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ExpertAdvisor01 2 days ago [-]
Useless + overhyped .
Company will end up as tax resident from the country where it is managed & controlled .
If there is an DTA the tie breaker rule applies and the country from where it is managed & controlled gets the right to tax .
Also you get to enjoy bureaucracy+ dual accounting in both countries .
If there is no DTA it can lead to double taxation .
And if you don't have a fixed place of management/business+ tax residency (basically nomading) a US LLC disregarded for tax purposes is a much better fit .
sscaryterry 1 hours ago [-]
This 100%. Hire a (good) accountant.
penpendian 2 days ago [-]
There is no cake will drop from sky, and if there is, well it came with gravity
edoceo 2 days ago [-]
Username checks out.
ttoinou 2 days ago [-]
I was surprised how amazing it is ?
What do you wish you had known before getting started?
Your yearly financial data is public, everyone will know your income / profit. And you will get spammed, your email will be public too.
How easy has it been to run the company remotely?
Great
Have you ever needed to travel to Estonia to resolve an issue?
Only visited once to open bank account LHV but I closed it since then and can use remote banking
Looking back, would you do it again?
Yes
gdotdesign 2 days ago [-]
Same experience for me, it's been great!
I never needed to visit since I could use Wise for banking.
The only thing is that surprised me was the tax rate, when I created my Company the advertised rate was 20/80 but in reality it was ~25/75 and it increased since.
atlasunshrugged 2 days ago [-]
Yes, it was stable for a long time but has been changing mainly due to factors associated with the war in Ukraine (spikes in inflation, especially related to energy prices as well as a need for increased defense spending)
m00dy 2 days ago [-]
Wise is not a bank.
dgellow 2 days ago [-]
Wise isn't a bank but you can use Wise for banking operations (i.e you get bank accounts)
> However, some countries have different rules for deciding if a company is tax resident. It is common that, in addition to the place of incorporation, the place of effective management can trigger tax residence. If you run your company from a country with regulations like this, then the company may end up having dual tax residence. This happens when two states believe that the company is tax resident in their jurisdiction and will want to tax the company’s profits.
This 'It is common that [...] the place of effective management can trigger tax residence' is indeed common.
sph 2 days ago [-]
It is still amazing to me that so many people don't get this fact.
It doesn't matter where your company is incorporated, you'll be liable to pay the taxes where you live. And if you think the revenue service of your country is going to forget, you are guaranteed to have a very nasty surprise waiting for you when you least expect it.
The only way to more or less skirt this rule is to keep moving so you're technically never fiscally resident in any country (not even sure if it works), or move your personal fiscal residence to a tax haven like Monaco.
jocaal 2 days ago [-]
Also estonian law doesn't recognize trusts, so if you want to save your assets for your children that's a problem.
victorbjorklund 2 days ago [-]
I assume we are taking about a foreign trust and not an Estonian one. In what regard? When it comes to money laundering? Profit distributions?
jocaal 2 days ago [-]
No, I was under the impression that foundations must be established with a non profit goal in mind. I thought you cannot just give beneficiaries cash. I see I was mistaken and that private foundations allow you to treat the structure the same as a trust fund.
ExpertAdvisor01 2 days ago [-]
You mostly use foundations for that purpose in civil law countries (which are also not part of the hague trust convention )
logifail 2 days ago [-]
Hence the executives/boardmembers-all-fly-to-some-island (Jersey is the one in my mind), have board meeting in the airport, sign the papers, and all fly home?
Company stays "in" Jersey, none of the humans need to live there?
Swinx43 2 days ago [-]
That is unfortunately not how it works. Most commonly the place from which decisions are made on a day to day basis is used. This results in the country in which 50% or more of your directors reside for 183 days a year.
So if 50% or more of your directors spend 183 days per year in the UK then your Estonian based business becomes UK tax resident in the eyes of the UK.
Do not underestimate the complexity of these rules.
