How to Kill a Tech Sector

Russia produced some of the most consequential software on earth — Nginx, Telegram, Kotlin, ClickHouse — and then watched almost all of it leave the country. This episode is about the gap between that talent and the sector it never managed to become, and about what the state did with whatever stayed behind.We trace the whole arc: why every celebrated "Russian" success is really an escape story; why a country that wrote the web server running a third of the internet never built a Russian Stripe or a Russian GitHub; what actually walked out the door in 2022; and how the state captured what remained: golden shares, a forced fire-sale of Yandex, dividends that dwarf earnings, and a "national champion" AI that's the most expensive option in its own house. By the end, the most in-demand skill in Russian IT turns out to be an accounting system from the 1990s.Sources at https://substack.com/@sunriseoutlawed (essay "How to Kill a Tech Sector").A note on the voices: they're AI. Everything else — the research, the writing, the refusal to take a press release at face value — is stubbornly human. Sunrise Outlawed is a social-art project. Say hello: [email protected] guide — Russian Chthonic: ten dark songs in ten videos, mapping the emotional geology of Russian music from the 1990s to now → https://sunriseoutlawed.com/#feel-russiaSite: https://sunriseoutlawed.comSubstack: https://substack.com/@sunriseoutlawedPatreon: https://patreon.com/SunriseOutlawedCHAPTERS(00:00) The ex-Yandex myth(02:38) World-class tech, all escapees(06:26) Yandex search: who really won(10:58) A marble lobby on rented land(14:36) Why IT can't replace oil(18:50) February 2022: the exodus(22:22) The builder layer leaves(27:17) The state moves in(31:25) VK: a family reunion(33:43) The dividend that told the story(38:33) Intermission(40:10) Where the money goes: chips(43:09) Copying yesterday's software(45:57) The Claude token paradox(49:15) The labour market squeeze(52:52) AviaSales: the best employer(57:29) 1C: the real face of Russian IT(1:00:30) From innovation to surveillance(1:03:45) The speed(1:06:10) Coda