Russia Cracks Down On Public Wi-Fi; Oracle Blocks Java Downloads In Russia

Linking to a story at Reuters, reader WilliamGeorge writes "Russia is further constraining access to the internet and freedom of speech, with new laws regarding public use of WiFi. Nikolai Nikiforov, the Russian Communications Minister, tweeted that "Identification of users (via bank cards, cell phone numbers, etc.) with access to public Wifi is a worldwide practice." This comes on top of their actions recently to block websites of political opponents to Russian president Vladimir Putin, require registration of prominent bloggers, and more. The law was put into effect with little notice and without the input of Russian internet providers. Sergei Plugotarenko, head of the Russian Electronic Communications Association, said "It was unexpected, signed in such a short time and without consulting us." He added, "We will hope that this restrictive tendency stops at some point because soon won't there be anything left to ban." In addition to the ID requirement to use WiFi, the new law also requires companies to declare who is using their web networks and calls for Russian websites to store their data on servers located in Russia starting in 2016." That's not the only crackdown in progress, though: former Slashdot code-wrestler Vlad Kulchitski notes that Russian users are being blocked from downloading Java with an error message that reads, in essence, "You are in a country on which there is embargo; you cannot download JAVA." Readers at Hacker News note the same, though comments there indicate that the block may rely on a " specific and narrow IP-block," rather than being widespread. If you're reading this from Russia, what do you find?

Comments

The problem with American Embargos

[i kan reed]

Is that we never end them. We implement them, then due to our collective national ego that manifests most clearly in congress, never roll them back for partial success. We take a hardline of "our way or the highway" and the highway ends up looking more appealing to your Cubas, your Irans, and now your Russias.

"The stick" only works when the donkey can see a future where it won't be beaten.

P.S. That's not to say anything other than screw Putin and his imperial ambitions.

Re:The problem with American Embargos

[bobbied]

Not exactly true, we do roll them back every so often.... We pretty much ended hostilities with Japan and Germany, both of which where under US trade sanctions previously... Then there is South Africa, we sanctions them previously but restored relations when they came around. Same with Iran and Turkey, we dropped sanctions on them in the past, even if we've cycled back to having them of late.

Re:The problem with American Embargos

[Jaysyn]

I fucking wish Obama had the nads to say something even close to that publicly.

Re:The problem with American Embargos

[Cardoor]

remember the gulf of tonkin! grrr!

Re:The problem with American Embargos

[Obfuscant]

You read that whole thing about what Russia is doing to control the Internet and you convert that into an anti-US rant?

I'm surprised you didn't point out the positive side of the whole affair, which is that Russia has a legislative system which isn't in the pockets of the evil capitalist corporations since these laws were implemented without any input from the ISPs.

Re:The problem with American Embargos

[pixelpusher220]

a friend of mine commented "just once I wish Obama would show up at a press conference in overalls with 2 pitbulls on chains and rant like the angry black man the right accuses him of being"

Re:The problem with American Embargos

[wiredlogic]

The continued embargo against Cuba is more about pandering for Cuban-American votes than enforcing any foreign policy.

Re:The problem with American Embargos

[bobbied]

Exactly! We should govern by polling EVERYONE in the country. Maybe every day someone should post all the foreign relations issues and potential solutions, and we can all Facebook like the ones we like and the ones we don't. Hmmm. That might be hard to manage with a population of several hundred million. Perhaps we could break up the population into smaller groups and have some sort of arrangement where there are representatives chosen from the groups of people who give input into how they're governed. But what would one call such a system of representatives governing? Hmmm.

On your other topic, what point are you making regarding Putin? Are you arguing he doesn't have imperial ambitions? Would it be imperial ambitions if he rolled into a few more countries, or will you just see that as gettin' the old band back together?

Love the history lesson.. Well played and exactly correct.

Re:The problem with American Embargos

[RenderSeven]

remember the gulf of tonkin!

Last time I filled up there, I used Exxon of Tonkin

Re:The problem with American Embargos

[NicBenjamin]

By every definition of Imperialism I've ever seen the Russians are doing a lot more of it then the US. Putin is trying to increase his sphere of influence with the Eurasian Union. eat bits of neighbors who rock his boat, refusing to give up control of a region that included a major military base, etc.

OTOH, Obama isn't setting up any new organizations. He's abandoned a fairly large country that included a lot of US bases entirely. He really doesn't want to go back, even tho he doesn't have much option. He's not shy about telling people he'll happily turn over two other (Afghanistan and Pakistan) allies to anyone who will take them if the Afghans decide they don't want American troops on their soil.

