No Russian, part 2

Well it's perfect, isn't it? A Russian-American SC venture capitalist who flat-out says that "Russia was and is a failed state". That Russians are coddled and intimidated by a domineering nanny/bully-state, that many/most Russians are unproductively employed in some placeholder position by the government (sound familiar?). That there is a suppressed creative class, while the population at large is "statistically speaking not very bright". They need to break free and find their Silicon Vallye. That SC should embrace these refugee smart people (but stay clear of the posers who aren't "creative"! They are not important). That there are a lot of possibilities for outsourcing work to Ukraine (and you'll be helping Ukraine itself, to boot!).

This has a great patriotism appeal - even the more dililussioned-by-America types can relate to the good old USA vs Russia (USSR) rivalry on some level. It has a great appeal to SC culture, seeing some smart Russian make it while, had he not been given the opportunity to move to that glorious place, then he would have surely became a drunk or just suffered in silence, a member of the creative underclass with no outlet for his ideas or aspirations. And of course the plea to aim the inevitable eventual brain-drain in America's direction.

No, I'm not saying that anything that he said is wrong. Just that the reasons that this got popular seems pretty obvious.