Gys 2 days ago [-]
If the company is managed 'day by day' by a local director (for example by a company like Intertrust or Trustmoore) then the non-local board and/or shareholders can indeed flyin to have 'a meeting with extensive discussions where all decisions where made and some papers were signed'. I had a company in Singapore for some years doing this.
graemep 2 days ago [-]
That does not work necessarily work in the UK anymore.
atlasunshrugged 2 days ago [-]
Its been a few years but I ran BD for the program in '19-'20 -- I would say that people underestimate the difficulty in shutting down the company if that needs to happen, sometimes getting access to a proper bank account can be annoying, and don't always understand the tax implications (ex. if I was resident in Germany, all my customers were in Germany, but I tried to run everything through this Estonian biz and pay taxes only there, that could very well cause you lots of issues/complications).
Also, shameless plug for people broadly interested in the country of Estonia and how it became a leader in e-gov/tech only a generation after independence from the Soviet Union, I wrote a book about it after being curious myself! https://www.rebootinganation.com/
dgellow 2 days ago [-]
Where are you located? Where will you administer the company from? That impacts your tax situation quite a lot.
I am in the US currently, would be managing initially from the US. I understand there will be US tax complications, but I can/would deal with those.
atlasunshrugged 2 days ago [-]
I saw this a lot when I ran BD for the program (I'm also an American) and its good you know there will be US tax complications but I would say that unless you expect to 1) have many EU customers and 2) working remotely globally and redomicile elsewhere so you are not considered US tax resident that it probably doesn't make more sense than using something like Stripe Atlas to just set up an LLC or C-Corp
jvilalta 2 days ago [-]
The point is serving EU customers as a EU company yes.
1 days ago [-]
ExpertAdvisor01 2 days ago [-]
The worst thing you could do as an us citizen (I assume ) and resident is to incorporate outside of the US.
jvilalta 2 days ago [-]
I can think of worse things myself.
Gys 2 days ago [-]
Unless you have some specific reason for being in the EU, I suggest you also look into Singapore.
pyvpx 2 days ago [-]
This is a terrible idea. please hire a professional with direct experience on these matters and not blog posts from influencers
jvilalta 2 days ago [-]
Any suggestions or alternative ways to setup a EU company remotely in your extensive experience and wisdom?
hakanderyal 2 days ago [-]
UK, USA and Singapore are the popular choices for this. UK is simple and cheaper, Singapore is a bit more expensive. I don’t see a reason to go USA route unless you are seeking investment from there.
I’m using UK myself. It takes a few forms and half a day to get a working Wise/Stripe account.
jvilalta 2 days ago [-]
None of those countries are in the EU, which is important for my use case.
Onavo 2 days ago [-]
Finally somebody who knows their stuff. I never understood why people preferred Estonian incorporation given that it's almost certainly more expensive and less convenient than the other options.
atlasunshrugged 2 days ago [-]
I think the main reason is to have a business incorporated within the EU if that's relevant for the person. Delaware is great, and UK filled this role until Brexit but after that if you needed an EU incorporated company it was a massive pain basically everywhere except Estonia which was relatively cheap and everyone in the industry speaks English
jvilalta 2 days ago [-]
This is indeed the main reason for the question, and for the reasons you mention.
Onavo 2 days ago [-]
Your username is cool
atlasunshrugged 2 days ago [-]
Ha, thank you!
victorbjorklund 2 days ago [-]
Its for sure over hyped but its not useless. Its nice that you can reinvest the profits within the company and only pay taxes on distribution (if this works of course depends on where the owner is. But at least in Sweden it works).
wayneshng 2 days ago [-]
It has been a great experience. Setting up the company was online, and it took 3 days, including the time spent to change the name because the initial name was rejected. You can use Wise for banking, but LHV is also visible but there is an account limit if you don’t live there. Accounting is easy, but you will need an accountant for tax reporting if you have a VAT ID. My accountant charges me 60 euros per month and does an amazing job.
mhog_hn 2 days ago [-]
Any tips for a 2 person European company. One founder based in Amsterdam, the other in London. We are close to setting things up, some input from other founders would be great
ExpertAdvisor01 2 days ago [-]
Probably a UK limited liability partnership would be an option .
But you have to investigate how the Dutch will treat it .
You could apply for a advance tax ruling with the Dutch tax authorities before doing anything
HatchedLake721 2 days ago [-]
Why LLP over Ltd?
ExpertAdvisor01 2 days ago [-]
Because it's transparent so you pay income tax ( which is lower than corp+dividend taxes especially at lower incomes ) .
