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Russia Blocks Access to Major Independent News Sites

426 points by emilis_info 13y ago

sidcool 13y ago
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.
alonium 13y ago
I'm Russian. These blocked sites are not "Independent News Sites" - these sites are rusophobic and sponsored by foreign countries. On one of these sites for example old woman said that "killing russians is actually good thing". Imagine sites like that in your country.
dangerden 13y ago
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 13y ago
  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 13y ago
    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 13y ago
      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.
  - malkung 13y ago
    > I really don't see what every media outlet that isn't Russian state-controlled would have to gain from distributing "biased" journalism. That's in theory. In reality, I see a very clear bias in Russian as well as non-Russian major media outlets. And it's not just my observation, either. Have a look at this Guardian article, for example: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/mar/10/ukraine-and-west-hot-air-hypocrisy-crimea-russia http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/mar/10/ukraine-and-wes... The author tries to explain why this is so. A quote: The one thing we know for sure is that we don't know what's going on. The situation is volatile and murky. But that doesn't stop western politicians jumping in feet first. We don't know exactly what forces are at play, but we still desperately want to pin our naive "goodies" and "baddies" labels on to somebody.
mike_esspe 13y ago
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
- thirsteh 13y ago
  "Won't you think of the children" indeed.
  - hueving 13y ago
    I think it's more "stop thinking of the children, you pervert".
    - thirsteh 13y ago
      Yeah. Stop being such pervs, independent news outlets!
- higherpurpose 13y ago
  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).
  - bmj1 13y ago
    We've discussed this in previous threads - but for those reading for the first time - there was no UK law, Cameron circumvented the legal process entirely to introduce these filters. Terrifying.
    - rossng 13y ago
      Indeed - he basically just said to the ISPs 'do this or we'll make you do it'. Thanks to the (abysmal) technical knowledge of our MPs, any site-blocking bill would have flown straight through as soon as the phrases 'cyber-bullying', 'think of the children' or 'illegal downloads' were mentioned. In that light, I think the ISPs probably chose the least bad option - comply, lie low and hope that they can sit it out until the government forgets about the whole thing.
spenvo 13y ago
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_camerons_aide_on_child_internet_policy_has/ http://www.reddit.com/r/worldnews/comments/1zhd6i/david_came... ~~ 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.
tokenadult 13y ago
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.
- throwaway7845 13y ago
  He might say, the whole show might have been arranged by a certain three letter organization in order to...
- higherpurpose 13y ago
  Are you trying to insinuate that Snowden remained in Russia by choice?
  - vasilipupkin 13y ago
    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.
    - effdee 13y ago
      Russia is the only safe place for him. If he hadn't gone to Russia he'd be either dead by now or living in a cage wearing an orange suit.
    - olsonjeffery 13y ago
      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 13y ago
sologoub 13y ago
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...
- trycatch 13y ago
  Yes, these are major resources, especially Echo Moskvy and Navalny's blog. Especially considering the fact that Dozhd will be dead in a few months due to Kremlin pressure (it was removed from cable packages, cutting ad revenues), Lenta.ru was taken over by Kremlin two days ago, most of the staff already left it.
- avmich 13y ago
  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 13y ago
    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 13y ago
      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.
_asciiker_ 13y ago
If anyone can setup / use a web proxy, it's the Russians!
- unhe 13y ago
  true that my friend. has russia block RT news? i doubt so, in fact i dont live in Russia and see this news site as one of the best in the world and truly biased. They were the first to interview Julian Assagne, talk about Bitcoin, and interviewed Ed. Snowden and many other gr8 thinkers. I highly respect Vladimir Putin's decision. And, as Rafael Correa would say, "When private benefits come from public services, then there is nothing left for the public"
fuckrussiaright 13y ago
fuck russia, right? but, seriously. fuck russia. shitty country.
theflork 13y ago
If you are in Russia I would get the TOR browser fast, before the government blocks the main TOR download mirrors as well.
- wfn 13y ago
  I'd further consider - downloading the pluggable transports bundle: https://www.torproject.org/docs/pluggable-transports.html.en#download https://www.torproject.org/docs/pluggable-transports.html.en... - 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.
pinkskip 13y ago
And Edward Snowden thinks he is in utopia.
motbob 13y ago
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 13y ago
  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.
1gor 13y ago
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.
- jevinskie 13y ago
  When you start to justify things with "... during the wartime" you end up with atrocities like the internment of Japanese Americans during WWII.
- cLeEOGPw 13y ago
  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.
siculars 13y ago
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 13y ago
  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.
  - avmich 13y ago
    One can just wait - dictatorial approach always becomes clear, as the people's life suffer, but it takes time to distinguish propaganda from reality. The hope is this time it wouldn't take that long. However there should be reasons to change the society faster - and that requires efforts.
  - aric 13y ago
    > "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.
Grue3 13y ago
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.
- sage_joch 13y ago
  Edward Snowden is not currently in a country with press freedoms, and people have to pick their battles. Snowden has already picked some pretty huge battles. Besides, if you've been paying the slightest amount of attention you already know his feelings on Internet freedom.
- adobriyan 13y ago
