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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?
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.
"File to fit, pound to insert, paint to match" - Aircraft Maintenance 101
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.
Religion: The greatest weapon of mass destruction of all time
I fucking wish Obama had the nads to say something even close to that publicly.
There is a war going on for your mind.
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.
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.
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.
There's no crackdown on WiFi. The quoted rule only applies to publicly-owned free WiFi hotspots: http://slon.ru/fast/russia/pra...
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!
Well.. maybe. Or Maybe not. But Definitely not sort of.
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.
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.
People in cars cause accidents....accidents in cars cause people
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.
Maw! Fire up the karma burner!
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.
I stole this Sig
The continued embargo against Cuba is more about pandering for Cuban-American votes than enforcing any foreign policy.
I am becoming gerund, destroyer of verbs.
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.
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.
world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.