Linux creator Linus Torvalds has confirmed the removal of twelve Russian developers from the kernel support team. He responded harshly to criticism of this decision.
Initially, Greg Kroah-Hartman, the lead kernel developer, announced the suspension via the project mailing list, citing compliance requirements. The previous works of these developers remain in the core.
Linus Torvalds sharply rejected critical voices, in particular those that he said came from «Russian trolls». He emphasized his rejection of Russian aggression due to his Finnish origin and stressed that the decision is final.
«Good, lots of Russian trolls.
It’s pretty clear why the changes were made, they’re not going back, and using a few random anonymous accounts to try to influence this by Russian troll factories won’t change anything.
For the information of innocent bystanders who are not troll farm accounts — «the various compliance requirements» — are not just US requirements. If you haven’t heard about the sanctions against Russia, try reading the news one day. And by news, I don’t mean spam sponsored by Russia.
As for the return — please use that mush you call brains. I am a Finn. Did you think I would support Russian aggression? Obviously, it’s not just the lack of real news, but also the ignorance of history».
The suspension primarily concerns the developers responsible for supporting hardware drivers, Acer and Cirrus Logic. The Linux Foundation itself has not yet officially commented on the decision. It is not yet known how it will treat other existing or possible Russian developers.
Sources: Hardwareluxx, Phoronix