Later on when you scale, you can convert the LLP into an LTD.
Also you might avoid exit taxes as it is an partnership , if you move between countries.
Also there is basically no information in the post besides 2 founders in different countries.
euph0ria 2 days ago [-]
Incorporate in one of the two countries. If you're serving EU, with GDPR it might be easier to do Netherlands instead of the UK.
Question: are OÜs particularly beneficial even for non-Estonians (EU), and in what way?
jvilalta 2 days ago [-]
I can't speak about all EU countries, but the one country I looked into (Spain), I couldn't find a way to do everything remotely. It required being physically present for some things, so that's why I am asking about whether Estonia actually delivers IRL on the e part of e-residence.
2 days ago [-]
pixel_popping 2 days ago [-]
For SaaS business, HK is definitely the best, 0 taxes, very low maintenance requirement, Stripe accepted, solid banking system.
jettfu 2 days ago [-]
[flagged]
m00dy 2 days ago [-]
I think banking is still the biggest issue if you’re not an Estonian resident.
Honestly, I’d avoid the EU in general. There are only about four or five good places to set up a company and stay connected to the financial system: the US, especially Wyoming or Delaware, Dubai, Singapore, and Hong Kong.
piltdownman 2 days ago [-]
London post-Brexit is problematic outside of the legacy stuff in City of London, but why not Dublin?
(you'd probably be downvoted anyway because of the insubstantial anecdote)
joshuaheard 22 hours ago [-]
That's strange. My comment replied to a post I did not open or read. Must have been a bug or I was sleep-posting.
leitasat 2 days ago [-]
It was great until they turned racists and stopped me from using the service because of my nationality (Russia), even though neither me or the business had anything to do with Russia.
victorbjorklund 2 days ago [-]
Oh I wonder why they don’t wanna do business with Russians. Could it be because Russians are threatening to invade, bomb and occupy Estonia?
It’s your choice to decide to keep your Russian citizenship. Then you have to pay the price of being a Russian citizen.
KomoD 1 days ago [-]
> It’s your choice to decide to keep your Russian citizenship. Then you have to pay the price of being a Russian citizen.
It's not as black and white as "just renounce or pay the price". Renouncing your Russian citizenship is not an easy process, and they might even deny your request... It's not like cancelling a Netflix subscription.
And merely being Russian doesn't make someone a bad person or a supporter of Putin's regime.
Do you want to keep it or renounce it? Sounds mostly that you either wanna remain Russian or you are the most lazy person on earth.
Have you ever paid taxes in Russia or any way contributed to Russian society? If so you are directly financing the genocide committed by Russia. Are you at least admitting Russia is engaged in a genocide and that Russia must be defeated and treated just like the third riche?
KomoD 1 days ago [-]
I'm not Russian. I'm Swedish, born and raised in Dalarna.
I'm not pro the Russian regime, there's really no need for the aggressive tone and insults. All I said is that it really isn't black and white when it comes to renouncing it, and even the Reddit post you linked shows that it isn't an easy process, the comments too describe difficulty in doing it and asking for help, some examples:
Some governments have even stopped enforcing renunciation requirements because people have found it difficult to renounce. One such example is the Netherlands[0]: "There are currently indications within the implementation that naturalized Russians are experiencing problems regarding this renunciation [...] for the time being, it is not enforced for Russians naturalized as Dutch citizens whether Russian nationality is actually being (or has been) renounced."
As I understand, Russia doesn't do citizenship-based taxation like the US does, so I don't have as big of a problem with someone retaining their Russian citizenship when they're living abroad if they find the process difficult/impossible/unrealistic. If they did citizenship-based taxation, then I would have more of a problem with it, as, at that point, it is funding the regime.
I understand why many governments have measures against Russian and Belarusian citizens, but I also sympathize with the people affected.
> Are you at least admitting Russia is engaged in a genocide and that Russia must be defeated and treated just like the third riche?
I'm undecided if I'd call it genocide by definition, but there are definitely things that lean towards it, such as abducting children and trying to "russify" them. I definitely believe they should have never started the war - I don't support it at all - and that they have committed tons of war crimes and awful things such as torture, rape, attacking civilians (also in terms of infrastructure), political assassinations, and lots more. It should end with Ukraine having complete control of its own country and being left to live in peace.
