RUSSIA BANNED FROM LAS VEGAS CES 2023 TRADE SHOW

Jan 5, 2022

Rob Lauer Political Reporter

The CES (consumer electronic show) tech trade show is the largest annual trade show in Las Vegas. This year’s CES is expected to draw 100,000 folks this week, which concludes on Sunday. The event kicked off Tuesday evening with media previews from just some of the 3,000 companies that signed up to attend.

But Russians were not welcome at the annual gadget show.

CES is not allowing Russian companies to display their products at the annual tech show because of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

A spokesperson for the CES said the move has only impacted one potential exhibitor.

No Russian exhibitors were present at last year’s show, but four will attend virtually in 2021, the spokesperson said. The U.S. is among about 30 countries that have sanctioned Russia over the invasion.

CTA president and CEO Gary Shapiro, who previously called the Russian invasion a “tragic and illegal assault on the people and independent nation of Ukraine,” said some Ukrainian tech companies and startups will display their gadgets at the Las Vegas show.

“A lot of people from around the world want to support Ukraine,” Shapiro said in an interview, while wearing a Ukrainian flag pin on his jacket lapel. “I know my wife actively seeks out products from Ukraine that she can order. “And we have bought stuff from Ukraine directly.”

But CES did allow China to participate, even though the Biden administration has issued a CV testing protocol for all Chinese nationals entering the U.S. The communist Chinese government has locked down its population for months. There are reports of the Chinese government literally welding people’s apartment front doors shut so they can’t come out. The Chinese are using CV as cover to destroy any political opposition. Protesters have been crushed and murdered in China in recent weeks.