  > 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 13y ago
    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 13y ago
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-13-03-2014,45996.html http://en.rsf.org/russia-lenta-ru-website-is-latest-13-03-20... http://blogs.wsj.com/emergingeurope/2014/03/12/russian-news-editor-fired-after-interviewing-ukrainian-nationalist/ http://blogs.wsj.com/emergingeurope/2014/03/12/russian-news-... 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-channel-tv-rain http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/feb/04/russian-news-ch... http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/comment/2014/02/asking-the-wrong-question-on-russian-tv.html http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/comment/2014/02/asking... 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_board/24483318.html http://www.rferl.org/content/gazprom_wants_to_dismiss_radio_... 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/
spoiledtechie 13y ago
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 13y ago
  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.
deleted 13y ago
[deleted]
ekianjo 13y ago
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.
anuraj 13y ago
Independent News Site? That is News!!!
phektus 13y ago
Well at least something they and the States can agree about. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bea-edwards/the-us-and-australia-prop_b_4956635.html http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bea-edwards/the-us-and-austral...
RomanPushkin 13y ago
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 13y ago
  And the feminist punk bands, the homosexuals, and the murdered journalists -- how are they doing lately?
  - RomanPushkin 13y ago
    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!
    - dchichkov 13y ago
      http://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pale_Blue_Dot http://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pale_Blue_Dot http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pale_Blue_Dot http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pale_Blue_Dot Взгляните ещё раз на эту точку. Это здесь. Это наш дом. Это мы. Все, кого вы любите, все, кого вы знаете, все, о ком вы когда-либо слышали, все когда-либо существовавшие люди прожили свои жизни на ней. Множество наших наслаждений и страданий, тысячи самоуверенных религий, идеологий и экономических доктрин, каждый охотник и собиратель, каждый герой и трус, каждый созидатель и разрушитель цивилизаций, каждый король и крестьянин, каждая влюблённая пара, каждая мать и каждый отец, каждый способный ребёнок, изобретатель и путешественник, каждый преподаватель этики, каждый лживый политик, каждая «суперзвезда», каждый «величайший лидер», каждый святой и грешник в истории нашего вида жили здесь — на соринке, подвешенной в солнечном луче. Земля — очень маленькая сцена на безбрежной космической арене. Подумайте о реках крови, пролитых всеми этими генералами и императорами, чтобы, в лучах славы и триумфа, они могли стать кратковременными хозяевами части песчинки. Подумайте о бесконечных жестокостях, совершаемых обитателями одного уголка этой точки над едва отличимыми обитателями другого уголка. О том, как часты меж ними разногласия, о том, как жаждут они убивать друг друга, о том, как горяча их ненависть. Наше позёрство, наша воображаемая значимость, иллюзия о нашем привилегированном статусе во вселенной — все они пасуют перед этой точкой бледного света. Наша планета — лишь одинокая пылинка в окружающей космической тьме. В этой грандиозной пустоте нет ни намёка на то, что кто-то придёт нам на помощь, дабы спасти нас от нашего же невежества. Земля — пока единственный известный мир, способный поддерживать жизнь. Нам больше некуда уйти — по крайней мере, в ближайшем будущем. Побывать — да. Колонизировать — ещё нет. Нравится вам это или нет — Земля сейчас наш дом. Говорят, астрономия прививает скромность и укрепляет характер. Наверное, нет лучшей демонстрации глупого человеческого зазнайства, чем эта отстранённая картина нашего крошечного мира. Мне кажется, она подчёркивает нашу ответственность, наш долг быть добрее друг с другом, дорожить и лелеять бледно-голубую точку — наш единственный дом. Оригинальный текст (англ.) [скрыть] Look again at that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every "superstar," every "supreme leader," every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there – on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam. The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner, how frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds. Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the Universe, are challenged by this point of pale light. Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity, in all this vastness, there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves. The Earth is the only world known so far to harbor life. There is nowhere else, at least in the near future, to which our species could migrate. Visit, yes. Settle, not yet. Like it or not, for the moment the Earth is where we make our stand. It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-building experience. There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we've ever known.
casualmuscovite 13y ago
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 13y ago
  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 13y ago
    > 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 13y ago
      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
1gor 13y ago
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.
- cema 13y ago
  Did EFF complain about Ukraine government outlawing access to any Russian language news a few days ago? Did it really happen?
  - 1gor 13y ago
    I've corrected my comment. Not all Russian language news were banned. Still, it seems Ukrainian government is also trying to censor some news sources.
    - kmcmcmd 13y ago
      some= russian propaganda stations (russian state controlled and run)- independent stations are running.
      - adobriyan 13y ago
        independent = those who tell what's good for current neo-nazi-ish regime
etanazir 13y ago
Russia no block Hacker News yet?
- negus 13y ago
  nop. even if it would - HN users will find their way through such blocks, in contrast with mass media users
CmonDev 13y ago
"Independent" - they all are profitable _purely_ based on ads and subscribers, right?
zavulon 13y ago
I'm so glad my family got out of Russia 17 years ago.
couchnaut 13y ago
And EFF "happened" to find out about that just in the midst of Ukraine crisis. How fitting.
ommunist 13y ago
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 13y ago
  To the one who -1-ed this comment - why? It is only the truth.

