Russian Parliament Approves New Law Restricting the Internet

[dipsydoodle]

Source: WSJ

MOSCOW—Russia's parliament approved a package of bills that impose sweeping new restrictions on the Internet and blogging. The proposals drew wide criticism from local technology companies and pro-democracy activists.

The new measures come amid a series of steps to tighten the Kremlin's control over media and the political system in Russia, efforts that have gained momentum as western criticism of Moscow's behavior in Ukraine crisis has fueled official attacks on Kremlin critics inside Russia.

The draft laws affecting the Internet, which are expected to be signed soon by President Vladimir Putin and take effect in August, have elicited unusually strong criticism from Russia's vibrant technology sector.

"The adoption of the law will become a yet another step in increasing government control over the Internet in Russia, which will negatively impact the development of the industry," said a spokesman for Russia's biggest search engine Yandex. The company announced it was closing its popular blog-rating service earlier than it had planned "prompted by the recent legislative initiatives."

Read more: http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304163604579531460215555456

[blm]

1. Wow - Some people here will be SO GLAD that Putin is getting the old USSR back together.

Like old times.

[karynnj]

2. This has to be heart breaking for many Russians who were happy to engage with the

world again. I guess Putin wants to put Russia (and any other satellite state) behind an iron curtain again. Sad that that phrase which sounds like a relic from a bygone age may be current again if Putin gets his way.

[FrodosPet]

29. Meet the new boss...same as the old boss

[srican69]

3. welcome to "tsonsalg"

In case you are wondering

that is Glasnost in reverse

Glasnost (Russian: гла́сность, IPA: [ˈɡlasnəsʲtʲ] ( listen), lit. "publicity&quot was a policy that called for increased openness and transparency in government institutions and activities in the Soviet Union. Introduced by Mikhail Gorbachev in the second half of the 1980s,[1] Glasnost is often paired with Perestroika (literally: Restructuring), another reform instituted by Gorbachev at the same time. The word "glasnost" has been used in Russian at least since the end of the 18th century.[2]

The word was frequently used by Gorbachev to specify the policies he believed might help reduce the corruption at the top of the Communist Party and the Soviet government and moderate the abuse of administrative power in the Central Committee

[geek tragedy]

4. Putin's Russia=the USSR minus all of the USSR's redeeming

qualities plus ethnonationalism and explicit homophobia and Christianism.

[UnseenUndergrad]

25. Or, in other words...

Tsarist Russia without any of the opulent elite clothing.

[geek tragedy]

26. but with nukes and memories of being a global player nt

[Blue_Tires]

31. and their national hockey team is mired in suck

[geek tragedy]

32. can't beat Finland in hockey, can't lay a finger on those insolent

Lithuanians.

so they has a sad

[heaven05]

5. Putin may be a dictator

yet I wouldn't be surprised to see some form of sweeping restrictions in america down the road. The whole idea of 'freedom for individuals' is slowly being confiscated by governments, banks and corporations worldwide.

[ballyhoo]

6. Unlike anything I have ever witnessed before. THX1138

here we come. Once the media was owned, it was all over
but the shoutin'.

[heaven05]

7. yeah, great movie

and well at least we can still shout. For how long is anyone's guess.

[ballyhoo]

8. I think there will be some kind

of denouement this year. Either Putin backs off (doubtful) or there is war (hot or cold). Anything in between is just a pause. The key player here is China, who did not like Putin's annexing Crimea, which is the reason for their recent abstention vote. What I'm wondering is with all the economic strategies of the West against Putin does anyone know what reciprocation he can take with financial strategies should China help him out. They held those Sino-Russia military drills for some reason.

But are our shouts being heard? And with the Internet gone will the hearers be important enough to do anything?

[heaven05]

10. per last question

I doubt it. But something is slowly escalating here and it bodes ill for all of us, eventually.

[ballyhoo]

13. Yes, Heaven, hope to Heaven we

aren't looking at Hell. One final question: how long ago, years, decades, whatever, did you see what is unfolding now as a possibility? For me, it was mid-Reagan, when he changed the tax structures and the rich got energized.

[The Magistrate]

16. Odd Words, Sir, For Such A Devoted Fan Of Paul Craig Roberts....

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1014789165#post31

[ballyhoo]

19. Laffer devised Reaganomics--not Roberts...

[The Magistrate]

21. Laffer Drew On A Napkin, Sir: Roberts Did Heavy Lifting

He was Kemp's economic brain, then went to then same role for Hatch, was a prominent voice for reducing taxes on the wealthy, then was in the Treasury with an economic policy portfolio for Reagan.

