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Celebrated Russian Hacker Now In Exile
An anonymous reader writes: VKontakte is a Russian social network, more popular there than even Facebook. Its founder, Pavel Durov, was a celebrity for his entrepreneurial skills, much like Mark Zuckerberg elsewhere. But as Russia has cracked down on internet freedoms, 30-year-old Durov had to relinquish control of the social network. He eventually fled the country when the government pressured him to release data on Ukrainian protest leaders. He's now a sort of roving hacker, showing up where he's welcome and not staying too long. "Mr. Durov, known for his subversive wit and an all-black wardrobe that evokes Neo from the Matrix movies, is now a little-seen nomad, moving from country to country every few weeks with a small band of computer programmers. One day he is in Paris, another in Singapore." Durov said, "I'm very happy right now without any property anywhere. I consider myself a legal citizen of the world."
When your net-worth is 7 figures at a minimum, that's a bit easier to do.
Your hair look like poop, Bob! - Wanker.
Yes, it is. That one police state is slightly less worse than another doesn't change that both are police states.
When all is said and done, the US is still a helluva lot freer than Russia. But I was being facetious; the last place he should go is the USA or we'd see a Snowden - Durov swap in the blink of an eye.
And what has Durov done that was traitorous or cowardly?
And for that matter, Snowden was a patriot, and far from a coward. A coward would have kept his mouth shut.
I'm starting to think GNU is the problem with "GNU/Linux" these days.
Ask any Russian today, why his country invaded Crimea — and they'll tell you, it was done to "protect the Russian-speaking population from the Nazis in Kiev". The joke has plenty of truth to it, though, I suppose, Germans in Czechoslovakia were making similar jokes in 1938...
In Soviet Washington the swamp drains you.