By
Temitope Olatunji
April 18th, 2024
According to Vitalik Buterin, there is no need to enforce visa bans or other actions against the average person in Russia.
Ethereum (ETH) co-founder Vitalik Buterin recently expressed concern over the growing sanctions that ordinary citizens of Russia have to bear. The Russian-born, Canadian-raised programmer took to Twitter to voice his displeasure at this development. In a direct response to an announcement that the Netherlands had ceased to issue visas to Russian citizens, Buterin said:
“Please be careful. 22 years ago, one of the Russians getting a Western visa was me, along with my family. This gave my dad a chance to start a great business and gave me a chance to grow up without the influence of zombie ideology. We should not throw such possibilities away.”
Although the entire European Union (EU) is now urged to follow suit, Buterin disagrees. He believes that denying Russians visas is counterproductive.
Gilles Beschoor Plug, the Dutch Ambassador to Russia, had earlier issued a statement on the visa development. The ambassador stated that the ejection of the Dutch embassy’s entire visa section from Russia forced their hand. Before the decision to make this “difficult and regrettable choice” of discontinuing Dutch-visas issuance, these visas had an extremely short validity period. In this case, the validity period was a few days.
Response to Buterin Russia Tweet
Buterin’s Twitter post garnered a mixture of responses from other Twitter users, with many in support and others in disagreement. A few users also decried the perceived persecution of allegedly “innocent [Russian citizens],” voicing their sympathies. However, many other Twitter users also indicated that these Russian citizens were ardently pro-government. The users also suggested that many “ordinary” Russians supported the Ukraine war and unapologetic nationalists. One of the responses to Buterin’s tweet, by a Twitter user called Matīss Priedīts, read:
“What to do with those that draw Z letters in Europe and enjoy shouting “na Berlin”?”
Buterin replied that people should instead focus on enlightening the younger generation. The Ethereum co-founder’s response read “Focus on helping their children hear a different perspective.”
Ethereum Is Neutral
Early this month, the Unchain network announced that Buterin donated 1500 ETH (around $4.3 million at current prices) to support Ukraine. According to Unchain’s Twitter description, it is “a charity project created by blockchain activists to support Ukraine with humanitarian aid.”
In February, Buterin stated that although Ethereum was neutral, he was not. The 28-year-old programmer has criticized Russian President Vladimir Putin for waging war in Ukraine on several occasions. When Russia first launched its “special military operation” against Ukraine, Vitalik Buterin called it a crime against the citizenry of both countries. In addition, the Ethereum co-founder stated he was “very upset” and predicted more devastating consequences. Back then, part of his parting statement read “I want to wish everyone security, although I know that there will be no security.