And into the bargain, a raving racist and anti-semite....

[greatauntoftriplets]

27. Guess he missed the part where I said Roberts was a "co-founder", Sir.

[The Magistrate]

28. Fella Misses A Lot, Ma'am....

[The Magistrate]

24. And Another, Sir, From Your 'Greatest Hits' File....

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1014790244#post13

[SidDithers]

42. I wish I had the boomer sense to properly evaluate the plethoro of crap that PCR has written...

but really, we all know that he's just some kind of neo-ralme.

dddd

Sid

[ballyhoo]

45. I'm Boomer One, February

20, 1946 2:20 AM. I don't think he's that at all. I am reading How America Was Lost right now. He doesn't miss a beat. But you are certainly entitled to your opinion.

[SidDithers]

41. Wow. Paul Craig Roberts is a white nationalist asshat..,

who fundraises for hate site VDARE, and once wrote, in a glowing review of Pat Buchanan's Death of the West

But the most fearsome fact is that the demonization of white people in the universities today is more extreme than the demonization of the Jews that was a prominent feature of German university life for 60 years prior to the rise of National Socialism.

Demonization of whites is the weapon used by multiculturalists to breakup western civilization. But teaching hatred has other consequences. Demonization has already demoralized some whites, making them ashamed and fearful of their skin color.

By the time whites become political minorities, decades of demonization will have prepared the ground for legislation prohibiting their propagation and, perhaps, assigning them to the gulag as a final solution to “the cancer of human history.”

Anyone using favourably using PCR as a source at DU is immediately suspect in my book.

Sid

[The Magistrate]

46. Yep, He A Real Peach, Sir

[heaven05]

18. I agree with your time frame

for the most part that was the time for me. Yet with the anti civil rights reactionaries devising and implementing their 'southern strategy' late 60's-70's, that started me looking into RW push back against civil rights that I had been expecting, at that time, from the RW reactionaries(racists). Reagan was, for me, the crystallization of their RW agenda. Bush's theft of the 2000 and 2004 elections was the coup d'etat that real Americans have and are fighting against.

[ballyhoo]

20. Yep. World would be a different place had

Lee Atwater never been born.

[heaven05]

23. yep

his 'deathbed confession' disgusted the hell out of me.

[karynnj]

14. The internet is not gone here - and even if net neutrality is lost, it will still be here

Not to mention, you CAN go to your state or federal government representatives and you can be heard -- which does not mean they will agree with you. It is true that the 1% can have a much bigger voice, but WE DON'T HAVE TO LISTEN TO THEM. Ultimately, they need votes to put people in office. So far, only PEOPLE can vote.

[Igel]

35. They are in some sense allies.

It may not be a very stable alliance. The ONF's big point is that the Eurasian "bit" is mostly economic and not ideological. Along with cultural, in the sense that Russia donminates and Russian is the "regional language." Overall, it's economic.

Both are fairly clear: Their morality is power and money. They don't bother with pretenses except when they think it will be perceived as an argument by their opponent.

The only reason to argue about self-determination in Crimea is because it convinces people in the West and makes for a split population. Putin doesn't care about self-determination, except possibly the only kind that matters--Russians rejoining the Russian collective.

China is precisely the same. You hear about highfalutin' principles when discussing the West's hypocrisy, not what China should do. You hear about democratic principles when the Chinese are arguing that the West should sod off--and they're discounted when the West uses them against China.

China's the weak link here. Russia, in wanting to be Eurasian (not something that was huge; it mirrors Obama's Asia pivot, which is to accomplish about the same goal), requires that China play ball. That China prefer to trade with it and with the West through Russia. If China opted to trade primarily through the US or South America Russia would be on the periphery of both "worlds." Russia wants to use antagonism by and paranoia against the West to unify an economic alliance, which necessarily means some sort of military alliance.

[ballyhoo]

40. That was a good post, Igel. I agreed with 90 per cent of

it. I also agreed with your post on the bottom of the thread outlining the East collapse, which happened awfully fast. The question I want to ask is the same I just asked Truth2power. Will this lead us closer to war or will there be a pause? Putin may do something unexpected here. He may start to deal differently now. Make a deal.

