Slashdot Mirror
Kremlin Seeks to Control Online Media
reporter writes "According to a disturbing report just published by Bloomberg, 'As the Kremlin gears up for the election of Putin's successor next March, Soviet-style controls are being extended to online news after a presidential decree last month set up a new agency to supervise both mass media and the Web.' However, unless the Kremlin pursues Chinese-style/Turkish-style blocking of the Internet-Protocol addresses of web sites like 'The Economist', even the Kremlin cannot control the online media. If Putin pulled the plug on an anti-Putin web site inside Russia, the anti-Putin web site could simply be migrated offshore to a server in, say, the United States."
Well this is what happens when your President was once a KGB chief.
In America, you spam computers In Soviet Russia, computers spam you!
More like when your president is a former head of KGB.
In America, you spam computers In Soviet Russia, computers spam you!
"I looked the man in the eye. I found him to be very straight forward and trustworthy and we had a very good dialogue... I was able to get a sense of his soul... He's a man deeply committed to his country and the best interests of his country and I appreciate very much the frank dialogue and that's the beginning of a very constructive relationship," Mr Bush said.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/1392791.stm
Yeah, and that's not obvious enough, what with the constant murder of sources and journalists in Russia? Have you been living under a rock for two years!?
In America, you spam computers In Soviet Russia, computers spam you!
What would probably happen is that Putin would keep the site up ... and pull the plug on the site operators.
The higher the technology, the sharper that two-edged sword.
In the United States the media controls you.
-- "of course thats just my opinion, I could be wrong." --Dennis Miller
"Soviet style" is when you round up a few million people without trial and make them slaves in work camps in some place very cold and do this such that the vast majority of them die before there 'term' (if they even got one) is up.
Take a fucking breather people. There are a lot of things to bitch about when it comes to the US and its direction. That said, the extreme hyperbole where you compare the Soviet Union justice system to the US makes you sound like an idiot not worth listening to.
I am not happy with the direction that the US is headed in many regards, but people need to screw their heads back on and get some perspective. The US is not Soviet Russia. Hell, it isn't even close to the Russian Federation or China. The US is still very much a liberal place to live, and in many regards far more liberal in some areas then Europe. The US has a long way to fall before it reaches the level of Russian Federation (much less the Soviet Union).
Slaves in work camps? You're thinking of Stalin times, 1930's to 50's. After Stalin died things got a LOT better - there were no mass killings for one.
I don't think the US realises how radically the USSR changed during the time it existed. It was messy and dangerous but somewhat functional under Lenin; brutal under Stalin; Kruschev denounced Stalin and changed direction radically; then it gradually relaxed until there was not the heart to continue forcing it to exist.
Discussing the Soviet Union as if it has always been that same entity from WW2 is pointless.
For every expert, there is an equal and opposite expert. - Arthur C. Clarke
In fact, Kruschev changed directions so radically that he built the Berlin Wall and had would-be crossers shot!
The government can't save you.