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Comment by deeter72 | Hacker News Reader

Inside russia you can flex as much as you want. Case in point "Maksim Yakubets" of Evil Corp. Who drives a camo'd lamborghini with the plate "Thief"..

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/moscow-cyberthief-wanted-...

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hHY6VEurPA4

The probably he has connections with the corrupt police or criminals. A nobody can't really drive a custom lambo and not get noticed.

This is shocking. God, what a corrupt state.

Yes, contrary to the US which isn't corrupt, right.

I am neither american nor russian by the way. And although my own country is officially not really corrupt, we also have our fair share of lobbies and non-prosecuted crimes when someone higher up fucks something up.

EDIT: Looking at the downvotes I guess people think I hate the US while defending Russia or whatever. Actually I think every country or rather it's government has flaws with intransparency or legal corruption, just in different areas. US has shady financial things, Russia is apparently in the hacking space, my country has it's shady areas as well etc. Don't take my comment as an attack towards the US as a whole or as a way to say Russia does nothing wrong.

Finally, pure whataboutism.

When attacking Russia for a specific thing, bringing up the misdeeds of the US are a distraction, and "whataboutism".

When comparing the morality of the two nations (or criticising the "world police" status of the US as hypocritical) recalling American misdeeds is appropriate.

In the case the post was "what a corrupt state", attacking character of Russia generally, hence it's appropriate. It's worth pointing out that OJ Simpson published a book "If I did it", which could be seen as morally unacceptable too - but then there would be a difference between "that's terrible" and "America is terrible".

Not really in my opinion.

The poster was expressing that they're shocked, saying what a corrput state Russia was. And I don't quite understand why they're shocked and presumed that they're from the US.

I didn't try to deflect by saying "Russia isn't a dangerously corrput state because look at the US", I tried to say "Why are you shocked about Russia when your own country has it's problems with corruption too."

Hope that makes sense and that I'm now not registered as a russian astro-turfer.

For some reason everyone on this site sees the term “whataboutism” as an immediate way to invalidate a statement they disagree with.

I believe OPs point was that in fact, Russia is as corrupt as other world powers…so you shouldn’t be shocked by their tolerance of cyber criminals.

How is this particular instance "corruption". The guy violated US laws which Russia do not "harmonize". This is similar to a US-based person who is attacking Putin in the media. It's illegal in Russia, but would that make the US extradite him?

Thievery is illegal in Russia too.

But the theft is happening outside of Russia, so a Russian court could not pursue.

What would happen if you stole $1bn in Russia and escaped to the US?

You'd make a federated, censorship-resilient sometimes-encrypted chat app.

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