426 points by emilis_info 13y ago

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.

alonium 13y ago

I'm Russian. These blocked sites are not "Independent News Sites" - these sites are rusophobic and sponsored by foreign countries. On one of these sites for example old woman said that "killing russians is actually good thing". Imagine sites like that in your country.

dangerden 13y ago

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 13y ago
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 13y ago
  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 13y ago
    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.
- malkung 13y ago
  > I really don't see what every media outlet that isn't Russian state-controlled would have to gain from distributing "biased" journalism. That's in theory. In reality, I see a very clear bias in Russian as well as non-Russian major media outlets. And it's not just my observation, either. Have a look at this Guardian article, for example: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/mar/10/ukraine-and-west-hot-air-hypocrisy-crimea-russia http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/mar/10/ukraine-and-wes... The author tries to explain why this is so. A quote: The one thing we know for sure is that we don't know what's going on. The situation is volatile and murky. But that doesn't stop western politicians jumping in feet first. We don't know exactly what forces are at play, but we still desperately want to pin our naive "goodies" and "baddies" labels on to somebody.

mike_esspe 13y ago

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

thirsteh 13y ago
"Won't you think of the children" indeed.
- hueving 13y ago
  I think it's more "stop thinking of the children, you pervert".
  - thirsteh 13y ago
    Yeah. Stop being such pervs, independent news outlets!
higherpurpose 13y ago
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).
- bmj1 13y ago
  We've discussed this in previous threads - but for those reading for the first time - there was no UK law, Cameron circumvented the legal process entirely to introduce these filters. Terrifying.
  - rossng 13y ago
    Indeed - he basically just said to the ISPs 'do this or we'll make you do it'. Thanks to the (abysmal) technical knowledge of our MPs, any site-blocking bill would have flown straight through as soon as the phrases 'cyber-bullying', 'think of the children' or 'illegal downloads' were mentioned. In that light, I think the ISPs probably chose the least bad option - comply, lie low and hope that they can sit it out until the government forgets about the whole thing.

