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Kaspersky Lab Says It Has Become Pawn in US-Russia Geopolitical Game (reuters.com)
Russian cyber security firm Kaspersky Lab, reacting to a U.S. government move restricting its activities, said on Wednesday it had fallen victim to U.S.-Russia global sparring while the Kremlin criticized the U.S. action as politically-motivated. From a report: The Trump administration on Tuesday removed the Moscow-based firm from two lists of approved vendors used by government agencies to purchase technology equipment, amid concerns its products could be used by the Kremlin to gain entry into U.S. networks. "By all appearances, Kaspersky Lab happened to be dragged into a geopolitical fight where each side is trying to use the company as a pawn in its game," RIA news agency quoted the company's press service as saying.
bickering children. the lot.
Mongo have similar experience.
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
Kaspersky should realise that their word that they aren't acting on behalf of the Russian government isn't worth shit. Putin is all fucking powerful in Russia and there is no rule of law there. So when they say they aren't at the behest of Russian intelligence, nobody fucking believes them.
Grow some balls and take back your kleptocracy from Dear Leader Putin and then maybe someone will believe you when you say you aren't a vehicle for Russian government malware.
I do not want your cheap brainburning drugs. They are useless for work. And I am a working man today.
Is there any American company that can prove their independence from the U.S. government?
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
Russian and the US could get along, they actually have a lot in common. Hope to see it happen someday. The world would be a safer place.
If they outlaw Jetbrains then only outlaws will have Jetbrains.
And I will be in trouble because Netbeans and Eclipse just doesn't cut it for me anymore.
Could there be a Kremlin back-door or trojan in Kaspersky anti-virus? I don't think so but unfortunately it is too easy to imagine. And it might even be something Putin is not aware of.
Will they get sacrificed or promoted to a queen?
Just a few examples:
1) Both are actively fighting radical Islamic terrorist threats
2) Both are pretty conservative (in opposition to the ultra-liberal European norm)
3) Both are very religious and very Christian (in opposition to the increasingly atheist/agnostic European norm)
4) Both are very patriotic (in opposition to the cynical European norm)
5) Both are taking a fairly hard-line approach to immigration (as opposed to other European countries who seem to just be throwing their doors open to any middle-aged African claiming to be a sixteen-year-old Syrian refugee)
6) Both still have an active and functioning space program
7) Both are very pro-military--in spirit, funding, and practice.
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
I think you are asking the wrong question. Of course there does not exist a company that is completely free from the laws, regulations and requirements of the country in which it works (and that includes all countries in which they work for the multinationals).
What you are forgetting in your question is that, in the United States, CEOs are not murdered by the United States government if they oppose the chief executive, as has happened with Russians. You are forgetting that the United States is not an official kleptocracy (yet) where plutocratic friends of Vladimir Putin are free to steal from the country's resources at the expense of the taxpayers and that the government there is absolutely uninterested in transparency. You are forgetting that, in Russia, there are no checks and balances, the Judiciary is not independent of the central government, that the legislature (Duma) does not hold hearings to investigate the President or the Prime Minister and that the current President found a loophole in the country's constitution that allows him to hold onto power for much longer than his country's constitutional intent.
From this standpoint, a company that is located in the United States is unfettered by the politics of the day, as long as the company produces a valuable product and is a good corporate citizen. When our federal government asked for a "back door" (as a forinstance) into the Apple iPhone, Apple fought it. and, although the issue was declared moot, the government had to come up with a hack that would work on its own.
Were Apple's headquarters in Moscow or St. Petersburg, there would be no appeal to a court—they would have been forced to comply. And there might have been a sudden, unexplained death of the CEO were there any resistance.
So, my answer to your question is, yes. Companies are independent from our government here in the United States. They do not exist at the pleasure and tolerance of our Chief Executive as they do in Russia
Gods don't kill people, people with gods kill people.
Russian oligarchs that don't follow Putin's orders end up dead and in jail.
That's the difference between Russia and the USA. We don't kill our cranky billionaires, or jail them on phony charges.
