Russian Leader Putin Signs Controversial 'Big Brother' Law (venturebeat.com)

An anonymous reader writes: Today Russian President Vladimir Putin signed the controversial "anti-terrorist" legislation adopted by the lower and upper houses of parliament in late June, despite the flurry of criticism from opposition-minded circles and the serious concerns expressed by Russian telecom and internet companies. As reported earlier by East-West Digital News, the new legislation -- which Edward Snowden has called "Russia's new Big-Brother law" -- is not only severe against those involved in "international terrorism," its financing or non-denunciation. Law-enforcement agencies will also be granted access to any user's messages without any judicial oversight. Several key provisions will directly affect the internet and telecom industry. In particular, telecom operators and internet resources will need to store the recordings of all phone calls and the content of all text messages for a period of six months. They will be required to cooperate with the Federal Security Service (FSB) to make their users' communications fully accessible to this organization.

Comments

Re:In Soviet America

[Jason Levine]

Unless we resist it, government will always be seeking more power, as will the half of the political spectrum that is always seeking ever-more government.

Both halves of the political spectrum (i.e. Republicans and Democrats) push for ever-more government. They might differ in some instances as to where this bigger government should be intruding, but they both support it. The days of the Republicans being proponents of small government are gone. (If that ever was the case, in the first place. At the very least, the GOP has been a steady supporter of increasing the military's size no matter what.)

No Judicial Oversight

[Jason Levine]

Access to every communication with no judicial oversight? The question isn't "will this be abused" but "how quickly will this be abused?" Also: "Will we ever know that it has been abused or will the Russian government cover it up?"

Bonus question: Will the Russian equivalent of Snowden flee his country with files detailing the abuses this law allows, publish the information drawing the ire of the Russian government, and flee to the US for sanctuary? Also, would the US grant him asylum or use him in a trade for Snowden?

A simple exercise

[Anonymous Coward]

Fact #1: The republicans and democrats have dominated US politics together over the past century. Neither has dominated alone; they have shared roughly equally in the domination of US politics.

Fact #2: The US government of today dwarfs the US government of a century ago, in terms of both revenue (adjusted for population growth) and power over the people. In that time period, the US government has grown itself into the largest and most expensive world empire in human history, with a military presence in some 200 foreign countries. By any measure, the US government is the largest and most powerful government this world has ever seen.

Now consider the common view of the republicans being the party of small government, and the democracts being the party of big government. If that were true, wouldn't we expect their political efforts to roughly cancel each other out, resulting in a US government roughly the same size as a century ago, measured in either revenue or power over the people?

The problem is that it's not. In fact, it's not even comparable. The US government of today absolutely dwarfs the US government of a century ago. What can we possibly conclude from this except that neither the republicans nor democrats have been fighting for smaller government? If they had been, we wouldn't be sitting in the middle of the largest, most far-reaching, most expensive, and most powerful government in world history.

Re:Link to law text

[cbiltcliffe]

Phonetically writing the Russian sounds using /. compatible western characters, it comes out like this:

Vse vashi bazy prinadlezhat nam

And Google translate is apparently smart enough to still translate this properly, so I should have just done it this way in the first place. D'oh!

Re:Putin rebuilding the Soviet Union

[Anonymous Coward]

So? From an American perspective it may seem onerous, but most Russians don't care. Russia is an extraordinarily hard country to govern, with multiple ethnicities, terrible geography, crappy ports, and hostile neighbors. On top of that, Russia has been the subject of the 3 largest invasions in human history. Even with that, they have no allies with which they can identify; they're white so they're not Asian, but the Europeans don't accept them as European either. There somewhere in the middle.

The only times in Russian history where Russia has been strong was under a strongman leader. Peter the Great, Catherine, Stalin, Putin. Americans are happy to argue freedom and civil liberties when they're surrounded by countries they've crushed militarily, dominate economically, and are protected by two big oceans and the world's biggest Navy. Most Russians are willing to give up freedoms and security when their history is rife with people who surround them, hate them, and try to kill them.

Re:In Soviet America

[TheGratefulNet]

there's only semantics diffs between russia and the US, or the UK and the US, when it comes to this very human-need to snoop on our fellow man and control, Control, CONTROL him.

we used to make jokes about 'we dont do this, we are not russia' but we have become the stereotypical 'russians'. minor details vary, but the theme is 100% identical.

a week ago, I was at a store that was giving away american flags for the 4th of july. I looked at them, thought to myself 'I have no pride in the US anymore, why would I want to boast about being american, these days? we are no better than anyone else, truth be told, and everything I was taught about the US, as a kid, were lies'.

I walked past the table of flags and I have to tell you, it was not a pleasant thought to think what my country has become, over the last 20 years. I was never a flag-waver before, but the very thought of being proud of ourselves makes me feel quite conflicted. yes, there are some things we do well, but with so many lies and so much corruption, I just don't feel the same about my country anymore.