Slashdot Mirror
Russia Blocks Internet Sites of Putin Critics
An anonymous reader writes in with news about Russias censorship of internet sites critical of President Vladimir Putin. "Russia blocked access to the internet sites of prominent Kremlin foes Alexei Navalny and Garry Kasparov on Thursday under a new law critics say is designed to silence dissent in President Vladimir Putin's third term. The prosecutor general's office ordered Russian internet providers to block Navalny's blog, chess champion and Putin critic Kasparov's internet newspaper and two other sites, grani.ru and ej.ru, state regulator Roskomnadzor said. The move was the latest evidence of what government opponents see as a crackdown on independent media and particularly the internet, a platform for dissenting views in a nation where state channels dominate the airwaves. Ej.ru editor Alexander Ryklin called it 'monstrous' and a 'direct violation of all the principles of freedom of speech,' More at EFF, and in earlier stories at the The Huffington Post, and Deutsche Welle, which notes, 'This year's report by Reporters Without Borders on World Day against Cyber Censorship condemns Russia as one of the "Enemies of the Internet." "Russia has adopted dangerous legislation governing the flow of news and information and freedom of expression online," it concludes.'"
Sadly, Russia is turning more and more to Soviet ways. Putin was even rehabilitating Stalin.
Putin Reportedly Claims the Dissolution of the Soviet Union May Have Been Illegal
This may not end well.
much of left-wing thought is a kind of playing with fire by people who don't even know that fire is hot - George Orwell
There a topic that isn't about America? Well can't have that! Spin it to be about America! Redirect all topics to be on America, particularly whining about America!
Seriously, this American-centric bitching is really annoying. People need to knock it off. This is about Russia. That things are happening in America doesn't mean things aren't happening elsewhere. It also doesn't mean those things aren't of interest to the wider world. What is happening in Russia right now is of quite a bit of interest not just to Russians, but to Ukrainians, and to the whole of Europe. Also some people from the US might like to know too because hey, it is nice to be informed about the wider world.
So quit. Quit trying to make every thread about the US. There are lots and lots of those on Slashdot. When something comes up on a foreign country, let it be on that topic. The topic at hand is Russian media/internet censorship not NSA spying. That one is a little further down the front page.
Rules against criticizing the government makes a political campaign all but impossible for anyone but the incumbent. In other words, they are now a dictatorship. Hopefully the Russian people won't give up their freedoms so easily, and push back.
(If at first you don't succeed, do it different next time!)
There are other stories about the NSA and related matters on the page now, and over the last several days. I find it odd that you apparently didn't post in them. You kind of went off topic there.
Or just trying to deflect the heat off Russia? You even got there with a first post.
Is the rule we can't discuss anything other than the NSA? Are you felling personally oppressed?
Other parts of the world have problems besides the US. They can be discussed too. It isn't a "hollow" problem.
much of left-wing thought is a kind of playing with fire by people who don't even know that fire is hot - George Orwell
Until we stop living in a mass surviellence state, this all rings hollow.
The US (and the West in general) differs from Russia not in our inclination towards surveillance -- pretty much all governments do that -- but in the fact that it's controversial here.
You do know that it's possible to criticize bad things done by the US government, and criticize bad things done by other governments, right? Because your statement seems to indicate that you're unaware of this option.
Unlike Russia, we don't need to ban critics. We can just stalk and harrass them, until then ruin their lifes.
Tell that to Alexander Litvinenko, Viktor Yuschenko, Anna Politkovskaya, Yuri Shchekochikhin, Yuri Shchekochikhin, and many others.
"The Greens lynched a hacker in Chicago. Last month, but I think the body's still hanging from the old Water Tower."
Oh don't be so stupid. I'm no fan of the NSA's surveillance either but pretending that has any bearing this is complete nonsense.
About the only connection is that Putin's Russia is a warning about how bad it can get, so yes the NSA and CIA need to be reigned in somewhat, but the US isn't exactly as bad as Russia where the KGB, sorry, "FSB" as they prefer to be called nowadays, have their man in charge and basically run the entire show. At least there's still some semblance of separation between US intelligence agencies, the courts and the people who run the country still. In Russia it's all one big completely KGB orchestrated machine. The very fact the CIA had to try and meddle with the senate in itself shows they don't have that level of control over them yet, in Putin's Russia they'd have just had Feinstein and co. arrested on some trumped up charges and that would be the end of it.
So yes, whilst the US has lost it's right to preach on some issues (i.e. bitching at China for hacking) this is at least one area where it's hardly reached Putin-esque levels of dictatorship.
Stalking and being harassed even if that were happening on a widespread scale to all critics (it's not, people are still free to criticise - that's what you're doing for fucks sake and I doubt anyone is stalking or harassing you) is even then still a far cry from being beaten senseless and chucked in jail, or just outright assassinated with a bullet to the head by an assailant that never gets found (because they don't want to find him).
But the level to which Russian society is controlled by the government has always been markedly higher than the level to which the US society is controlled by the goverment. What about restricted cities, internal passports, vastly greater lack of freedom of speech and expression etc.? Even though I'm always ready to call on Americans for being absurd, I'm also perfectly willing to admit that the civic situation in the US, while not perfect, is somewhere in the 90th percentile, as far as the world's nations are concerned. You simply can't say the same thing about Russia. You never could.
Ezekiel 23:20