Actually, I am with Estel and his typically diplomatic post on this. Thanks Joerg for the warning (as also expressed with my use of the Thanks button), but a random IRC post is not enough to exclude a country unless they provide a chapter and verse, iIOW a link to an official statement by the affected companies. And even then I would treat it only as a head-up, not necessarily as a reason to immediately exclude a country.

I, too, have personal experience with sending packages to private addresses in Russia (#17, poimt 7) and yes, the delays are horrendous but potential customers can rest assured that Russia is still on the list.