Hoi,

A reality check. With a Wikipedian in jail in Belarus, it is easy to grasp that Wikipedia is not the flavour of the month in either Belarus or in Russia by the "powers that be".

When you compare Wikimedia projects to Facebook, the glaring difference between them is money. Our money has as a goal to educate and inform people. Our mission is to do this with a neutral point of view. When we consider the war waged by Russia, our neutral view is on offer and a view that we should provide as long as we can.

The Russian people are not necessarily the enemy, arguably they are not. Our money spent in Russia supports our aim of informing and educating the Russian people, all the money spent is well spent.

We do not have to borrow a page out of the playbook that is escalation. We should not because of what we stand for.

Thanks,

GerardM

On Sun, 13 Mar 2022 at 11:27, Lane Chance <zinkloss@gmail.com> wrote:

Several organizations, including pension companies, have been
withdrawing their investments that may indirectly support Russia's war
in Ukraine. Similarly there have been several news reports of
directors stepping down from companies where their personal interests
and or past history is now seen to be in conflict with the ethical
values of the organisation they represent.

Has the board of the Wikimedia Foundation or the board of the
Endowment Fund asked for a governance review for their connections of
people (including trustees and advisers), received donations, outgoing
funding or investment funds that may even indirectly or
unintentionally support the actions of the Russian government?

As an example, the founder of Cendana Capital, a global venture
capital company, is an adviser for the Endowment Fund, but I can not
find a specific governance report for Cendana Capital for financial
interests connected Russia. Being "global", it's hard to imagine there
is none or has never been any.

References
https://wikimediaendowment.org/#advisory-board
https://wikimediafoundation.org/role/board
https://www.cendanacapital.com
https://www.funds-europe.com/news/blackrock-suspends-purchase-of-russian-securities-in-active-and-index-funds
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2022/mar/13/mps-pension-fund-drops-russian-linked-investments-in-protest

Lane
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