But it doesn't mean I automatically believe all Russians are bad people who support the regime, especially if they live abroad and are trying to build a life.
I welcome both Ukrainians and regime-opposing Russians to come and start a life here.
Why are you claiming that it is extremely hard to renounce your Russian citizenship if you now claim you are not a Russian citizen and that you did not know that it was easy for all Russians to stop being Russians if they don’t wanna be Russian and support the genocide?
And of course you as a Russian supporter denies that Russia is committing a genocide. Most pro-Russian people deny the war crimes committed by Russia. You are a terrible human.
KomoD 19 hours ago [-]
> Why are you claiming that it is extremely hard to renounce your Russian citizenship if you now claim you are not a Russian citizen
Because I can look things up as well as read other people's accounts? I even backed it up, with the very link you provided as well as with a government source.
I can use the same logic against you: why are you claiming that it is easy to renounce your Russian citizenship if you aren't a Russian citizen? I can very easily tell that you, Victor Björklund (not a dox because that's quite literally your username), are not and have not ever been a Russian citizen.
> And of course you as a Russian supporter denies that Russia is committing a genocide.
I didn't deny anything. In fact, I said I lean towards it being genocide, and what I said is that I'm unsure if I'd call it genocide by definition (and I'm not the only one who believes so, because you also have to factor in things such as intent, and that hasn't been determined in international courts and only around 6 countries so far have officially declared the war as genocidal).
Not once did I voice support for Russia in this entire conversation.
> Most pro-Russian people deny the war crimes committed by Russia.
Then you should read my message instead of acting so emotionally and writing such sludge and attacking me when I have never once shown you the same attitude.
I explicitly condemned it. This is exactly what I said, word-for-word:
> I definitely believe they should have never started the war - I don't support it at all - and that they have committed tons of war crimes and awful things such as torture, rape, attacking civilians (also in terms of infrastructure), political assassinations, and lots more. It should end with Ukraine having complete control of its own country and being left to live in peace.
victorbjorklund 5 hours ago [-]
Because former Russian citizens who don’t wanna be russians have shown that it is easy to renounce if you really wanna get rid of the citizenship. Just get lost defending Russian war crimes by saying you don’t even know if Russia committed war crimes by murdering civilians and kidnapping children.
I am guessing you are anonymous because you are ashamed of your support of Russia and you know that you would be shunned if people know what kind of human you really are.
Etheryte 2 days ago [-]
russian is not a race.
mongol 2 days ago [-]
If you are Russian, you have something to do with Russia
8note 2 days ago [-]
are you a russian speaking estonian? or russian citizen?
leitasat 2 days ago [-]
Russian citizen living abroad
broken-kebab 2 days ago [-]
Then you really can't say you has nothing to do with Russia. Citizenship is a very big thing in banking, and legal services. And it's certainly not about race. You could be ethnically Japanese for that matter, it's Russian passport which is the dealbreaker here.
sscaryterry 59 minutes ago [-]
Exactly. You could renounce it and potentially become stateless, which is a whole different problem.
I get it, guilty by association, it isn't fair. The banks need to keep their books clean, anything that could be flagged they will avoid like the plague.
jwr 2 days ago [-]
For better or worse, our world has the concept of "citizenship". It is not ideal, but it is what we have settled on. You reap the benefits of your passport (citizenship), but you also bear responsibilities. It is possible to switch nationalities, and I would heartily encourage anyone whose conscience has trouble accepting what their country does to do so.
rendx 2 days ago [-]
I sympathize with all Russian citizens living abroad. While citizenship is something you can get out of, it is a long process and circumstances may not easily allow it. I don't think it's fair to discriminate against Russian citizens without hearing their story, even the ones still living in Russia, for actions taken by their rogue government. Do US Americans really want to be held individually accountable for everything Trump does or will do?
I understand how comments like yours and other sibling comments will generate feelings of being treated unfairly: We do not choose our birth country. We do not know the individual's actions, we do not know their political stance, and it is not racist but still discriminatory to use their nationality against them. They're already punished enough by being associated with their government. That's at least how I see it.
