Pulling out of Russia entirely is an option. It's not like they're relying on them to stay in business.

They could just not comply? What's Russia gonna do, nuke Gaben's yacht?

They ignored (legitimate) youth protection laws long enough, they could ignore this one, too.

It's a dictatorship. It's not logic. Fuck the Kremlin.

It was illegal in the UK till the mid 60s, Russia is still holding out

This is the most sane take I've seen. It's honestly weird how ignorant this thread is, regional censorship is not new. Australia has a habit of banning violent games. The Middle East and China have a habit of censoring all sorts of things. Many countries have their own laws of what is and isn't okay and they fluctuate all the time. My friend in Germany couldn't play Wolfenstein because any games with Nazi imagery were illegal until relatively recently.

Literally every company that operates in those countries also censor their stuff. The only reason this article exists is because [thing but Russia] gets more clicks and outrage compared to [thing in fifty other countries]. You're free to hate Steam for it but this isn't weird or exclusive behavior. They're running a business.

Yeah, I don't know why it's news at all. It happens in every other country with any amount of censorship, US included.

But, it would suck if I were in Russia and suddenly lost access to my games.

Another reason not to rely on steam as a central point of failure.

This is a very naive and ignorant take. In the major cities, quality of life is on part with EU for many.

Furthermore, even with demographic splits (e.g. russians aged 18-24, urban russians), all major demographic groups show at least strong majority support for chauvinism, authoritarianism and genocidal imperialism.

There are some variations of course. But it's more along the lines of overwhelming/near absolute majority support (e.g 50+) or strong majority support (18-34). You also find interesting variantions where "middle age" segments tend to be less supportive (on a relative basis, the segment as whole still shows strong majority support) of genocidal imperialism than young adults/early middle age (18-34); likely because they have more to lose.

Russians have the capability to build a better future for themselves (without invasions), they just don't want to because they haven't gotten a taste of their own medicine (where they are treated like they treat others).

EU is massive in enabling this attitude. Consider the fact that Merkel, even from retirement, is promoting russian genocidal imperialism by claiming that Poland and the Baltic nation are responsible for the full scale invasion:

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2025/10/06/angela-merkel-poland-baltics-blame-ukraine-war/

When it's the russians and putin (a symptom, with the cause being russians) who are to blame for their own invasion.

How about having some fucking backbone?

Generally yes, but legality is not ethics.

Because the dev wanted to make it and other people wanted to play it.