
Russia Blocks Access to Major Independent News Sites - emilis_info
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2014/03/russia-blocks-access-major-independent-news-sites
======
mike_esspe
The law, that created internet block list in Russia, was promoted as a measure
to stop child pornography:

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_Restriction_Bill](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_Restriction_Bill)

~~~
higherpurpose
UK is next. There's no doubt in my mind they will start blocking news sites,
blogs and social media in the next mass protest (if there will be one anytime
soon, since UK population seems almost as complacent and docile as the
American one, which is just perfect for authoritarians).

~~~
SixSigma
> since UK population seems almost as complacent and docile as the American
> one

That is really quite offensive. We have a culture of protest and resistance.
What we have at the moment is a paradise of easy living. Despite the
depressing lie of what the media will give you with "food banks and poverty"
the standard of living for most Britons is really quite good, much better than
the 1980s which saw major public political unrest.

People won't take to the streets for internet privacy or other such soft
battles you can think of. The political classes will chatter about whatever
games they play with each other but people really don't care about such
issues.

~~~
madaxe_again
"really quite good"

This is that media control thing that's being spoken about here. Go north, my
son, things aren't so rosy outside of London.

People won't take to the streets here, full stop. The British populace have no
appetite for it.

~~~
SixSigma
I don't live in London, I'm in the East Midlands mining country. I spent years
in campaign groups including street fund raising collection so I feel
qualified to judge public feeling.

~~~
madaxe_again
Aye - I agree with you re: the public feeling, but the thing is, the public
feeling is out of whack with the reality.

------
siculars
Here's an idea. Every organization that believes in freedom may consider
repurposing their websites to allow access to censored sites.

Let's say you're in Russia and instead of configuring a proxy you simply go to
eff.org or nyt.com or columbia.edu and you go to a special page there that
then lets you go to all the sites that are censored in that country. The net
result is that that country would then need to censor an ever growing list of
sites to the extent that they either give up or blackhole the entire country.
You could design a system that had distributed rate limiting, crowd sourced
censorship lists and all you would have to do is drop some javascript lib in
your site and some proxy on your backend. Ya, it's some work, but hey, it's
time for the free world to put its money where its mouth is.

~~~
raquo
They'll just blacklist every single one of these sites for enabling access to
illegal materials and you won't even be able to read EFF from Russia. And if a
Russian citizen creates a public proxy, they'll convict him on anti-terrorist
charges. That'll deter the rest.

I am not convinced that pushing Putin to exercise his dictatorial abilities is
a good idea when his approval ratings among the general population are so
high. I mean, if people already hated him, that might have pushed them over
the edge. But as it stands now, general population is more likely to
rationalize blocking than admit that Putin is evil.

~~~
aric
> _" They'll just blacklist every single one of these sites..."_

That's the point: pressure. Outside sites willing to expose themselves to an
'iron curtain' is a true form of solidarity in this era where a world is more
connected. Push-back is exactly how successful, peaceful movements are waged.

------
sologoub
Well... I was expecting a more impressive list then these: \- www.grani.ru \-
www.kasparov.ru \- www.ej.ru \-
[http://navalny.livejournal.com](http://navalny.livejournal.com)

Not even sure why they bothered to block Kasparov. I have yet to talk to
someone who actually lives in Russia and cares about what he has to say.

While not a good move, it doesn't quite live up to the EFF headline.

This is the official site that lists all blocked sites, but it looks like you
have to know what you are looking for:
[http://eais.rkn.gov.ru/](http://eais.rkn.gov.ru/). Note, I haven't actually
been able to get it to return any queries on the above sites...

~~~
avmich
You don't get a more impressive list because these are the only remaining
sources. The rest are suppressed - by various means. Echo of Moscow could be
the last - and might be closed not because it's oppositional but just because
it's more balanced than government-influenced media.

~~~
democracy
It's not balanced, it is more anti-Putin than any of the "western" sources.
CNN looks like a puppet comparing to Echo of Moscow hate.