spenvo 13y ago

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_camerons_aide_on_child_internet_policy_has/ http://www.reddit.com/r/worldnews/comments/1zhd6i/david_came... ~~ 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.

tokenadult 13y ago

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.

throwaway7845 13y ago
He might say, the whole show might have been arranged by a certain three letter organization in order to...
higherpurpose 13y ago
Are you trying to insinuate that Snowden remained in Russia by choice?
- vasilipupkin 13y ago
  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.
  - effdee 13y ago
    Russia is the only safe place for him. If he hadn't gone to Russia he'd be either dead by now or living in a cage wearing an orange suit.
  - olsonjeffery 13y ago
    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 13y ago

sologoub 13y ago

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...

trycatch 13y ago
Yes, these are major resources, especially Echo Moskvy and Navalny's blog. Especially considering the fact that Dozhd will be dead in a few months due to Kremlin pressure (it was removed from cable packages, cutting ad revenues), Lenta.ru was taken over by Kremlin two days ago, most of the staff already left it.
avmich 13y ago
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 13y ago
  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 13y ago
    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.

_asciiker_ 13y ago

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

unhe 13y ago
true that my friend. has russia block RT news? i doubt so, in fact i dont live in Russia and see this news site as one of the best in the world and truly biased. They were the first to interview Julian Assagne, talk about Bitcoin, and interviewed Ed. Snowden and many other gr8 thinkers. I highly respect Vladimir Putin's decision. And, as Rafael Correa would say, "When private benefits come from public services, then there is nothing left for the public"

fuckrussiaright 13y ago

fuck russia, right? but, seriously. fuck russia. shitty country.

theflork 13y ago

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

wfn 13y ago
I'd further consider - downloading the pluggable transports bundle: https://www.torproject.org/docs/pluggable-transports.html.en#download https://www.torproject.org/docs/pluggable-transports.html.en... - 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.

pinkskip 13y ago

And Edward Snowden thinks he is in utopia.

motbob 13y ago

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 13y ago
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.

1gor 13y ago

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.

jevinskie 13y ago
When you start to justify things with "... during the wartime" you end up with atrocities like the internment of Japanese Americans during WWII.
cLeEOGPw 13y ago
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.

siculars 13y ago

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 13y ago
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.
- avmich 13y ago
  One can just wait - dictatorial approach always becomes clear, as the people's life suffer, but it takes time to distinguish propaganda from reality. The hope is this time it wouldn't take that long. However there should be reasons to change the society faster - and that requires efforts.
- aric 13y ago
  > "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.

Grue3 13y ago

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.

sage_joch 13y ago
Edward Snowden is not currently in a country with press freedoms, and people have to pick their battles. Snowden has already picked some pretty huge battles. Besides, if you've been paying the slightest amount of attention you already know his feelings on Internet freedom.
adobriyan 13y ago
> 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 13y ago
  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 13y ago

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-13-03-2014,45996.html http://en.rsf.org/russia-lenta-ru-website-is-latest-13-03-20... http://blogs.wsj.com/emergingeurope/2014/03/12/russian-news-editor-fired-after-interviewing-ukrainian-nationalist/ http://blogs.wsj.com/emergingeurope/2014/03/12/russian-news-... 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-channel-tv-rain http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/feb/04/russian-news-ch... http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/comment/2014/02/asking-the-wrong-question-on-russian-tv.html http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/comment/2014/02/asking... 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_board/24483318.html http://www.rferl.org/content/gazprom_wants_to_dismiss_radio_... 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/

spoiledtechie 13y ago

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 13y ago
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.

deleted 13y ago

[deleted]

ekianjo 13y ago

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.

anuraj 13y ago

Independent News Site? That is News!!!

phektus 13y ago

Well at least something they and the States can agree about. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bea-edwards/the-us-and-australia-prop_b_4956635.html http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bea-edwards/the-us-and-austral...