Then again, it is probably due to EU wide legislation, so not something Estonia can do much about even if they wanted to. I hope they find emotional support to detach their individuality from how Russians (and Ukrainians!) are treated in general in the current dynamics. It's not their fault as individual, and I'm sorry that they became victims.
jwr 1 days ago [-]
There is a second point of view: imagine a Ukrainian living in a Western European country. They moved there because Russian missiles and bombs were falling on their heads and killing their family. They regularly send money to their country to defend against the agressor.
Their neighbor holds a Russian passport. He works at an IT company and earns a nice salary. It's a good life. He complains about being discriminated against. He "doesn't support the aggression". This "not supporting" does not take any material form, he doesn't send money anywhere nor perform any other actions. In the past, he has done absolutely jack squat about the rise of Putin to power (back when doing something was still possible), because he "is apolitical". When the war ends and things blow over, the neighbor will use his Russian passport to go back to Russia, live a good life there using money earned while abroad, and participate in rebuilding the economy, until the next Putin appears on the horizon. He will do absolutely jack squat about the next Putin, because he "is apolitical".
As you can see, it's all upside for the Russian neighbor.
I don't know about others, but something irks me about this common scenario. Sure, there are many subtleties and many ways in which life is complicated. But I see this scenario play out regularly and I can't help thinking that there should be some accountability for the passport you hold.
sscaryterry 58 minutes ago [-]
This just incites hatred. Have you considered that the Russian neighbour might have fled Russia?
Paradigm2020 1 days ago [-]
Common scenario ?
The real question is what can a citizen do in a none democratic country...
If you were Russian would you publically be protesting the war inside of Russia?
And all the people saying renounce citizenship, is your country gonna give him theirs ? Does Estonia offer free Estonian citizenship to Russians who abandon their's?
The real elephant in the room that I feel doesn't come up enough in these discussions is the fact that Israel is a democracy with freedom to protest etc and they are according to even holocaust survivors committing a genocide and according to mathematica and reports killing countless more civilians yet where is them being cut off from the banking system...
Or UAE in Sudan etc. Etc.
I dunno Russia is always the big boogieman seemingly...
victorbjorklund 21 hours ago [-]
If you were German in Nazi germany would you protest or just complain that French -!: British people discriminate against you for being a German citizen?
Paradigm2020 11 hours ago [-]
I'm talking about double weights and standards aka getting kicked out of the international banking system which wasn't possible in that time (and seemingly is still impossible if you are a friend/ vassal of the usa.
If I lived in nazi Germany I would have left asap to the usa like countless people (Einstein etc) did... Strange how they didn't try and stop people back then getting out...
victorbjorklund 5 hours ago [-]
And if you were are German citizens (not a Jew or another victim) in good standing with the German government. Would you expect that US govt would let you freely do business in the US to acquire things that can be used to kill Americans? It’s just crazy to assume that US would let all german citizens freely roam around USA and do business during ww2
throw57832 1 days ago [-]
[dead]
malcolmgreaves 2 days ago [-]
Michael Scott:
I am a victim of a hate crime. Stanley knows what I'm talking about.
Company will end up as tax resident from the country where it is managed & controlled .
If there is an DTA the tie breaker rule applies and the country from where it is managed & controlled gets the right to tax .
Also you get to enjoy bureaucracy+ dual accounting in both countries .
If there is no DTA it can lead to double taxation .
And if you don't have a fixed place of management/business+ tax residency (basically nomading) a US LLC disregarded for tax purposes is a much better fit .
I never needed to visit since I could use Wise for banking.
The only thing is that surprised me was the tax rate, when I created my Company the advertised rate was 20/80 but in reality it was ~25/75 and it increased since.
From: https://learn.e-resident.gov.ee/hc/en-gb/articles/3600007215...
> Corporate tax residency
> However, some countries have different rules for deciding if a company is tax resident. It is common that, in addition to the place of incorporation, the place of effective management can trigger tax residence. If you run your company from a country with regulations like this, then the company may end up having dual tax residence. This happens when two states believe that the company is tax resident in their jurisdiction and will want to tax the company’s profits.
This 'It is common that [...] the place of effective management can trigger tax residence' is indeed common.
