October 30, 2007 -- Contents
TUESDAY OCTOBER 30 CONTENTS
(1) Another Original LR Translation: Big Brother is Watching
(2) Annals of Russian Human Rights: Now, the Cyber Attacks Begin
(3) When Russians Fight Back
(4) See it Now: Russian Prices Out of Control
(5) Annals of Commissars of the Internet
NOTE: La Russphobe is pleased to welcome yet another volunteer expert translator of Russian source material, Translator S.S., whose first installment appears today as the lead item. We look forward to many future items from Ms. S. Remember, you can find all our original translations on our special library blog, LR Translations, where Samantha's work will soon begin to appear as well.
NOTE: Today we bring you two horrifying stories (nos. 2 &5) detailing the efforts of the Kremlin to crack down on and seize control of the Internet. If they're doing this far now, imagine what they'll do after the next "election" cycle. Some said this would never happen and urged us not to worry. We warned you long ago it would -- and this is only the beginning.
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3 comments:
The WaPo article pointed out that internet usage in Russia is only 25%, pretty paltry by western standards, but, not at numbers alarming to Putin & Co. They can afford to accomodate those few dissenters on LiveJournal and other sites who aren't widely read at this point. The pretense of democratic tolerance is important to Putin's image in the West. His pretense at internet tolerance is cheap and easy for now.
It's in Putin's best interest to keep Russians as dumb as possible. Investment in tech infrastructure for the masses would work against him ultimately. Can the minority that have access to the internet use it as a community for enlightenment and change? Time will tell.
When this decade or whenever of easy oil and gas money subsidies runs its course Russia will be dumber if nothing changes.
Penny
The funny thing is that russkies like to think of westerners, and Americans in particular, as "тупой"
- stupid.
And, as everywhere, in some cases that may be true.
But for anyone who is interested and follows the subject, westerners and Americans are actually better informed about Russia than the vast majority of russkies themselves.
The russkies attack the Internet all over the place, as you know, including Estonia, Ukraine, and other former sovok countries.
Well, here's something interesting.
The Party of Putin, Єдина Росія (One Russia) has declined to take part in televised election debates.
Instead, they have allowed as how they want to "more fully get their program directly to the people."
Link to Ukrainian article here:
http://5.ua/newsline/251//45184/
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