RomanPushkin 13y ago

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 13y ago
And the feminist punk bands, the homosexuals, and the murdered journalists -- how are they doing lately?
- RomanPushkin 13y ago
  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!
  - dchichkov 13y ago
    http://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pale_Blue_Dot http://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pale_Blue_Dot http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pale_Blue_Dot http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pale_Blue_Dot Взгляните ещё раз на эту точку. Это здесь. Это наш дом. Это мы. Все, кого вы любите, все, кого вы знаете, все, о ком вы когда-либо слышали, все когда-либо существовавшие люди прожили свои жизни на ней. Множество наших наслаждений и страданий, тысячи самоуверенных религий, идеологий и экономических доктрин, каждый охотник и собиратель, каждый герой и трус, каждый созидатель и разрушитель цивилизаций, каждый король и крестьянин, каждая влюблённая пара, каждая мать и каждый отец, каждый способный ребёнок, изобретатель и путешественник, каждый преподаватель этики, каждый лживый политик, каждая «суперзвезда», каждый «величайший лидер», каждый святой и грешник в истории нашего вида жили здесь — на соринке, подвешенной в солнечном луче. Земля — очень маленькая сцена на безбрежной космической арене. Подумайте о реках крови, пролитых всеми этими генералами и императорами, чтобы, в лучах славы и триумфа, они могли стать кратковременными хозяевами части песчинки. Подумайте о бесконечных жестокостях, совершаемых обитателями одного уголка этой точки над едва отличимыми обитателями другого уголка. О том, как часты меж ними разногласия, о том, как жаждут они убивать друг друга, о том, как горяча их ненависть. Наше позёрство, наша воображаемая значимость, иллюзия о нашем привилегированном статусе во вселенной — все они пасуют перед этой точкой бледного света. Наша планета — лишь одинокая пылинка в окружающей космической тьме. В этой грандиозной пустоте нет ни намёка на то, что кто-то придёт нам на помощь, дабы спасти нас от нашего же невежества. Земля — пока единственный известный мир, способный поддерживать жизнь. Нам больше некуда уйти — по крайней мере, в ближайшем будущем. Побывать — да. Колонизировать — ещё нет. Нравится вам это или нет — Земля сейчас наш дом. Говорят, астрономия прививает скромность и укрепляет характер. Наверное, нет лучшей демонстрации глупого человеческого зазнайства, чем эта отстранённая картина нашего крошечного мира. Мне кажется, она подчёркивает нашу ответственность, наш долг быть добрее друг с другом, дорожить и лелеять бледно-голубую точку — наш единственный дом. Оригинальный текст (англ.) [скрыть] Look again at that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every "superstar," every "supreme leader," every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there – on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam. The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner, how frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds. Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the Universe, are challenged by this point of pale light. Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity, in all this vastness, there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves. The Earth is the only world known so far to harbor life. There is nowhere else, at least in the near future, to which our species could migrate. Visit, yes. Settle, not yet. Like it or not, for the moment the Earth is where we make our stand. It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-building experience. There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we've ever known.

casualmuscovite 13y ago

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 13y ago
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 13y ago
  > 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 13y ago
    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

1gor 13y ago

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.

cema 13y ago
Did EFF complain about Ukraine government outlawing access to any Russian language news a few days ago? Did it really happen?
- 1gor 13y ago
  I've corrected my comment. Not all Russian language news were banned. Still, it seems Ukrainian government is also trying to censor some news sources.
  - kmcmcmd 13y ago
    some= russian propaganda stations (russian state controlled and run)- independent stations are running.
    - adobriyan 13y ago
      independent = those who tell what's good for current neo-nazi-ish regime

etanazir 13y ago

Russia no block Hacker News yet?

negus 13y ago
nop. even if it would - HN users will find their way through such blocks, in contrast with mass media users

CmonDev 13y ago

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

zavulon 13y ago

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

couchnaut 13y ago

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

ommunist 13y ago

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 13y ago
To the one who -1-ed this comment - why? It is only the truth.