I cannot say I have any close ties with Ukraine or with its people (except for a few friends - I care about you all deeply); but they have my respect and admiration. I wrote in 2008 already that Ukrainian sounds like a language of freedom to me; even more so today. Слава Украине!

Russia got on this path mid-2000s or earlier; in 2008 I realized what direction we are moving in, and in 2014 I lost all hope; everything afterwards is just an inevitable consequence.

But this dream has been stolen from me - by a gang of crooked corrupt power-grabbers, who used false ideals and fake compassion to cast blatant lies, dishonorable behaviors, violation of promises, laws and treaties as a no-nonsense get-results pragmatism and thus fooled a lot of my compatriots.

And this Russia - free, friendly, independent, democratic; idealistic, compassionate; pragmatic, no-nonsense, seeing-through-bullshit - since we have seen so much bullshit already - is the Russia of my dreams and hopes.

This is why I poured my heart into IntelliJ IDEA and ReSharper and other JetBrains projects; these are the attitudes I am trying to bring into all endeavours I am involved in throughout my career.

... meet no-nonsense pragmatism of running a highly profitable, independent business. The outcome is a true gift to the industry and to all writing code today.

To illustrate, JetBrains - a company created, owned, and operated by Russians - is an example that would be familiar to many: an ideal - let all programmers express their ideas at the speed of thought, and compassion - remove drudgery and boredom out of creative process of writing code...

If asked what it the quintessence of being Russian and what I love about my country and my people, I’d say it is an amazing combination of idealism and compassion with no-nonsense pragmatism.

I am Russian by birth, by upbringing, and by my cultural affiliation (bloodlines are a bit more complicated).