An open letter that has been circulating through the country's IT industry since the invasion of Ukraine has been written to protest against military aggression and call for peace.
The petition was signed by representatives of the Russian IT industry against the military operation on the territory of Ukraine.
The list of names and job titles includes IT professionals who identify themselves as entrepreneurs, product managers, heads of customer experience, analytics, and back end developers.
The petition runs to over 600 pages from the document that was used to host it.
The full text of the letter is written in Russian.
“We, the employees of the Russian IT industry, are categorically against military actions on the territory of Ukraine initiated by the armed forces of the Russian Federation.
“We consider any manifestation of force that leads to the outbreak of war unjustified and call for the cancellation of decisions that may inevitably entail human casualties on each side. Our countries have always been close to each other. And today we are worried about our Ukrainian colleagues, friends, relatives. We are concerned and morally oppressed by what is happening in the cities of Ukraine now.
“In our work we make the best products, the best service, we sincerely do everything so that Russian IT solutions can be proud of. We want our country to be associated not with war, but with peace and progress.
“Progress and development of technologies for the benefit of man are impossible in conditions of war and threats to people’s lives and health, they are possible only in conditions of cooperation, diversity of points of view, information exchange and open dialogue.
“We ask the leadership of our country to pay attention to our appeal, find ways to resolve this situation peacefully and prevent human casualties.”
We have confirmed that the woman who started the petition is a real person, but it is not possible to verify that all the names listed are genuine.
She is the first person to sign the letter, and she lists herself as a food analyst on the website.
The peace petition was shared on her public Facebook page last week and she called for other IT workers to put their names to it in order to get media coverage.
We spoke with a Russian IT worker who told us they had signed the petition, but this source requested anonymity to avoid drawing attention to their action because of the risk.
Below is the text of an open letter from the IT community, written by Lukyanchikova in her initial Facebook post to launch the petition. I don't know if this will work out, but I know that collective action can help. This helps people understand that they are not alone. This is the only legal action I have seen that isn't banned. You can sign up in the first comment.
As the number of signatures increases, she can be seen tracking progress over a few days on her Facebook page.
The petition picked up steam in Russia's IT industry after the country's invasion of Ukraine, and it reached close to 30,000 names before it was closed.
When asked if she believed the petition could have an impact, she said: "I want to believe that our voices will be heard and peace will be restored."
The anti-war letter has been reported by some media outlets in Russia.
Tech industry publication vc.ru covered it on Saturday, when it reported that the signers included employees of Russian tech giants.
The report states that anti-war letters have been published by representatives of other industries from inside the country. The IT industry letter appears to have gathered the most signatures.
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