humanitarian efforts to help refugees and victims of war rebuild their lives. “It’s a desperately challenging time for our employees who have family members in Ukraine so we’re doing everything we can to support them,” she said. 

Also read: Ukraine war: Here's every tech service banned or suspended in Russia

SUSE is now, “observing all economic sanctions” and evaluating all its “business relationships in Russia and have suspended all direct sales in Russia.” 

Docker too has cut ties with Russia. “Docker stands with the members in our Ukrainian community and the sovereign nation of Ukraine…We will not do business with Russian companies during this period. As such, we have removed the ability to purchase Docker subscriptions from Russia and Belarus,” said Scott Johnson, CEO, Docker. 

Several other companies from the EU, USA and the United Kingdom have disassociated with Russia at different levels. These include Netflix, Mastercard, VISA, TikTok, Apple, and Oracle among others. SpaceX is also extending elaborate support to Ukraine. Earlier the company had provided Starlink satellite broadband service to the war-torn country.