It's true the US has a large alliance-system that many have likened to an Empire, but there's a massive difference between forcing Canada to coordinate it's policy with the US and letting the Canadians coordinate their policy with the US because the Canadian people have chosen to elect Steven Harper. The former is the definition of Imperialism. The latter is the opposite.

Re:The problem with American Embargos

[gl4ss]

Putin is a dickweed.

if there's someone that should be taken down a notch it's him, but his sort of trapped now in his politics of grandness. it's all a show to keep people off the streets in russia - which has happened before and can happen again. minority bashing, "taking back what's ours" another. but it is costing him a shitload of money.

Why the fuck do you think he's so scared of what happened in Ukraine? Losing Trade? the people got up and threw out the russian mob leader.

but asking the average american on the street? I doubt they'll even know where russia is or how big it's economy is(pretty fucking small for a country the size of it, think california size).

putin should be embargoed for a number of reasons and donetks situation is just one of them.

and I say this as a Finnish person and Finland is one of the countries hit most by the embargo because we actually do trade with Russia. I mean, do you think the Russian elite wants to eat Russian cheese or Finnish cheese? Their food sucks, their roads suck, their ports suck(thus shipping lot of merchandise to Russia through Finland), the business environment sucks(you cannot trust land leases or rule of law), Russia needs to be dragged to this century already.

It's not just an american embargo. in fact, USA has the least to lose and EU could have given the finger to USA on the matter but fuck, enough is enough. monetary wise Germany loses the most business, but percentually perhaps Finland.

Re:The problem with American Embargos

[IamTheRealMike]

By every definition of Imperialism I've ever seen the Russians are doing a lot more of it then the US. Putin is trying to increase his sphere of influence with the Eurasian Union. eat bits of neighbors who rock his boat, refusing to give up control of a region that included a major military base, etc.

Hardly. If you buy the western line that the rebels in east Ukraine are all reporting directly to Putin then yes, but nobody with any knowledge does buy that line, it's clearly nonsense. Putin told them not to have a referendum, they ignored him. The rebels asked Russia to annex east Ukraine, Putin ignored them. He certainly did not order anyone to shoot down a civilian air liner.

Meanwhile, in the last few years the USA has formally established the global American empire for the first time. Yes, before 2010 it was largely a matter of pressure and the belief by world leaders that America would engage in economic warfare against anyone, including so called "allies", who defied it. But then America passed a law called FATCA that turns every bank or financial institution in the world into an arm of the IRS recursively. Not just institutions that trade with America, but all of them, every last one, with institutions exposed to the US economy punished unless they in turn enforce Washington's will upon their trading partners and so on. America has also started passing recursive trade sanctions, sanctions that say "you're either with us or against us and if you're against us, you get sanctioned in exactly the same way". They did this for Iran, for example.

Now tell me. What is a country that can tax anyone it likes, anywhere in the world, and punish anyone it likes, anywhere in the world, and force anyone to take part in their economic wars, anywhere in the world, regardless of what those people actually want? The ability to tax and the ability to draft into an army is the defining characteristic of an empire. Russia can't do shit to me here in western Europe but America can and will ruin me if I get on the wrong side of them. That makes me an unwilling citizen of the American empire.

Re:The problem with American Embargos

[NicBenjamin]

Like many so-called anti-Imperialists, you have a double-standard.

The only way for the US to support the Syrian people at this moment would be direct military action. So you are calling for a US invasion of Syria. To do anything else is Imperialism. But then you turn around and accuse the US of Imperialism specifically because we invaded Iraq and Afghanistan. You can;t have it both ways. Either invading to shoot an evil dictator and replace him with a feckless Democrat is Evil Imperialism or it's not.

As for your points about Iraq and Afghanistan being intended to increase the US sphere, you will note that it has not actually worked.

OTOH, Russia's adventures have increased it's power in Ukraine greatly.

Bye bye Internet

[TheDarkMaster]

It was good while it lasted. Now the real owners of the world came to the conclusion that the internet undermines the total control of them, so they are eliminating it as they did with many other technologies and groups who tried to give power to the people.

Re:Bye bye Internet

[nurb432]

bye bye open internet.. the darknet will survive and prosper.

Re:What. The. Fuck.

[Jeremy Erwin]

Guess the poor guy didn't know about having to send his bribes in to stay in the Great Leader's good graces.

That would be how it works in Russia, but in the United States, polluters can't (and shouldn't be able to) bribe themselves out of jail.

Re:emargo on java?

[eladts]

wtf is the point?

Improved security?

In Soviet Russia

[dumuzi]

The internet browses you.