It doesn't matter where your company is incorporated, you'll be liable to pay the taxes where you live. And if you think the revenue service of your country is going to forget, you are guaranteed to have a very nasty surprise waiting for you when you least expect it.
The only way to more or less skirt this rule is to keep moving so you're technically never fiscally resident in any country (not even sure if it works), or move your personal fiscal residence to a tax haven like Monaco.
Company stays "in" Jersey, none of the humans need to live there?
So if 50% or more of your directors spend 183 days per year in the UK then your Estonian based business becomes UK tax resident in the eyes of the UK.
Do not underestimate the complexity of these rules.
Also, shameless plug for people broadly interested in the country of Estonia and how it became a leader in e-gov/tech only a generation after independence from the Soviet Union, I wrote a book about it after being curious myself! https://www.rebootinganation.com/
See https://www.e-resident.gov.ee/understanding-cross-border-tax..., look for “Permanent Establishment”
I’m using UK myself. It takes a few forms and half a day to get a working Wise/Stripe account.
But you have to investigate how the Dutch will treat it .
You could apply for a advance tax ruling with the Dutch tax authorities before doing anything
Later on when you scale, you can convert the LLP into an LTD.
Also you might avoid exit taxes as it is an partnership , if you move between countries.
Also there is basically no information in the post besides 2 founders in different countries.
Honestly, I’d avoid the EU in general. There are only about four or five good places to set up a company and stay connected to the financial system: the US, especially Wyoming or Delaware, Dubai, Singapore, and Hong Kong.
(you'd probably be downvoted anyway because of the insubstantial anecdote)
It’s your choice to decide to keep your Russian citizenship. Then you have to pay the price of being a Russian citizen.
It's not as black and white as "just renounce or pay the price". Renouncing your Russian citizenship is not an easy process, and they might even deny your request... It's not like cancelling a Netflix subscription.
And merely being Russian doesn't make someone a bad person or a supporter of Putin's regime.
Do you want to keep it or renounce it? Sounds mostly that you either wanna remain Russian or you are the most lazy person on earth.
Have you ever paid taxes in Russia or any way contributed to Russian society? If so you are directly financing the genocide committed by Russia. Are you at least admitting Russia is engaged in a genocide and that Russia must be defeated and treated just like the third riche?
I'm not pro the Russian regime, there's really no need for the aggressive tone and insults. All I said is that it really isn't black and white when it comes to renouncing it, and even the Reddit post you linked shows that it isn't an easy process, the comments too describe difficulty in doing it and asking for help, some examples:
- https://www.reddit.com/r/tjournal_refugees/comments/1lrdngq/...
- https://www.reddit.com/r/tjournal_refugees/comments/1lrdngq/...
- https://www.reddit.com/r/tjournal_refugees/comments/1lrdngq/...
- https://www.reddit.com/r/tjournal_refugees/comments/1lrdngq/...
- https://www.reddit.com/r/tjournal_refugees/comments/1lrdngq/...
- https://www.reddit.com/r/tjournal_refugees/comments/1lrdngq/...
Some governments have even stopped enforcing renunciation requirements because people have found it difficult to renounce. One such example is the Netherlands[0]: "There are currently indications within the implementation that naturalized Russians are experiencing problems regarding this renunciation [...] for the time being, it is not enforced for Russians naturalized as Dutch citizens whether Russian nationality is actually being (or has been) renounced."
As I understand, Russia doesn't do citizenship-based taxation like the US does, so I don't have as big of a problem with someone retaining their Russian citizenship when they're living abroad if they find the process difficult/impossible/unrealistic. If they did citizenship-based taxation, then I would have more of a problem with it, as, at that point, it is funding the regime.
I understand why many governments have measures against Russian and Belarusian citizens, but I also sympathize with the people affected.
> Are you at least admitting Russia is engaged in a genocide and that Russia must be defeated and treated just like the third riche?
I'm undecided if I'd call it genocide by definition, but there are definitely things that lean towards it, such as abducting children and trying to "russify" them. I definitely believe they should have never started the war - I don't support it at all - and that they have committed tons of war crimes and awful things such as torture, rape, attacking civilians (also in terms of infrastructure), political assassinations, and lots more. It should end with Ukraine having complete control of its own country and being left to live in peace.
