Linux: Several Russian maintainers kicked out

A dozen kernel maintainers have been removed from the developers' official Linux file. Greg Kroah-Hartman, the Linux project's number two, has removed them from MAINTAINERS as part of a patch with a few words: "Some entries deleted due to various compliance requirements. They may return in the future if sufficient documentation is provided."

Sanctions against Russia

Kroah-Hartman did not want to explain exactly what this means in the mailing list. However, it is noticeable that most of the affected maintainers use a .ru address. Shortly afterwards, however, Linus Torvalds made it clearer what the reasons are: Of course there would now be a bunch of Russian trolls. And it was clear why this had happened. The trolls would not be able to undo this. "If you want to send me a revert patch, please use the mush you call brains," Torvalds said.

However, three other statements from Torvalds are clear: the "various compliance requirements" are not just a US thing. And anyone who has not yet heard about sanctions against Russia should read the news. He also asked why, as a Finn, he of all people would support Russian aggression –. Apparently, a lack of historical knowledge would be added to not reading the news. The background: Finland declared its independence from Russia in 1917 and has had to defend this by military means ever since.

So even if Torvalds does not explicitly mention sanctions against Russia as a reason, there is not much missing. However, he emphasizes that he is not a lawyer – and that he or other maintainers will not talk about the details that lawyers would have told them. Both Torvald's barely concealed plain language and his statement that he will not talk about legal matters can be found publicly in the mailing list.

No innocent techies

Elsewhere, however, there is no more room for interpretation: Konstantin Ryabitsev, administrator for kernel.org, states in a public dispute with a user he calls a troll that the people removed had worked for companies on the US and EU sanctions list. These companies are explicitly those associated with the Russian military. Ryabitsev emphasizes that those affected are therefore partly responsible for war crimes in Ukraine – so they are not innocent techies.

Technically, it is mainly hardware drivers that are affected, a list of which can be found in the patch announcement. However, this does not mean that these drivers have been removed from the kernel – this only applies to the maintainer entries. It is unclear whether these developers may continue to contribute patches. However, they can also simply use a different e-mail address than the one used previously – to clearly identify the origin of a submitted patch would be difficult.

(fo)