You know what? Screw them.

[Anonymous Coward]

It'll do the world a favour once Russia realizes they're the fucking third world - they're not a peer, they're not a competitor, they're a backward relic from a bygone era. The US, EU, and China represent the real powers in the globe, with a strong first-world supporting cast of Japan and other countries; a strong second-world with a developing Brazil, India and the Asia Tigers; finally you have those which time is slowly forgetting. Russia clearly fits in to a clearly defined role.

As reported to European media, their population loves the actions their leaders are undertaking to "stick it to the west"; as far as we should be concerned, they can sleep in the bed that Vladimir makes.

Re:Now this just might....

[Z00L00K]

And the countermeasure is - block access to Russian Porn?

There's no crackdown on WiFi

[Cyberax]

There's no crackdown on WiFi. The quoted rule only applies to publicly-owned free WiFi hotspots: http://slon.ru/fast/russia/pra...

Re:Turkey?

[i kan reed]

Speaking having only emerged from ignorance about it myself on internet search ago, there were some sanctions on Turkish groups, which is a bit like an embargo on Turkey itself.

No java in Russia?

[Bill, Shooter of Bul]

Those luck bastards!

If we wanted to punish them, we'd make JAVA usage manditory. JAVA Desktops for everyone! JAVA ME phones only! and Java Jackpot. Who the hell knows what the point of Jackpot was, but starting now every Mother and child in Russia must figure it out, and use it!

Re:Turkey?

[compro01]

Are you sure the US has sanctions on Turkey?

Had, yes. The USA had an arms embargo and miscellaneous other sanctions against Turkey from 1974 to 1980-ish, as a result of the Turkish invasion of Cyprus.

Whatever

[Anonymous Coward]

I don't know why anyone is surprised that Putin and company act like dictatorial thugs. Their nation is imploding and they need to bring out the rod to keep control.
Russia is going through the tyranny playbook chapter by chapter. Demonization and scapegoating of minorities, directly state controlled media spewing nationalistic propaganda, massive corruption and crony control of all major industries, suppression and murderer of political opponents. The list goes on. You name it, they do it. Anything not on the list will happen soon. Things will get worse before they get better.

This is now getting to be an old story in Russia. Something makes me wonder if their culture yearns to be under the boot of monsters and tyrants, because it's been that way for the past few hundred years.

And for the tired, trite "America does it too" blowhards that are already typing up their scathing reply:

Fuck you. Yes. Fuck you, how you think, how you act, what you believe. Fuck everything about you. YOU are the problem. America isn't perfect but your deaf, self serving, wildly out of scale comparisons are poisoning the debate and will frankly will be the end of us all. And not just with Russia. With everything. The Republican party is an out of control monster (Full stop. End of story. No debate. You are a child that does not deserve to participate in adult conversation) and you show up with your limp wristed cynical "Dems do it to so nothing matters!" bullshit and nothing gets done. Fuck you again, for good measure.

Re:Whatever

[bobbied]

I don't know why anyone is surprised that Putin and company act like dictatorial thugs. Their nation is imploding and they need to bring out the rod to keep control. Russia is going through the tyranny playbook chapter by chapter. Demonization and scapegoating of minorities, directly state controlled media spewing nationalistic propaganda, massive corruption and crony control of all major industries, suppression and murderer of political opponents. The list goes on. You name it, they do it. Anything not on the list will happen soon. Things will get worse before they get better.

This is now getting to be an old story in Russia. Something makes me wonder if their culture yearns to be under the boot of monsters and tyrants, because it's been that way for the past few hundred years.

And for the tired, trite "America does it too" blowhards that are already typing up their scathing reply:

Except for that last rant and one small detail, I agree with you. This was my impression of what Putin is doing. He's prepping for conflict, internal and external and following the well worn paths of world history in general and Russian history in particular. We are going to all look back on the Olympic opening "show" of Putin's and see the story line play out yet again.

The small detail has to do with how long this has been going on. I think we can safely say it's been thousands of years that the same broken record has played and replayed about every 100-200 years. Ending every time in a bloody rebellion where the innocent pay.

Those who don't know history are doomed to repeat it, while those who do, are doomed to helplessly watch while those who don't repeat it.

Re:Whatever

[Anonymous Coward]

It's a propoganda technique that is so old it's practically a tradition:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whataboutism

Any time Russia wants to do something bad without being seen as evil, the astroturf army will start posting comments about how everybody else is evil too, trying to deflect attention.

Re:Now this just might....

[aix tom]

Well, it might speed up the "Russian Coffee" fork of Java. Like sunshine mixed with happiness.

