I have absolutely no idea why you’re being downvoted. This feels like exactly the sort of project that would be backed by the current Russian administration, given it serves to damage and destabilise businesses in countries that are currently hostile to Russia. — it’s not even a controversial take to say so.

Was Obama funding Aaron Swartz's efforts to scrape JSTOR?

Some people have the personality trait of loving to build collections or archives. Either for idealistic reasons (knowledge deserves to be free) or just because it's fun.

When that personality trait intersects with technical ability, we get projects such as the Internet Archive, Archive Team, Library Genesis, etc. There is no reason to assume state sponsorship, and 2/3 of those definitely aren't state sponsored.

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