The Trump crime family broke alot of laws in their treasonous collusion with Russia's attack on our country, but we still let him run for president and "win"
Opposition figures in Russia are imprisoned and bankrupted by Vladimir Putin who has even less regard for the rule of law that his puppet Donald Trump. Once we kick that traitor out of office, America's rule of law will once again be a beacon to the free world.
It's not hard to understand the difference between Russia and the US, but if you can play the false equivalence game that equates a boring centrist (Hillary) to a right wing traitor (Trump) then I guess you are gullible enough believe any false equivalence.
The Pee Memos and the Russian Attorney are linked to the same Democratic Party black ops company, FusionGPS.
https://www.washingtonpost.com...
Not only that, but HRC campaign colluded with Ukrainian Government against Trump
A veteran DNC operative who previously worked in the Clinton White House, Alexandra Chalupa, worked with Ukrainian government officials and journalists from both Ukraine and America to dig up Russia-related opposition research on Trump and Manafort. She also shared her anti-Trump research with both the DNC and the Clinton campaign, according to the Politico report.
Both R and D are doing whatever it takes to win an election. No story here, unless you're equally outraged at "collusion" between Hillary and Ukraine, this is a nothing story.
The problem is, both sides are in deep, but we only hear about Trump.
Agent K: A *person* is smart. People are dumb, stupid, panicky animals, and you know it.
Moscow didn't do anything, and the only reason Russia rolled into Crimea was after Ukraine adapted a law making Ukrainian the sole official language, thereby making life potentially difficult for Russian speaking Ukrainians.
Didn't do anything? LOL.
Other than sending troops, weapons and equipment, passing a vote to annex... of course, nothing. Also, you might want to review your understanding of the time line.
Sure, and Moscow is legitimately Mongolian, because they owned it once, and then later they didn't.
The difference is that Donald Trump and the Trump crime family have actually committed treason, colluding with a hostile foreign government.
I'm going to stop you right there. This assertion has NO proof. Not to mention that Treason has a constitutional definition (Article 3, section 3).. Plus, what does "colluding" look like and how's THAT a crime? And in what way is a hostile foreign government describe Russia?
Now I suppose that it is theoretically possible that your confident assertion of collusion turns out to be true, the problem you have is up to this point, there has been zero evidence of this narrative. The Russians were trying to mess with the election (mostly unsuccessfully), but there are zero actual facts that provides a hard link with coordination with Trump or his campaign. Muller is looking, until he comes up with something, your assertion is premature (what's more it's dangerous should Muller not find what you think he will.)
Treason has a specific definition in the Constitution. We are NOT at war with Russia. In fact, we have treaties with them, participate in the UN with them and are not in open military conflict with them either during the campaign or up though today. We are not on great terms, to be sure, but this is NOT war. If there is no open conflict, there can be no treason. "Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying war against them, or in adhering to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort. No person shall be convicted of treason unless on the testimony of two witnesses to the same overt act, or on confession in open court." How is what you think Trump or his campaign actually did Treason? We where NOT in open conflict with Russia and Trump and his associates obviously didn't "wage war" (as in take up arms) or "give aid and comfort" (Harbor those who where or aid in committing hostile acts on the USA)
What Trump Jr. did was stupid, but it wasn't illegal or treason. Nothing changed hands, no information, nothing, in that meeting. Both Trump Jr. AND the lawyer who where there agree on this. You are choosing to not believe what they claim, but have zero evidence they are lying. So what do you have?
"File to fit, pound to insert, paint to match" - Aircraft Maintenance 101
You continue to make confident assertions of things for which you have zero real evidence. There is a whole lot of supposition and assumptions, but no actual evidence that Trump and Russia acted together and lots of people have been looking at this under a microscope for MONTHS (if not over a year if you believe Comey's testimony that HE started looking back in early 2016). We've had all sorts of stuff coming out, leaks of all kinds and a lots of pontificating by the democrats about how "THIS new revelation is the smoking gun" over and over but not one of them have actually worked out. We've had talk of impeachment, criminal collusion, obstruction. now treason, and no proof of any of it has surfaced.
