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Comment by vondur | Hacker News Reader

Do you really need something like Wikileaks to expose how corrupt Russia’s government is? I’m pretty sure it’s common knowledge now.

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That would kinda seem to be the point of it.

From three seconds of googling.

Wikileaks releases documents it claims detail Russia mass surveillance apparatus https://techcrunch.com/2017/09/19/wikileaks-releases-documen...

And this link clearly says:

> It’s the _first_ time the organization has leaked (what it claims is) material directly pertaining to the Russian state.

So... first time for how many years? And as, article points out, the leak itself is rather minor.

That may simply be a function of how little leaks out of Russia. Reasonably closed states that tend to murder their opposition have a bit of an advantage here. If Snowden or Manning had been Russian I would totally expect them to be killed to serve as an example to other potential leakers.

The point is that Assange/Wikileaks, while he/it may not have (and is unlikely to have, IMO) started out as a Russian asset, he was clearly compromised and has behaved as one for the last 6 years or so.

He was getting low on funds, and then was cutoff from the credit card system for contributions. shortly after that, he started getting RU appearances. RUS influence likely a combination of providing critical funding and also developing Kompromat - compromising, coercing information, whether true or not.

In short, he's not a free, independent agent working to strengthen democratic principles and institutions.

(note that 'asset' does not mean necessarily the classic willing spy, could be merely duped or coerced)

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