[rtracey]

9. Welcome to the new Russia

The new Russia = 1954....welcome back.... now lets see how long it takes for the new rich Russians to revolt, because believe me, I stated earlier, during the Crimean take-back, it will happen, it won't be long......

[ballyhoo]

12. I agree with your characterization but I think your

timetable might be wrong. With the return of the SU and change of political dynamics, the oligarchs will have to think a bit about what they are going to do. Life is not the same with all our lovely automation.

[R Merm]

11. Are books next?

[Blue_Adept]

15. This would be amusing to see enacted here.

"The bill would require bloggers with 3,000 or more page views a day to reveal their identities, fact-check their content, not disseminate extremist information or information violating privacy of citizens, and abide by the rules of pre-election silence, among other requirements."

How many news organizations could continue to exist? Especially since most employ bloggers to provide content on their sites.

[The Magistrate]

17. Amusing Would Not Be The Half Of It, Sir....

[SoapBox]

22. Hey Comrade Snowden...how's this grab'n ya?!?

I'm sure you are real proud of Czar Putin and your new Motherland!

[DeSwiss]

30. Technology cares nothing of your silly ''laws,'' Vladdie.

Now enforce it.

- This is Putin's tell. You fucked it up, bud. Couldn't keep that ol' KGB tiger under control, could ya?

K&R

''All tyrannies rule through fraud and force, but once the fraud is exposed they must rely exclusively on force.'' ~George Orwell

[center][/center]

[Igel]

36. They'll mostly be able to.

First, they'll control the companies. vKontakte wasn't an isolated case. The same maneuvre works in a variety of contexts.

Second, they'll control the infrastructure. The wires, the routers, the connections to the outside. That'll leave expensive uplinks to tie in with the Internet via satellite or have everything pass through government-installed filters.

Russia is heading towards the Chinese Internet model. It's not flawless, to be sure, but it's a lot better (from a Putinesca point of view) than the Western model.

[DeSwiss]

44. A possible scenario.....

...but I see one that's different. One in which the future of tech is not in large infrastructural designs that become too bulky and difficult to adapt to to change. That's a ''control'' model.

As the modularization of technology process continues to evolve, it will become virtually impossible to control or cutoff communications in the future because of the use of virtual networks.

Then to regain ''control'' they're forced to bring out their hammer, because that's all these numbnuts know how to do. HULK SMASH! And then they'll piss everyone off. Either way, they lose in the end.

- I see these as the last machinations of the dinosaurs who refuse to read the handwriting on the wall because it's all talking about them and their demise.....

[Ash_F]

33. Wow, they are rapidly falling off the edge. /nt

[Jefferson23]

34. Terrible and unjust, Russian dissent will grow. n/t

[Igel]

38. And it will be beaten down.

If a protester is beaten to a pulp and the media ignore it, did it really happen?

The Ukrainian 16-year-old whose son was killed in Crimea--she says just because he only spoke Ukrainian and not Russian--seems to not matter to anybody but Ukrainians.

The Ukrainians barely care about the Tatars in Crimea except to the extent it makes Russia look bad. Turns out that reports of bad things happening to the Tatars gets no response from the West. So those that have been dispossessed for not being proper Russians, schools that are closed, jobs that have been taken and granted to Russians ... Do they really exist if nobody knows about the extreme nationalistic-based racism that's occurring?

Do even the supporters of Aksenov and the Russian take-over care, even if they call themselves "progressive"?

No.

It happens in Donetsk and even then it's hard to get them to stop shouting about Ukrainians fascists and the innocence of the cuddly little peaceniks in Slov'ansk.

[The Magistrate]

39. Hear Hear, Sir

Home truths, that will not be heeded by those who need to her them most.

[Jefferson23]

43. It is a bloddy mess for them. I was referring to the demonstrators in Moscow.

Not to discount your assessment, it is sadly accurate.

On edit, and that dissent will grow in Russia.

[laurent]

37. Policy details from the article.

The bill would require bloggers with 3,000 or more page-views a day to reveal their identities, fact-check their content, not disseminate extremist information or information violating privacy of citizens, and abide by the rules of pre-election silence....

Social-networking sites, blog hosts and other "organizers of disseminating of information on the Internet" may also be affected, as the bill requires them to store data on popular users' activity online for six months for potential use in police and other official investigations.