Edit: upon further reading, it seems that the free labor isn't being completely refused, but rather these peoples' maintainership status has been revoked, apparently because lawyers said it was necessary due to sanctions. So they can still contribute, but now they have to submit their patches through a maintainer just like any other regular contributor. And also apparently, all the people involved aren't just random nerds who happen to live in Russia, but rather are directly employed at Russian companies on the sanction list. So yeah, it kinda sucks, and probably feels like a slap in the face to them, but this is one of the harsh realities of international politics. At least it's not like back in the Soviet days when there was essentially zero contact between scientists and engineers on both sides and they couldn't collaborate on projects like this at all.