So what's going on? This whole narrative of Trump and the Russians is made up and forwarded by those who have political axes to grind. It's NOT about the truth or even stopping law breaking, but about political power and doing damage to Trump. It's the only way the democrats have left to try and forward their agenda, forward their cause though the "Resist" movement, being obstructionist and the like. This is about politics, not about Trump or what he actually did or didn't do.
"File to fit, pound to insert, paint to match" - Aircraft Maintenance 101
At least from the Russian perspective, the end of any kind of detente came with the bombing of Serbia. At the time, Russia, broken and incapable of any kind of force projection, was forced to abandon a policy that it had essentially held for centuries; that of being the protector of the Slavic peoples. Couple this with NATO enlargement, where a number of former Warsaw Pact countries, understandably in my view, joined up, and then began entering the EU, you can see where they came to believe that the West was out to permanently castrate Russia. This is an understandable sentiment as well.
That all being said, Russia has been a right pain in the ass to the West for a few centuries now, and there's never been a great deal of trust on either side. Further, it's hard to see how there can be any trust so long as Putin and the Oligarchs are basically running the country as their personal piggy bank, and where the infant organs of a democratic state have been so quickly undermined. When they get caught interfering with multiple Western elections with the clear intent to either destabilize or get Russia-friendly candidates elected to high office, I'd say meaningful rapprochement is a long way off. Even in the US, where Trump does seem far more Kremlin-friendly than virtually any predecessor, Congress has made it awfully clear that it will not remove sanctions, and indeed would like to see even more sanctions.
The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
It's Classified eh? LOL Right, why haven't the details been leaked then? We've had leaks of classified information though out this whole dang process so being classified doesn't seem to be a valid reason we don't know it... My guess is there is nothing to leak... But hey, what can I say? I'm not cleared to see this stuff, nor are you (I assume) so we are not resolving this debate here. I mean the Flynn conversation with the Russians getting exposed was from classified information and we found out about that, Obviously somebody doesn't mind leaking classified stuff.... Yet we don't yet have the incriminating details because they are classified? You are kidding...
But if you want to construct some alternate reality where because it's classified it's somehow not commonly known... Be my gest... I don't' believe that and YOU still have zero proof.
"File to fit, pound to insert, paint to match" - Aircraft Maintenance 101
No, what memo? LOL.. Oh you mean the DNC talking points about why Hillary lost the election memo... No, I didn't get a copy, I'm not on their mailing list and I don't watch MSMBC or CNN... My bad..
"File to fit, pound to insert, paint to match" - Aircraft Maintenance 101
That was really just the point that people woke up to Russia's aggression and the fact it had never really let the Cold War die off.
In 1999 when he was inaugrated he declared the collapse of the Soviet Union as the biggest tragedy of the 20th Century (bigger than Nazi death camps), by 2004 he'd already ordered the poisoning of Viktor Yanukovych's closest opponent Viktor Yushchenko during the election campaign to try and hand Ukraine to Yanukovych way back then. It backfired and Yanukovych still lost until with further Russian meddling he succeeded in 2010 before fleeing in the 2014 revolution against Russian meddling. In 2006 he also poisoned Alexander Litvinenko in London.
But Russia also never left places like Moldova, Georgia's disputed territories, and Armenia, and they invaded Georgia proper in 2008 to try and enforce Russian control. They kept military bases in other places, but unlike in the aforementioned states, not so much as to control the nation politically but much more in the same way the US has bases in places like Germany, and Japan - i.e. merely as relatively benign forward stations.
For Russia the Cold War never really ended, it merely took a brief hiatus under Yeltsin. The whole invasion and annexation of Crimea and invasion of South Eastern Ukraine and subsequent downing of MH17 was really just the first time most average people in the West woke up to the fact that the Russians have still been fighting the war for the last 20 years whilst we've been asleep oblivious to it - even now some people think the whole Russian support for Trump thing is a conspiracy theory and all about partisan politics, when it goes much farther and much deeper - Putin's support extends to UKIP and Brexit (via Arron Banks), support for Le Penn, support for AfD, Golden Dawn, Jobbik and many other far right parties across Europe. Thankfully mainland Europe has managed to stem the tide, whilst Britain and America are still too busy playing party politics to realise the real enemy has seriously fucked them.