~~~
avmich
I usually point to Yakunin's articles; Matvienko, Peskov are not unusual
guests in Echo of Moscow. On the other hand, it's pretty rare to hear opinion
of Kasparov, Navalny or Kasyanov on primary TV channels.

I've tried to compare Echo of Moscow to RT, for example. Echo had much more
details - when RT said "policemen stopped the people who blocked the way",
Echo actually provided photos and videos, together with short interviews with
both policemen and people those policemen detained.

There are many people in Russia who don't like Echo. But if you try to find
out why, you'll find it's because Echo is simply different - not the majority,
as should be expected, frankly, if you'd consider the possibility of the media
being filtered by some means. You should go for facts - which is often hard -
and Echo is probably most professional in giving you facts, from all sides and
opinions.

------
casualmuscovite
Reporting from the trenches. Here in Moscow all 4 sites from the list [1] are
being banned as of this morning.

* ej.ru (assortment of articles by opposition writers)

* kasparov.ru (chess grandmaster and one of the opposition leaders)

* navalny.livejournal.com (possibly most prominent opposition leader as of late; mayor of Moscow candidate in 2013 mayoral election)

* grani.ru (opposition newspaper)

I'd have to agree with said elsewhere in the comments that an average Russian
will likely not notice those sites virtual demise. They're not much known or
popular outside of a tight opposition camp.

Echo of Moscow is, however, a very popular radio station. Banning their site
is likely to cause a little shit storm. It is not banned though and working
just fine. What happened is they hosted their own Navalny's blog [2] and this
particular URL was banned. However, the banning system is IP based, so along
with it all the site would have been blocked. The site admins quickly took
down the blog and the ban was lifted.

[1]
[http://rkn.gov.ru/news/rsoc/news24447.htm](http://rkn.gov.ru/news/rsoc/news24447.htm)

[2]
[http://www.echo.msk.ru/blog/navalny/](http://www.echo.msk.ru/blog/navalny/)

~~~
eps
Isn't Navalni widely considered/painted as a paid US shill in Russia? I've
seen him on TV and he didn't strike me as someone who'd put his life on a line
for betterment of Russian governance, just in principle. His true motives are
far from clear.

~~~
adobriyan
> Isn't Navalni widely considered/painted as a paid US shill in Russia?

He is. Just as Echo and the rest of our liberal fifth column.

~~~
go13
Small part of Russia wants to live in a free liberal society but major part
says we want to live in a gang-totalitarian terrarium headed by the KGB agent.

Those who have courage to protest on the Bolotnaya square say we want to have
free media and have a right to protest but zombied people say we want to be
slaves.

Zombied slaves don't want to have alternative media and don't want to think
because Putin's propaganda does this for them.

These guys consider all countries around to be their enemies who want to
destroy Russia. Why? Because all criticism which is really worth attention
(poverty, HIV, abuse of basic human rights, the president who does his 3rd
term, invasion to Georgia, Ukraine etc) they say to be an attempt to damage
their declining country.

So guys, it is your choice.

Even if people read Hacker News, Silicon Valley will never come to Russia
because innovations can't exist in a prison-styled country where semi-military
illegal cossaks scourge young girls without mercy. This means your people will
never be rich. Of course except your small elite made its weals selling
resources and slavery workforce.

And FYI Wiki definition of Liberalism:

Liberalism is a political philosophy or worldview founded on ideas of liberty
and equality. Liberals [...] generally they support ideas such as free and
fair elections, civil rights, freedom of the press, freedom of religion, free
trade, and private property

~~~
adobriyan
blah blah blah liberty(TM) democracy(R) innovation ltd

Navalny thrives on anti-caucasus card to pump Russia into civil war when told
to by his western masters.

and some of our liberals are quite severely braindamaged judging by what they
tell in public

~~~
avmich
To resolve different opinions, we have to agree on some basic relevant facts
and some criteria to judge. Apparently it's tough for subjects like this.

Even common sense becomes not so common for people with different views. Then
there is the question of facts - which sources would you trust? Factual bias
can effectively shape opinions.

------
Grue3
Disgusting, first they started blocking random sites for "promoting suicide"
or "promoting drug use", and now they don't even try to mask the censorship.

As a Russian citizen, I'm also very interested what Internet Hero Edward
Snowden thinks about this.

~~~
adobriyan
> first they started blocking random sites for "promoting suicide" or
> "promoting drug use", and now they don't even try to mask the censorship.

we have good teachers and are learning (from west obviously)

~~~
avmich
Indeed it takes a good sense to learn good things from imperfect teachers. One
has to see the forest behind the trees and understand what good US can teach
to Russia - even though US is quite susceptible to similar ills itself.

------
blogytalky
The context of what's happening in Russia is very important. And very sad:

1\. Lenta.ru, one of the biggest Russian news websites (600 thousand visitors
daily) mentioned in the article:
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lenta.ru](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lenta.ru)
Although Wikipedia says "39 employees out of the total 84 lost their jobs" it
is known that they were not fired but were leaving the company together with
fired Editor-in-Chief Galina Timchenko as an act against censorship. Some
links:

[http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-26543464](http://www.bbc.com/news/world-
europe-26543464)

[http://en.rsf.org/russia-lenta-ru-website-is-
latest-13-03-20...](http://en.rsf.org/russia-lenta-ru-website-is-
latest-13-03-2014,45996.html)

[http://blogs.wsj.com/emergingeurope/2014/03/12/russian-
news-...](http://blogs.wsj.com/emergingeurope/2014/03/12/russian-news-editor-
fired-after-interviewing-ukrainian-nationalist/)

2\. And this is what happened with TV Rain news channel. It will be closed
soon most probably.

[http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/feb/04/russian-news-
ch...](http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/feb/04/russian-news-channel-tv-
rain)

[http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/comment/2014/02/asking...](http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/comment/2014/02/asking-
the-wrong-question-on-russian-tv.html)

3\. Echo Moskvy. "The head of one of Russia's few remaining independent
broadcasters, Ekho Moskvy, has been dismissed and replaced by an editor from
state media.", "Its editor said it was an "unjust" and "totally political
decision" aimed at changing editorial policy."

[http://www.rferl.org/content/gazprom_wants_to_dismiss_radio_...](http://www.rferl.org/content/gazprom_wants_to_dismiss_radio_board/24483318.html)

[http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-26239715](http://www.bbc.com/news/world-
europe-26239715)

4\. The New Times started a paid subscription to protect itself from
censorship a few months ago. This is the only link, in Russian, couldn't find
any sources in English: [http://www.newtimes.ru/obrashenie-
avtora/](http://www.newtimes.ru/obrashenie-avtora/)

------
spenvo
The greatest instrument used in the societal tragedies of the last century has
(undoubtedly) been state delivered propaganda.

Japan (Empire of the Rising Sun), Nazi Germany, Maoism (and the following
Cultural Revolution), in America: Red Scare (age of McCarthyism, ending as a
consequence of JMc.'s untimely death), the Red Peril (the predecessor of the
Red Scare) -- the list goes on. The efficacy of those at the top to wield
their power would have been far less without propaganda. Their ability to
acquire it -- even less still.

Consider current-day North Korea, Venezuela, or numerous Middle-Eastern
countries (which regulate education as well as the internet); consider the
intellectually subdued population of China and the unconscionable acts which
have been silently taking place in Tibet (and elsewhere) behind the Great
Firewall. All of these nations are suffering from handicapped/censored
versions of the internet -- while simultaneously being subjected to
propaganda.

Russia can now officially be added to that club. I can't help but extrapolate
-- applying this trend to other nations.

An Uncensored and Open Internet* is crucial to the subversion of tyrannical
governments' propaganda efforts.

* - (I prefer this to "Free and Open" because 'free' is so easily misunderstood by baby boomers)

~ ~

We are witnessing (again [0]) a complete lack of attempted narrative on the
part of the US/UK mainstream press. There isn't the slightest reason to not
give this story ample coverage -- it is anti-Putin/Russia (which, we can all
agree is the current fetish in the media), and it is absolutely newsworthy --
even by their standards (they covered when the Russia Today anchors quit and
spoke-out). SO WHAT GIVES? This is the dereliction of duty in "journalism."
Shame. And it is greatly affecting the movement for an Uncensored and Open
Internet.

"Coverage" is different from "being reported." This needs to reach baby
boomers in the form of a headline. They don't appreciate the internet because
they can't connect the dots.

I've snapshoted cnn.com, foxnews.com, msnbc.com, bbc.com - at 8:51pm CST at
web.archive.org . I'm the crackpot that believes there are ulterior motives in
this pattern of institutional ignorance/behavior.

~ ~

When it comes to the marketing of high stakes legislation - know that the true
motives are often-times blended with an actual public desire, with the bill
being a means to another end entirely. As mike_esspe points out: this action
being taken is through the passage of Russia's "anti-child pornography" bill.
For those that missed it, here's what happening in the UK on the same front of
misdirection. [0]

If you care about making a difference, beyond "liking" and "upvoting" \-- I
highly recommend (as did Aaron Swartz) reading "The Power Broker," and you
will have a greater appreciation of the forces at play and how opaque the
processes which deliver and execute the policies of governance really are.

[0] - A recent example of the mainstream press giving essentially no coverage
came with GHCQ webcam revelations:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7315743](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7315743)
The loose connection between the (casually addressed) problems of pictures
obtained of minors' nudity in the webcam program and the governments' attempts
to censor the internet on the back of the serious child pornography issue is
worth noting, for its hypocrisy.

[1] -
[http://www.reddit.com/r/worldnews/comments/1zhd6i/david_came...](http://www.reddit.com/r/worldnews/comments/1zhd6i/david_camerons_aide_on_child_internet_policy_has/)
~~

For the inevitable Godwin's Law comebacks. People too often focus on Hitler's
1936-39 rise to global prominence: what is often overlooked is the unabated
role of the party's propaganda-machine from 1921 to 1932 to gain popular
support and 1932 to ~1936 to brainwash the remaining populace.

~~~
Steko
It's a good thing the Mongols didn't have modern _state delivered propaganda_,
otherwise some real atrocities might have taken place in the areas they
conquered.

~~~
mikeash
Or An Lushan. Makes Mao look like a rank amateur. If propaganda is necessary
to modern atrocities, what changed to make it so?

~~~
BugBrother
I shocked the educated English guy next to me at work, when I gave a reference
to "The harrowing of the north".

Not exactly the most obscure part of English history, but still not well
known. Control of information isn't new.

The fun part will all the Chomsky thing is that in my native Sweden, you have
totally different influences on the news media than USA. E.g. left wing
extremists have a large space, political discussion are often done by
interviewing political left extremists (Gardell, Hubinette, Guillou, etc).

But you see lots of "manufactured consent", lots of head line news stories at
BBC/NY Times just doesn't show up. Etc.

~~~
BugBrother
I should add -- what I meant was, the filtering of the news is very different
but still filtered. E.g. pro-Israel stuff (Pallywood, torture between
palestinian groups, antisemitism in the muslim world etc)often just doesn't
get printed.

Sometimes you see a story at the BBC/NY Times. After it has grown to a
headline item, it is grudgingly made news in Sweden a couple of days later.

I assume this is because the left wing extremists really care about Israel.

------
spoiledtechie
1\. Create laws to shut down public knowledge.

2\. Use those laws to shut down public knowledge.

3\. Invade a country to see how the rest of the world responds.

4\. This is the most important step. We respond with strength or we respond
with diplomacy.

5\. If we respond with diplomacy step 6 would be for Putin to invade another
country. If we respond with force, it would lead Putin to respond with
backtracking...

The choice is theirs.

~~~
avmich
Actually, soft force could be quite powerful. There is somewhat relevant Iran
example.

I think the West has plenty of opportunities here. On the other hand, those
won't come free - and I understand the hesitation. Yet again, to some -
smaller - extent we have a situation, which is similar to what happened
already about 80 years ago in Europe.

------
1gor
While the press freedom is important there are different priorities during the
wartime.

Russia today is ready to go to war with the West in order to keep Ukraine from
joining NATO. "Russia regards this as an existential threat and will do
whatever it takes to prevent it happening. ([http://www.bbc.com/news/world-
europe-26566452)"](http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-26566452\)")

The banned sites are considered enemy propaganda outfits by Kremlin.

~~~
cLeEOGPw
This isn't anything Russia hasn't been doing for decades. It has been
spreading propaganda for a long time, it cannot even be compared to UK or US
or any other developed country censorship levels. Putin wipes out everything
that is not directly following orders from him. It is only now that these
things came to world attention. Media is not only censored in Russia, they
simply make up things and tell as truth and facts. If you'd understand Russian
and would listen to their news you'd think it must be some joke how ridiculous
their lies are, but it isn't.

------
tokenadult
This is breaking news, so a lot of people who might be expected to comment
about this in other press sources have had no opportunity to do so, I suppose.
I personally would like to hear what Edward Snowden has to say about this, and
I hope the Russian authorities will provide the opportunity for him to comment
on Internet freedom in Russia in light of recent events.

~~~
higherpurpose
Are you trying to insinuate that Snowden remained in Russia by choice?

~~~
vasilipupkin
Certainly, it is at least somewhat ironic that he is currently in Russia,
given all the latest news out of that country. In fact, reading Greenwald's
writings on recent events in Ukraine, I am having a hard time ignoring the
curious pro-Putin slant in his writings.

~~~
olsonjeffery
I just did a survey of Greenwald's usual haunts (twitter, The Intercept,
Guardian, etc) and haven't found anything mentioning Ukraine or Russia at all.
Care to link?

~~~
vasilipupkin
[https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2014/03/01/journalistic-i...](https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2014/03/01/journalistic-
independence/)

"Wasn’t it just 72 hours ago that the widespread, mainstream view in the west
(not one that I shared) was that there was a profound moral obligation to
stand up and support the brave and noble Ukrainian opposition forces as they
fight to be liberated from the brutal and repressive regime imposed on them by
Vladimir Putin’s puppet? When did it suddenly become shameful in those same
circles to support those very same opposition forces?"

------
theflork
If you are in Russia I would get the TOR browser fast, before the government
blocks the main TOR download mirrors as well.

~~~
wfn
I'd further consider

\- downloading the pluggable transports bundle:
[https://www.torproject.org/docs/pluggable-
transports.html.en...](https://www.torproject.org/docs/pluggable-
transports.html.en#download)

\- and getting some bridges:
[https://bridges.torproject.org/](https://bridges.torproject.org/)

just to have all this ready in case they decide to do some more nasty stuff
later on.

------
sidcool
And this is the first step towards a country's gradual demise. World will
always progress towards freedom. It's a gradual but sure process, just like
evolution. Some call it Social evolution.

