Slashdot Mirror
How Putin Tried To Control the Internet (vice.com)
derekmead writes: In this excerpt from the recently published The Red Web, Andrei Soldatov and Irina Borogan describe how the Kremlin has been trying to rewrite the rules for the internet to make it "secure" as it is understood by Russia's secret services. "Vladimir Putin was certain that all things in the world—including the internet—existed with a hierarchical, vertical structure. He was also certain that the internet must have someone controlling it at the top. He viewed the United States with suspicion, thinking the Americans ruled the web and that it was a CIA project. Putin wanted to end that supremacy. Just as he attempted to change the rules inside Russia, so too did he attempt to change them for the world. The goal was to make other countries, especially the United States, accept Russia's right to control the internet within its borders, to censor or suppress it completely if the information circulated online in any way threatened Putin's hold on power."
Bah!! Bullshit.
Eavesdrop now under guise of national security, control later under the guise of national security. Not much difference. Given time, America is well on their way to the same shit.
If you're neither American nor Russian, neither of these is a good idea. And we trust neither of you in the long run.
But let's not pretend there's a fundamental difference.
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
I had the same problem with a manager back when the Internet was new and we were beginning to use it where I worked. He called me in one day and wanted to know exactly WHO ran it and how they could be reached if necessary. When I explained that there was no one person, organization or country that ran it an how it was a network or more or less independent networks he really couldn't get his head around that at all. I guess it was kind of mind blowing for him coming from a background in SNA ( IBM System Network Architecture). I guess I got off easy. I sure as hell wouldn't have wanted to be the one that gave that news to Putin.
how-putin-tried-to-control-the-internet (In Russian)
In short: Russian govt (Comms Ministry and Comms Supervision: Minkomsvyaz and Roskomnadzor) had performed a simulation of disconnect of Russia from the global Internet this spring. They have found that Russia is still connected, and they could not understand by what means it stays connected. They think that the problem is in lots of small providers (up to 11000 Internet providers licenses total) that have satellite links abroad.
Full Disclosure: I live in Russia. And I am quite glad that the experiment failed.
Have you ever talked to Russian people? I mean those who live there. You might be surprised that there's a really common belief that goes back to the days of the tsar that the guy in charge is benevolent and kind and caring ... Khrushchev's time in power was probably the high water mark of the USSR in terms of achievements and quality of life... homicidal maniac Stalin was the greatest leader they ever had.
1. The monarch is never ideal. But he can survive ONLY with his people. Either it makes him at least slightly benevolent and caring, or he is overthrown and killed. In contrast, the democratically elected President can do everything he wishes and run away immediately after his term.
2. The first thing Khrushchev did was to destroy the private agriculture. And we Russians have LOTS of political jokes about him depicting him as an active idiot.
3. Yes, Stalin was a dictator (I tell it as a grandson of Kulak). But Stalin spent the results of his dictatorship EFFICIENTLY. No other maniac in the world did it.
It never ceases to amaze me that he's got a group of shills for Slashdot. I had no idea we were so important.
"When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes