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Alexey Navalny's cyber-crusade against Russian corruption

25 points by boh 14y ago

p1esk 14y ago
He's likely to end up in jail or dead.
- dchest 14y ago
  Jail is in the works http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-19060444 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-19060444
- uzblogger 14y ago
  probably, yes.
- smsm42 14y ago
  Unfortunately, it is a very real possibility. This guy is a hero. I can't imagine how much guts it takes to fight a machine so vast, powerful and dangerous as Russian governing syndicate.
  - kibwen 14y ago
    This quote seems relevant: [Navalny] was similarly dismissive of the people who think that he or anyone else is fighting a well-oiled, repressive machine. “I disagree, because the people who work in business at a high enough level can tell you that there’s no machine at all,” he says. “It’s all a fiction. That is, they can destroy a single person, like Magnitsky or me or Khodorkovsky. But, if they try to do anything systemically against a huge number of people, there’s no machine. It’s a ragtag group of crooks unified under the portrait of Putin. There’s no super-repressive regime. There are no mythical Cheka agents that we need to be scared of. It’s just a bunch of crooks.”
    - p1esk 14y ago
      Unfortunately, the "group of crooks" is very large, and it starts from the very top. Corruption on all levels is considered normal, and it has been a norm in the society for centuries. Only extremely strong leaders (such as Peter the Great, or Stalin) could push any real changes, which didn't last long after they were gone.
kibwen 14y ago
Fascinating article. Some unsettling excerpts: "Corruption has reached such extremes that businesses involved in preparing the Black Sea resort of Sochi for the Winter Olympics of 2014 report having to pay kickbacks of more than fifty per cent. The Russian edition of Esquire recently calculated that one road in Sochi cost so much that it could just as well have been paved with, say, nine inches of foie gras or three and a half inches of Louis Vuitton handbags." "[A high-ranking official of Russia's ruling party, speaking on public radio] accused Navalny of terrorism and of working to undermine the country, implying that he was receiving financing either from the C.I.A. or from the U.S. State Department, if not both." "When I asked a Transneft [Russia's largest oil exporter] representative where the charity money [$300,000,000] went, he responded, angrily, “We don’t like to publicize such things. We don’t do charity for the P.R.” And he compared Navalny to Goebbels." Granted, those latter two quotes wouldn't be entirely out-of-place in the US, either.
- kibwen 14y ago
  Unrelated technical note: when you copy text from the New Yorker's site, it automatically appends the following to your clipboard: "Read more http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2011/04/04/110404fa_fact_ioffe#ixzz22VP3doXp http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2011/04/04/110404fa_fact_... ...but only if you copy eight or more words. It's actually quite an interesting approach.
  - rsingel 14y ago
    Errg, I hate Tynt - the copy/paste busting slice of JavaScript masquerading as a company.
    - kibwen 14y ago
      Thanks for the name, I had no clue that this practice was widespread. A bit of research says that this thing is also capable of phoning home the contents of your selection to an analytics server, but I presume that the New Yorker doesn't use that feature as I'm not seeing any errant net requests (and as someone who compulsively highlights arbitrary bits of text while reading, I wonder how useful that would be in the first place).
deleted 14y ago
[deleted]
xentronium 14y ago
Navalny is one of the better guys, but don't mistake him for a saint. For example, his hacked mail included proof that he published articles discrediting commercial company on behalf of another one; the fact, which he later denied. Too bad that there were DKIM signatures in the letters. Later it was discovered that he was involved in some weird transactions with Kirovles, again hacked mail, again DKIM-signed. Again, this is one of the better guys. But he's got an own horse in this race and a very unclear agenda. Whatever you hear about him, good or bad, you better check twice or thrice. Hope this comment puts things into perspective.
- vitalymuranov 14y ago
  His "hacked" mail came from computer that was taken by police from Navalny "for investigation" (by time coincidence). According to Navalny who commented on that mail messages were partially changed and didn't really give anything certain, this is why there was no real police investigation after that.
  - xentronium 14y ago
    Nope, first time he was hacked long before police took his computer. Doesn't matter anyway, since hacked mail can't be used in court, so it is not suitable for evidence, only for public judgement.

25 points by boh 14y ago

p1esk 14y ago

He's likely to end up in jail or dead.

dchest 14y ago
Jail is in the works http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-19060444 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-19060444
uzblogger 14y ago
probably, yes.
smsm42 14y ago
Unfortunately, it is a very real possibility. This guy is a hero. I can't imagine how much guts it takes to fight a machine so vast, powerful and dangerous as Russian governing syndicate.
- kibwen 14y ago
  This quote seems relevant: [Navalny] was similarly dismissive of the people who think that he or anyone else is fighting a well-oiled, repressive machine. “I disagree, because the people who work in business at a high enough level can tell you that there’s no machine at all,” he says. “It’s all a fiction. That is, they can destroy a single person, like Magnitsky or me or Khodorkovsky. But, if they try to do anything systemically against a huge number of people, there’s no machine. It’s a ragtag group of crooks unified under the portrait of Putin. There’s no super-repressive regime. There are no mythical Cheka agents that we need to be scared of. It’s just a bunch of crooks.”
  - p1esk 14y ago
    Unfortunately, the "group of crooks" is very large, and it starts from the very top. Corruption on all levels is considered normal, and it has been a norm in the society for centuries. Only extremely strong leaders (such as Peter the Great, or Stalin) could push any real changes, which didn't last long after they were gone.

kibwen 14y ago

Fascinating article. Some unsettling excerpts: "Corruption has reached such extremes that businesses involved in preparing the Black Sea resort of Sochi for the Winter Olympics of 2014 report having to pay kickbacks of more than fifty per cent. The Russian edition of Esquire recently calculated that one road in Sochi cost so much that it could just as well have been paved with, say, nine inches of foie gras or three and a half inches of Louis Vuitton handbags." "[A high-ranking official of Russia's ruling party, speaking on public radio] accused Navalny of terrorism and of working to undermine the country, implying that he was receiving financing either from the C.I.A. or from the U.S. State Department, if not both." "When I asked a Transneft [Russia's largest oil exporter] representative where the charity money [$300,000,000] went, he responded, angrily, “We don’t like to publicize such things. We don’t do charity for the P.R.” And he compared Navalny to Goebbels." Granted, those latter two quotes wouldn't be entirely out-of-place in the US, either.

kibwen 14y ago
Unrelated technical note: when you copy text from the New Yorker's site, it automatically appends the following to your clipboard: "Read more http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2011/04/04/110404fa_fact_ioffe#ixzz22VP3doXp http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2011/04/04/110404fa_fact_... ...but only if you copy eight or more words. It's actually quite an interesting approach.
- rsingel 14y ago
  Errg, I hate Tynt - the copy/paste busting slice of JavaScript masquerading as a company.
  - kibwen 14y ago
    Thanks for the name, I had no clue that this practice was widespread. A bit of research says that this thing is also capable of phoning home the contents of your selection to an analytics server, but I presume that the New Yorker doesn't use that feature as I'm not seeing any errant net requests (and as someone who compulsively highlights arbitrary bits of text while reading, I wonder how useful that would be in the first place).

deleted 14y ago

[deleted]

xentronium 14y ago

Navalny is one of the better guys, but don't mistake him for a saint. For example, his hacked mail included proof that he published articles discrediting commercial company on behalf of another one; the fact, which he later denied. Too bad that there were DKIM signatures in the letters. Later it was discovered that he was involved in some weird transactions with Kirovles, again hacked mail, again DKIM-signed. Again, this is one of the better guys. But he's got an own horse in this race and a very unclear agenda. Whatever you hear about him, good or bad, you better check twice or thrice. Hope this comment puts things into perspective.

vitalymuranov 14y ago
His "hacked" mail came from computer that was taken by police from Navalny "for investigation" (by time coincidence). According to Navalny who commented on that mail messages were partially changed and didn't really give anything certain, this is why there was no real police investigation after that.
- xentronium 14y ago
  Nope, first time he was hacked long before police took his computer. Doesn't matter anyway, since hacked mail can't be used in court, so it is not suitable for evidence, only for public judgement.