------
dangerden
I'm from Russia. Yes, sure, it is a plan to control the media. Especially when
Internet media are so popular. We still have access to all other western
medias. It is pretty simple to compare the facts. Of course these happenings
are tightly linked to the Ukraine crisis. I could say that western people also
do not get the whole picture as national medias cover the crisis in a very
biased way. One more time we see that medias are being controlled by someone
imposing "national" interests.

~~~
trekky1700
I really don't see what _every_ media outlet that isn't Russian state-
controlled would have to gain from distributing "biased" journalism.

We've seen raw footage released, we can read live tweets about what's
happening and we can even communicate with people effected via the internet.
The only side that seems to conflict with what's coming out of the region is
the Russian side.

I watched cellphone footage of troops with Russian equipment in Russian
vehicles with Russian license plates that spoke Russian and claimed to be from
Russia in Crimea, despite Russian media and government reports of there being
no Russian troops there.

With the internet and mobile phones, it's really hard to get away with lies in
media anymore (unless of course you censor the evidence).

~~~
twelve40
What?? Russia has quite officially kept at least 10k troops in Crimea for the
last 200 years, give or take. Maybe you can cross-check your breaking twitter
news with, I dunno, wikipedia maybe?

~~~
trekky1700
But they haven't occupied the region and they haven't left bases or done
exercises without permission for the last 20 or so _relevant_ years since the
fall of the USSR.

------
motbob
EFF's title conjures up images of sites like CNN and Reuters being blocked. A
better title might be "Russia Blocks Access to Major Opposition News Sites."

~~~
guard-of-terra
Why would CNN and Reuters matter much in non-English-speaking country? Not
many people go there.

Russia has no opposition (in the meaning of the world) so your title won't
make sense.

------
phektus
Well at least something they and the States can agree about.

[http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bea-edwards/the-us-and-
austral...](http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bea-edwards/the-us-and-australia-
prop_b_4956635.html)

------
ekianjo
It's ironical that this news and the one on "Papers, Please" are at the top of
HN at the same time. kind of looks like Russia is warping back to his former
soviet state.

------
zavulon
I'm so glad my family got out of Russia 17 years ago.

------
1gor
Did EFF complain about Ukraine government outlawing access to any Russian
language news a few days ago?

 __Correction __: Above sentence is not correct. Not _all_ Russian language
news were outlawed. Instead, only Russian TV channels were banned in Ukraine a
few days ago. This has caused OSCE to express concern. See the link below.

Almost a half of Ukrainians speak Russian language. New Kiev government has
banned national broadcasts in this language, effectively denying its people
access to information.

When we hear the arguments that banning Russian-language press/TV in Ukraine
is OK, since those are necessarily 'Putin propaganda', but banning radical
sites[1] in Russia is wrong, because they are 'independent news', we can only
admire the ability to maintain double standards without as much at batting an
eye.

([http://www.osce.org/fom/116312](http://www.osce.org/fom/116312))

[1] I don't necessarily agree with Russian government definition of
'extremist/radical', but their point is that above Russian sites have given
their pages to neo-Nazis to call to armed struggle against the state.

~~~
trycatch
What a great textbook example of whataboutism.

In Ukraine only 5 foreign TV channels were banned -- Vesti, Russia 24, ORT
(First Channel World Network), RTR Planet, and NTV World. All of them were
state-sponsored mouthpieces of Russian Goebbels-style propaganda, and it's in
a country invaded by Russia. No wonder that these propaganda channels of
foreign aggressors were banned.

In Russia Kremlin attacks its own legitimate independent from state press and
opposition leaders. Russian independent TV channels were already destroyed
long before (with exception of Dozhd that was attacked only recently), but
yesterday Kremlin started to broadly use one more method in its fight against
freedom of press -- Internet filters. And that what EFF article is about.

These situations have very little in common, and they very bundled together
only to be used in the standard "but you are lynching negroes" argument.

> I don't necessarily agree with Russian government definition of
> 'extremist/radical', but their point is that above Russian sites have given
> their pages to neo-Nazis to call to armed struggle against the state.

Eh, neo-Nazis to call to armed struggle against the state? That's just
bullshit. Good example, why Russian Goebbels-style propaganda is a problem.

~~~
1gor
I think your 'Goebbels this' and 'Goebbels that' arguments are amusing.

