almost as if there are parties trying to turn it into a big political issue to paint Russia as a victim

Idk, there's probably some of that but until today with the clarification that the bans are happening from a list of employers they're required not to work with, things were pretty unclear and I don't think it was unreasonable to assume they were going beyond what was required...especially with Linus' response being pretty tone deaf given the information critics had. People were angry what seemed like random Russian citizens were being targeted and Linus responded angrily as if we all already knew their employers were on a list despite it not being reported yet.

It's not a huge deal but Linus is just not very good at handling this kind of thing. Nerds should have assumed there was more behind the scenes and given the benefit of the doubt, though.