But it doesn't mean I automatically believe all Russians are bad people who support the regime, especially if they live abroad and are trying to build a life.
I welcome both Ukrainians and regime-opposing Russians to come and start a life here.
[0]: https://puc.overheid.nl/ind/doc/PUC_1312395_1/1/
And of course you as a Russian supporter denies that Russia is committing a genocide. Most pro-Russian people deny the war crimes committed by Russia. You are a terrible human.
Because I can look things up as well as read other people's accounts? I even backed it up, with the very link you provided as well as with a government source.
I can use the same logic against you: why are you claiming that it is easy to renounce your Russian citizenship if you aren't a Russian citizen? I can very easily tell that you, Victor Björklund (not a dox because that's quite literally your username), are not and have not ever been a Russian citizen.
> And of course you as a Russian supporter denies that Russia is committing a genocide.
I didn't deny anything. In fact, I said I lean towards it being genocide, and what I said is that I'm unsure if I'd call it genocide by definition (and I'm not the only one who believes so, because you also have to factor in things such as intent, and that hasn't been determined in international courts and only around 6 countries so far have officially declared the war as genocidal).
Not once did I voice support for Russia in this entire conversation.
> Most pro-Russian people deny the war crimes committed by Russia.
Then you should read my message instead of acting so emotionally and writing such sludge and attacking me when I have never once shown you the same attitude.
I explicitly condemned it. This is exactly what I said, word-for-word:
> I definitely believe they should have never started the war - I don't support it at all - and that they have committed tons of war crimes and awful things such as torture, rape, attacking civilians (also in terms of infrastructure), political assassinations, and lots more. It should end with Ukraine having complete control of its own country and being left to live in peace.
I am guessing you are anonymous because you are ashamed of your support of Russia and you know that you would be shunned if people know what kind of human you really are.
I get it, guilty by association, it isn't fair. The banks need to keep their books clean, anything that could be flagged they will avoid like the plague.
I understand how comments like yours and other sibling comments will generate feelings of being treated unfairly: We do not choose our birth country. We do not know the individual's actions, we do not know their political stance, and it is not racist but still discriminatory to use their nationality against them. They're already punished enough by being associated with their government. That's at least how I see it.
Then again, it is probably due to EU wide legislation, so not something Estonia can do much about even if they wanted to. I hope they find emotional support to detach their individuality from how Russians (and Ukrainians!) are treated in general in the current dynamics. It's not their fault as individual, and I'm sorry that they became victims.
Their neighbor holds a Russian passport. He works at an IT company and earns a nice salary. It's a good life. He complains about being discriminated against. He "doesn't support the aggression". This "not supporting" does not take any material form, he doesn't send money anywhere nor perform any other actions. In the past, he has done absolutely jack squat about the rise of Putin to power (back when doing something was still possible), because he "is apolitical". When the war ends and things blow over, the neighbor will use his Russian passport to go back to Russia, live a good life there using money earned while abroad, and participate in rebuilding the economy, until the next Putin appears on the horizon. He will do absolutely jack squat about the next Putin, because he "is apolitical".
As you can see, it's all upside for the Russian neighbor.
I don't know about others, but something irks me about this common scenario. Sure, there are many subtleties and many ways in which life is complicated. But I see this scenario play out regularly and I can't help thinking that there should be some accountability for the passport you hold.
The real question is what can a citizen do in a none democratic country... If you were Russian would you publically be protesting the war inside of Russia?
And all the people saying renounce citizenship, is your country gonna give him theirs ? Does Estonia offer free Estonian citizenship to Russians who abandon their's?
The real elephant in the room that I feel doesn't come up enough in these discussions is the fact that Israel is a democracy with freedom to protest etc and they are according to even holocaust survivors committing a genocide and according to mathematica and reports killing countless more civilians yet where is them being cut off from the banking system...
Or UAE in Sudan etc. Etc.
I dunno Russia is always the big boogieman seemingly...
If I lived in nazi Germany I would have left asap to the usa like countless people (Einstein etc) did... Strange how they didn't try and stop people back then getting out...
Stanley: That's not what a hate crime is.
Michael Scott: Well, I hated it, a lot, okay.