If sanctions were to come out after payment was received but before services are rendered, most providers would still not be able to provide the service.

It’s also likely that banks in question can no longer forward funds from Russia, even if it were still possible to provide a service.  I’m not a lawyer and this is where you need one, but doing business at all in Russia is going to become close to impossible.

I’d be curious to know how much of Cogent’s decision was weighted by choosing not to connect Russian customers vs being legally forced to stop.

A third possibility is that Cogent’s Russian entity (if they have one) or their US one is refusing to install new state-mandated surveillance hardware or follow certain procedures such as FSB/NSA letters, etc.

-LB

Ms. Lady Benjamin PD Cannon of Glencoe, ASCE
6x7 Networks & 6x7 Telecom, LLC 
CEO 
ben@6by7.net
"The only fully end-to-end encrypted global telecommunications company in the world.”
ANNOUNCING: 6x7 GLOBAL MARITIME

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On Mar 4, 2022, at 1:45 PM, David Conrad <drc@virtualized.org> wrote:

On Mar 4, 2022, at 1:14 PM, Bryan Fields <Bryan@bryanfields.net> wrote:
On 3/4/22 3:52 PM, Martin Hannigan wrote:
I would argue they don't have much of a choice:

"The economic sanctions put in place as a result of the invasion and the
increasingly uncertain security situation make it impossible for Cogent to
continue to provide you with service."

But Tier 1's don't pay for peering.

As someone who once had to have lawyers argue (at different times) with the US Dept. of Treasury for (a) providing open source software deemed a munition internationally and (b) updating certain globally accessible lists of names and numbers for Internet use at no charge (under a US government contract no less): you do not have to receive money to be viewed as providing a service.

Regards,
-drc