And when I say sunshine I mean coffee.
And when I say happiness, I mean vodka

Re:what Snowden has done is like...

[pixelpusher220]

actually, no he wouldn't get a fair trial. He's not allowed to present much of what would be his case. Motive is a perfectly reasonable thing to enter into the record. Except he won't be allowed to do so. Even Daniel Ellsberg of the Pentagon Papers thinks so.

Re:You know what? Screw them.

[Tailhook]

their population loves the actions their leaders

There you go. Mod the parent up.

The parent perhaps goes too far in dismissing Russia's standing in the world since '91; there has been a huge flow of capital from the West into Russia to fund heavy industry beyond the reach of Western regulatory burdens and this has stimulated rapid economic growth and a resurgence in Russian military capability, including new design ICBM deployments.

But the parent is absolutely correct about the Russian people and the leaders they empower. Russians are once again indulging a cult of personality in Putin. I know there are many Russians in IT and geekery that will say I'm all wrong because that's not what they would have, but the fact is that the majority of Russians are thrilled by their bare chested father figure, sop up every morsel of the propaganda they're being fed and have kept him in power long enough to cement his place as Russia's latest autocrat.

Russia; publicly cultivate your masculinity and say bad things about America and you too can install yourself for life.

Re:You know what? Screw them.

[quantaman]

It'll do the world a favour once Russia realizes they're the fucking third world - they're not a peer, they're not a competitor, they're a backward relic from a bygone era. The US, EU, and China represent the real powers in the globe, with a strong first-world supporting cast of Japan and other countries; a strong second-world with a developing Brazil, India and the Asia Tigers; finally you have those which time is slowly forgetting. Russia clearly fits in to a clearly defined role.

As reported to European media, their population loves the actions their leaders are undertaking to "stick it to the west"; as far as we should be concerned, they can sleep in the bed that Vladimir makes.

I've lost some sympathy for the Russian people due to their general backing of Putin's policies.

However, I'm extremely worried for the nations bordering Russia who are full of nice people who would rather not be invaded and turned into the USSR 2.0.

Re:What. The. Fuck.

[bobbied]

You fail to bring into account that said corporation is owned by PEOPLE who did loose money when the fines where paid and damages made whole. You also fail to mention that willful breaking of laws by an employee of a company puts his butt in jail, even if it's the CEO.

The guilty get punished, even if you don't want to admit it.

Re:You know what? Screw them.

[Anonymous Coward]

I agree that parent might be going too far in dismissing Russia's standing today, but I think you're both somewhat incorrect on the mood of the Russian people. In actuality, there is a lot of disgust and guilt amongst Russians over Ukraine, but a lot of this is suppressed by the need to show support for the government and the reactionaries who do in fact agree with the government. Think about those with cooler heads just after 9/11 who wanted more forethought and calm. The more they spoke out, the more they were branded as sympathizers of the enemy. There is a genuine distrust of the west in Russia. It's not entirely unearned however. See the west through the eyes of a Soviet Russian or a new Russian. Entities like NATO, CIA, and SIS (MI-6) are scary things in much the same way as Warsaw Pact and KGB were to the west. The difference: NATO, CIA, and SIS exist today. NATO has been taking former Warsaw Pact nations as members. This puts the NATO border much closer to Russia. NATO exists for the purpose of fighting Russia (albeit the Soviet era Russia). Russia is not the EU, yet former Soviet satellites and eastern Bloc nations are. This isolates Russia every more. There is an additional language barrier in the cyrillic alphabet without the advantage of western exposure to latinization as there is in Ukraine and the former Yugoslavian nations. There have been several moves by the US in European affairs that have marginalized Russia. All these things are real. But then you have the perceived stuff in the media. Putin has used the media very well to sell the idea that westerners truly hate Russians. It ranges from the same kind of "They hate us for our freedom" simplistic statements that Americans use to explain their enemies to more extreme ideas that are similar anti-semitism.

It's really unfair to blame Russian people as many do (not saying you have). Russians do not have the access that westerners have. The Russians I know, none of whom are techies, just ordinary wage slaves - they can only whisper about how upset they are at the way things have gotten. Americans have to stop assuming that Russians can just pick up a Don't Tread on Me sign and an AR-15 and march through the streets or get an opposition cable news channel with some pundit who will attack the president.It really is a different world.

This article is a bullshit

[kaygorodov]

There is no embargo on Java and similiar technologies. Also the "author" haven't read the Law he mentioned. There's no crackdown on Wi-fi. This is all just about informatioal war that is going on in press and on "freedom space" of internet where every ignoramus person can write an article.