Slashdot Mirror
Russia Moves From Summer Time To Standard Time
jones_supa writes: Russia's legislature, often accused of metaphorically turning back the clock, has decided to do it literally – abandoning the policy of keeping the country on daylight-saving time all year. The 2011 move to impose permanent "summer time" in 2011 was one of the most memorable and least popular initiatives of Dmitry Medvedev's presidency. It forced tens of millions to travel to their jobs in pitch darkness during the winter. In the depths of December, the sun doesn't clear the horizon in Moscow until 10am. The State Duma, the lower house of parliament, voted 442-1 on Tuesday to return to standard time this autumn and stay there all year.
The article also discusses a ban on swearing in books, plays, and films that went into effect today in Russia.
So... How is this even tangentially related to being newsworthy for a tech site? Like, seriously, WTF?!
The article also discusses a ban on swearing in books, plays, and films that went into effect today in Russia.
Slashdot readers, please if you currently support Russia or neutral to their current policies -- please don't trust my words for it. Please research the facts and please do not support Vladimir Putin. Support Ukraine and Russian opposition.
Russia is a modern fascist-governed country. The chief ideology that replaced democratically-aimed Yeltsin era became Russian Christian-Orthodox Fascism. It is evidenced in prohibition on much of the freedom of speech, freedom of expression, murders of critical journalists, arrests and trials of the anti-government activists, arrests and trials of the gay activists, rampant government-sponsored homophobia and xenophobia, and even aggression and annexation of the land of her neighbors.
That's why I don't understand American left (from the group of those who always defend Russia no matter what). It is more then obvious that Russia is in the business much worse then the USA when it comes to human rights, privacy, freedom of speech and expression, and respect for other country's territories. Even the famous American anti-spying pro-privacy whistle-blower Snowden after finding refuge in Russia became its internal praiser (few months ago he was the one that threw a "softball" question at Putin's press conference if there is any electronic monitoring is going on within the FSB (renamed KGB) walls, question that was obviously designed for him to be asked and for Putin to be answered, even though Snowden never had any journalistic accreditation to be in that press conference in the first place.
A rampant anti-Americanism and anti-Europeanism allows even the highest in power to call Americans "Pendos" (a derogatory Russian word reserved for the Greeks) and Europeans -- "Gay-ropeans" -- an obvious reference to the Russia's extreme homophobic stand in the years of Putin's reign.
Russia has actively supported the most corrupted regimes in their vicinity. When Ukraine has decided to rebel and depose its corrupt leader because it wanted to live like civilized people -- Ukraine's political leadership was quite ironically accused of being fascist, and the Crimean peninsula was annexed through a "referendum" under the barrel of unmarked Russian solders' guns (which was later admitted by Putin to be actually Russian soldiers.), and even that referendum's results were corrupted. (A commission appointed by Kremlin specifically admitted that only 43% of the people of Crimea wanted to be part of Russia, not 98%., and only people of the city of Sevastopol (where the Russian fleet has a base) voted at close to 80% to be a part. In one famous press conferences Vladimir Putin gave at the time of annexation, on the question what would happened if the Ukrainian military in Crimea will not give up their arms and start fighting invading soldiers, Putin answered that the soldiers will stand behind women and children, and he will see how will Ukrainian soldiers shoot at them.
For the last few months after the Crimea's annexation Russia has been blowing up tensions in Ukraine's eastern regions, sending their weaponry and thugs, paying and training these thugs to terrorize and murder the Ukrainian people. They have done it before in 2008 in Georgia.
I can give many more examples of this, but Russia is most parallel with the Germany of 1930s. The same Goebbels' style propaganda is across all the Russian TV channels and newspapers, with lies, falsified information and imagery and unprecedented paranoia (Russian political idea that Americans want nothing but to enslave the Russian people), at times antisemitism (recently one of the TV presenters had a flat-out said that Jews are guilty of Holocaust), xenophobia (against all nationalities, even the Slavic ones that do not support the policies of Putin), homophobia (the chief of the Russian main news agency, Dmitry Kiselev said that homosexuals' hearts should be burned upon their deaths), and many more things.
Slashdot readers, please if you currently support Russia or neutral to their current policies -- please don't trust my words for it. Please research the facts and please do not support Vladimir Putin. Support Ukraine and Russian opposition.