Let's Dispel The Myth Of "Targeted" Sanctions

A Russian Software Engineer, Who Designs and Codes Software For Recording Musicians, Warns His Worldwide Customer Base That He Is In The Crosshairs.

If it isn’t obvious from previous posts, I am an intense lover of music, and I have been fortunate enough over the years to build and evolve a computer-based High Fidelity music system, that, in terms of sound quality, rivals any expensive “vintage” systems that I used to covet in Stereo shops of the brick and mortar variety.

Imagine a dinosaur being transported through time and seeing the landscape change in front of his eyes, and suddenly, witnessing a rocket launch. Coming from an era when the best technology was a mono-based transistor radio, streaming Hi-Resolution audio files is a lot like that. Computer-based audio is that good now. Compared to even 10 years ago, it has grown in leaps and bounds.

Part of that system is hardware-based: Powered studio monitors with parts made in Berlin, and assembled in China. A passive preamplifier manufactured in Poland. Here is the kicker: A sophisticated and exquisitely engineered parametric equalizer plugin designed and coded by a Russian software engineer named Aleksey Vaneev, and it is as essential to sculpting the sound as anything else in my hardware chain. People of a more paranoid mindset might speculate that my computer is being set up to be hacked, or that the software is deploying a virus. None of that has happened. I run regular virus scans and I’m clean.

Imagine now, in the current climate of anti-Russian sentiment, and the mob rule of literally erasing Russian contributions to History and Culture, that a software engineer who codes his product for musicians is now caught up in the crossfire. That is exactly what has happened.

Maybe it’s best to let Aleksey summarize the situation in his own words:

March 23, 2022:

Dear Voxengo users,

I, Aleksey Vaneev, owner of Voxengo brand, would like to make several notes related to Voxengo as a whole, sensitive to you.  First of all, Voxengo brand was always a Russia-based business, so taxes I pay as an officially-registered entrepreneur go to Russia's budget, and are then used for all kinds of governmental spending: from social to military.  I may have my own views on the "special military operation" as it is called by Russian officials, but from tax-turnover point of view my ideas have little relevance.

If the imposed sanctions intensify, it is possible that Voxengo website may become down for a prolonged time if I will be unable to find a company that rents servers to Russia-based customers.  On plugin operation side, I would like to point out that Voxengo plugins are not tied to web-properties.  The website may be down, but plugins will continue to operate as usual.  It is suggested that you use the "Printable list" feature at the User area and save the opened page to a disk file (in Chrome, use right-click on the page, then "save as").  In this case you'll be able to copy&paste the product keys at any time you need.

On the "Featured Artists": in the current situation the artists featured on the Voxengo website may receive a domestic pressure.  If presence on the Voxengo website is problematic, I can remove the page upon request, with my complete understanding.  At the same time, I still accept artist applications, but it is preferred that an artist be a Voxengo customer and have Billboard charts presence (on any place); however, that is not always a requirement.

Also, as a human, I have infrequently-manifested mental health issues; I'm in a regular contact with local psychiatrists, for the past ten years.  Computer programming is a stressful work, and some programmers report or exhibit such issues as well.  Since it's quite common to treat people with mental issues as "generally-unstable", this is also a point for you to consider about Voxengo.

Voxengo has a 30-day money-back guarantee, so I can unconditionally refund any orders placed in the recent 30 days.

Kind regards,

Voxengo.

As you can see from this screenshot, musicians, producers, and recording engineers from around the world use Voxnego plug-ins to create art. Contrast that with the number of engineers programming data for guided bombs, drones, and laser-guided weaponry. I can guarantee that no international or American-based computer systems programmer or analyst that works on sophisticated weapons are going to be sanctioned out of their employment.

There is no doubt, at least in my mind, that Aleksey, as an average Russian citizen and entrepreneur, is a victim, and doesn’t deserve to have his product and, more importantly, his livelihood, severed because of the prosecution of events outside of his control. One of the more ridiculous, and intellectually lazy suggestions I heard today on Facebook was that the Russian people should somehow breach the wall of the Kremlin and “take Putin out” and then get busy reforming their political and economic system.

The same person thought Russia was still under Communist rule.

If you take the stress and anxiety of targeted economic sanctions against one individual, and then multiply that effect against whole populations, you can easily see that sanctions are, in fact, a tool of war and in its most demonic form a weapon that causes entire populations to literally starve to death, It’s morally unconscionable.

Here is an excellent article that examines the realities and myths of sanctions.