29 karma · joined July 7, 2019
German chancellor is elected by Bundestag and not directly by the people.
I guess in terms of USA that would be like Democrats and Republicans coming up with a president.
So technically he is not THAT bad in comparison.
In your case deeper problem is that so much of you digital life depends on a single point of failure - your Gmail account and it can go in a blink of an eye.
Trick for a switch is to do one a time. Next time you visit a site, go to setting and set email to your new provider, like timpy+nytimes@protonmail.com or whatever.
Also can advise you password manager, like 1Password, that will make switch and maintenance much easier.
Google devices come with Google maps, search and so on. When people get new devices, often they will stick to whatever is pre-installed.
Russia is probably on of the few countries that has perfectly capable alternatives, like Yabdex. So now people will have an option to choose what to use - Google, Apple or yandex apps.
Obviously owners of the platforms (apple and Google monopolies) are not to happy to lose control.
That of course does not mean that Russian government won't try to force some fishy stuff on devices. Ukraine is completely separate and orthogonal issue.
See Matt Stoller's take on the broader issue - https://mattstoller.substack.com/p/how-russian-antitrust-enf...