Thanks for confirming that 5 TV channels carrying alternative views are banned
in Ukraine. That's no problem for you because _you_ call them propaganda.

Some people disagree. A lot of Ukrainians Russian-speakers feel that their
point of view is not represented in Ukrainian official media, and that Russian
news provide some valuable alternative. After all, one of the first laws of
new Kiev govt was an anti-Russian language law.

And then in a single breath you deny neo-Nazi issue as a bullshit. You
obviously know that lenta.ru editor was fired allegedly for publishing a link
to Ukrainian "Right Sector" content.

Next you of may want to deny that Svoboda and their paramilitary wing Right
Sector are neo-nazis... I could refer to to European Union officials
expressing concern about Svoboda's position in Kiev government, but I think my
arguments will be lost on you.

~~~
adobriyan
> I think your 'Goebbels this' and 'Goebbels that' arguments are amusing.

i'd call them what they are: clueless idiots

this video is for our wannabe freedom lovers
[http://oper.ru/news/read.php?t=1051613380](http://oper.ru/news/read.php?t=1051613380)

(in russian)

------
ommunist
The thing is EFF article heading is misleading. These listed websites are not
"major independent news sites". And they never been. When it comes to
independent news sources, Russia uses a lot of newsru.com, lenta.ru, utro.ru,
none of those blocked. Besides livejournal.com works from Russia as usual.
Serve it from open public proxy in Novosibirsk and see for yourself. It is sad
EFF became a channel for demonization of Russian public image these days.

~~~
ommunist
To the one who -1-ed this comment - why? It is only the truth.

------
anuraj
Independent News Site? That is News!!!

------
couchnaut
And EFF "happened" to find out about that just in the midst of Ukraine crisis.
How fitting.

------
CmonDev
"Independent" \- they all are profitable _purely_ based on ads and
subscribers, right?

------
_asciiker_
If anyone can setup / use a web proxy, it's the Russians!

------
etanazir
Russia no block Hacker News yet?

~~~
negus
nop. even if it would - HN users will find their way through such blocks, in
contrast with mass media users

------
pinkskip
And Edward Snowden thinks he is in utopia.

------
RomanPushkin
I'm from Russia, and you know, average Russian didn't feel that major
independent news sites are blocked. May be they're blocked, but we actually
don't give a f..k about them. We have other independent news sites. So my
position is like the West is trying to force hysteria.

Please don't think that we don't have freedoms here. We have much more freedom
that you can ever imagine. As well, we don't need to be protected by the
bulwark of democracy - US.

We're just fine!

~~~
Asparagirl
And the feminist punk bands, the homosexuals, and the murdered journalists --
how are _they_ doing lately?

~~~
RomanPushkin
Feminist punk bands must be imprisoned right now because of playing shitty
punk rock ever. They're real traitors of punk rock :)

Homosexuals? Why do you ask Russia about them? Go to Saudi Arabia and ask them
how do they feel about that. We have our own vision of healthy society.

Murdered journalists - that's a shame, I agree. But you know what? Now it's
just a tool in hands of the West. And you use this tool in order to justify
your own actions.

Wanna bomb Iraq? Yes, they have mass destruction weapons. Wanna bomb
Afghanistan? Yes, they have Al Qaeda. Wanna bomb Russia? Yes, they imprison
feminist punk bands, banned homosexuals and they have murdered journalist (he
was better than Assange and Snowden).

Wanna bomb Japan? Stop! But they don't have nuclear weapon. F..k that, let's
bomb them anyway.

US is the only country that used nuclear weapon against other country (and
this country had no any nuclear weapons).

And now you're telling me how homosexuals feel? Yes, they're fine!

~~~
Crito
Does russian propaganda _ever_ change?

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/And_you_are_lynching_Negroes](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/And_you_are_lynching_Negroes)

~~~
xentronium
Nope. It's kinda sad, really, how the crudest opinion-forming tools still work
in 2014.

