The Playrix response to the war

The effects of the Russian invasion of Ukraine have not been limited to human casualties and displacement. In light of the war crimes being committed by the Russian army, large companies have been pressured into distancing themselves from conducting business in Russia. Whilst this is quite understandable, the situation becomes a little bit more complicated when the company is of Russian origin and has extensive operations in Ukraine. 

Image Source: playrix.com 

Playrix is the second-largest mobile games developer in the world, and the company has hundreds of Ukrainian employees on its payroll. The company prides itself on offering mobile users an engaging and captivating gambling experience. Those of you who are keen to enjoy this sort of experience can visit a $3 deposit casino and enjoy the fun.  

 

Playrix is commandeered by Igor Bukhman, the high-profile Russian billionaire who co-founded the company back in 2004. In recent weeks, he has been forced into the unenviable position of trying to balance his Russian heritage with the needs of all the Ukrainian employees at the company. 

 

At the time of writing, the company has yet to publicly condemn the actions of Vladimir Putin and the Russian army. In this article, we’re going to explore why the company hasn’t made a statement about what has been happening. 

 

The company decided to shut down internal discussions

Prior to the invasion, Playrix employees communicated with one another internally through the use of Slack, the popular messaging app. For the most part, these discussions centred around some light-hearted banter and thoughts and opinions relating to work projects. Once Ukraine was turned into a warzone, the nature of these conversations started to dramatically change. 

 

The messages in the Slack work channel soon started to centre around the invasion and what people could do to assist their Ukrainian work colleagues. However, an employee within the company anonymously shone a light upon a truly shocking turn of events. The employee has alleged that the conversations started to become moderated in such a way that all messages relating to the Ukraine invasion were being deleted in real-time. In other words, employees were being stopped from communicating with one another about the war. 

 

In response to this egregious company policy, many Ukrainian employees decided to quit the company. This mass walkout prompted Igor Bukhman to publicly address the issue within the media. Whilst he acknowledged that the company had indeed taken the decision to close a number of internal Slack channels, he was adamant that the decision was not politically motivated. Igor cited the fact that it’s an extremely precarious situation and that he’s being required to extinguish two fires simultaneously. 

You may argue the hands of Playrix are tied

When viewing the conflict through the lens of western culture, it can be very difficult to understand why some of these large Russian companies have remained silent over this horrendous act. However, it’s important to recognise that these companies, as well as the individuals who work for them, are being governed by a form of military dictatorship. 

 

It’s a highly delicate situation. Any Russian organisation, or indeed individual, who has been found to have disclosed any sensitive information in a bid to assist the Ukrainian resistance will be found guilty of treason. It wouldn’t be remiss to suggest that such a verdict would be tantamount to a death sentence in Russia. Even if many of the Russian employees within the company would like to help, they would be taking a massive personal risk in doing so. 

Other companies have taken a harder stance

On the other hand, few people would have sympathy for the plight of this gargantuan gaming firm when other large Russian-based companies have adopted a much harder stance. Many Russian tech workers have taken it upon themselves to relocate somewhere else in Eastern Europe to overcome the war censorship being imposed. 

 

One of the more extreme examples relates to Miro, a San Francisco-based startup that terminated the contracts of all employees who refused to relocate from their Russian offices at the end of March.