The war must be waged for real, or it must not be waged at all. There can be no middle ground here.

V. Lenin

Visa wants to block all transactions in Russia.

From the Mastercard statement:

Given the unprecedented nature of the current conflict and the uncertain economic environment, we have taken the decision to suspend our network services in Russia....

After this action, cards issued by Russian banks will no longer be supported by the Mastercard network. And any Mastercard issued outside the country will not work in Russian stores or ATMs....

Already on February 25, it became known that one of the five largest pools (FlexPool) announced a complete blocking of Ether mining farms from Russia and Belarus. Then it seemed like complete nonsense, since it is enough to use a VPN to bypass it. Such actions were supported by Vitalik Buterin, who even transferred money to help Ukraine.

While the major crypto exchanges are arguing about the importance of decentralization and assuring the entire Western world that the key principles of the cryptocurrency community cannot be violated, pools are clearly controlled by US authorities.

As it became known, already yesterday, the largest Ethereum mining pool, Ethermine, limited the connection options for miners from the Russian Federation and Belarus. The reason given is an attempt to stop money laundering by Russian oligarchs. It is not entirely clear here, either all the inhabitants of the Russian Federation are considered oligarchs there, or the management of the pool is trying to find an excuse for their actions.

Isn't it interesting? All this stories about decentralization, independence and freedom. Turned out to be blatant lies.

The head of Adobe, Shantanu Narayen, published an official statement on a corporate blog, according to which the company stops all new sales in Russia. Now it will not be possible to buy Photoshop, Premiere Pro and other company products in the country. All state media in Russia are subject to additional restrictions.

Mr. Narayen clarified that the cessation of all new sales in Russia will take effect immediately. For most of the previously concluded contacts, the obligations will be fulfilled. Previously issued subscriptions will also continue to work, but it will not be possible to renew them or issue new ones. Adobe's decision is driven by the company's commitment to comply with sanctions imposed by the US, European and UK governments - this measure will allow the company to make sure that its product and services are not used by organizations that fall under the sanctions.

All subscriptions will stop working with time. Nice.

Still love subscriptions? No? I told ya!

Welcome to the word where Adobe is officially recognized as enemy of the people!

Washington should formally recognize Taiwan as a sovereign country, former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on March 4 during a speech in Taipei. He said it is an imperative move that “can no longer be ignored, avoided, or treated as secondary.”

“The United States government should immediately take necessary and long overdue steps to do the right and obvious thing—that is to offer the Republic of China [Taiwan]—America’s diplomatic recognition as a free and sovereign country,” he said in a 20-minute speech.

Pompeo, who was the top U.S. diplomat under former President Donald Trump, was invited by Taiwan think tank Prospect Foundation to give a speech at the Grand Hyatt on Friday.

Threats to stop deliveries of AMD and Intel to Russia, as well as stopping the production of Russian Baikals and Elbrus at the Taiwanese TSMC plant, look like an information attack. The reality of the implementation of these plans in the conditions prevailing in the modern microprocessor industry is close to zero.

The fact is that Russia today accounts for 80 percent of the market for sapphire substrates - thin plates made of artificial stone, which are used in opto- and microelectronics to build up layers of various materials, such as silicon. They are used in every processor in the world - AMD and Intel are no exception.

Russia position is even stronger in special chip etching chemistry using ultra-pure components. Russia accounts for 100 percent of the world supply of various rare earth elements used for these purposes.

The ban on finished products for Russia will result in a retaliatory ban on the supply of production components and will cause an acute shortage of processors for the whole world. By comparison, the end-2021 supply disruption situation will appear like no problem at all.

Same is true for neon - 90% of supply.

Samsung is suspending deliveries of its products to Russia, Bloomberg reports citing a company statement received by the editors.

The statement said the decision was made due to "current geopolitical events." The company is actively monitoring the situation, they said.

According to a Bloomberg source, Samsung will stop deliveries ranging from chips to smartphones and consumer electronics.

“Our thoughts are with all those affected and our priority is to ensure the safety of all our employees and their families,” the statement said.

Samsung is fully controlled by US, as it had been main reason to provide them with latest ASML tech.