Even if you support Trump, even if you support Brexit, the reality is that Russia has still acted to neuter Britain and the US on the world stage with some success. If we still want these things when Russian propaganda isn't spinning us a lie through companies like Cambridge Analytica, then fine. But what's clear is that we've made political choices that have damaged us economically and/or politically because of money and influence from a nation that wants to see us fall - no one can deny Brexit is costing Britain dear with wages and productivity down, and our currency in tatters whilst we remain a net importer costing us dear. No one can deny that America is diminished on the world stage as Trump is sidelined into irrelevance over things like the Paris agreement. This is exactly what Putin has wanted to achieve since the moment he took power, and we walked blindly into it.
NATO made overtures to let Russia also join NATO at the same time other ex-Warsaw Pact members were joining in large part to try and avoid precisely the sort of thing that happened in Ukraine and to try and achieve a sweeping military stabilisation stretching across the entire Northern Hemisphere.
The problem is a majority of Russians have a dictatorship mentality - they don't do things by mutual agreement, they believe in a strong leadership, which is why they're constantly led by defacto dictators. This unfortunately extends into their geopolitical world view too, in that they could never join NATO because the concept of being in an organisation as an equal is alien to them - to them they should be the grand dictator of the organisation This is also why Putin so hates the EU - he'd join it, if he could be wholly in charge of it, but whilst he sees mutual cooperation between 28 of his closest neighbours, he sees that as an affront to everything the Russian mindset stands for, he sees that as weakness, and so when it works, when the EU becomes the largest single economic area in the world right on his doorstep he despises that and will stop at nothing to try and destroy it and impose his idea of a Russian led Eurasian Economic Union instead.
This is why he poses for what seem like ridiculous photos to us - to the Russian psyche it's exactly what a leader should be, not just to his own country, but to the whole world. Whilst the rest of Europe grew up, Russia fenced itself off behind a wall and kept itself stuck inside the 15th - 19th century European Empire mindset. Probably the only real solution to the Russian problem is to allow them to go bankrupt again with sanctions and so forth, but this time, don't let them get back up - make sure the territory fractures. More modern forward thinking areas like St Petersburg would likely become pro-EU independent territories, whilst the backward areas could be left to fester. Unfortunately, there's then the nuclear question, but it's clear you can't work with Russia as an equal until Russia has it's own enlightenment, because it's just not in their national psyche.
Ukraine keeping its nukes wouldn't have done a thing for it: the controls remained in Moscow. It wasn't like the Ukrainians & Kazakhs - the 2 republics aside from Russia that had nukes - were gonna get the codes and own the ones in their territory. That's why Leonid Kravchuk wanted those nukes gone - not b'cos he was a pacifist, but b'cos there were weapons in his country that were not in his contol
On the Tatar claims, wrong! The Tatars were conquerors of that territory in the Middle Ages, and were ousted by the Tsarist Russians. And w/ good reason: aside from being vassals of the Ottoman Turks, they also conducted several invasions of Russia, including burning down Moscow on one occasion. Crimea became a part of Tsarist Russia in 1783. Prior to that, it was first part of the Russian/Byzantine empires, and later, the Golden Horde. The Crimean Tatar Khanate started in 1441.
Russia moved in not b'cos of the ouster of Yanukovich, but b'cos Kyiv had just passed a law making Ukrainian the sole official language. Russia decided that it needed to preserve the rights of the ethnic Russians, and so invaded Crimea and held a referandum. One can argue about its legitimacy, but those were the events in question. Besides, when the Soviet Union came apart, there was an agreement b/w Kyiv & Moscow on the ownership in Sevastopol and the Crimea, and that agreement was broken after Yanukovich was ousted. That was what provoked the Russian occupation.