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Comment by devy | Hacker News Reader

> What I would support is not announcing Russian government owned IP blocks outside of the country. It would exclusively punish official Russian government institutions and potentially cause issues for any officials abroad (think VPN connections).

That could be perceived as a posture of war by adversaries. And it's a really bad idea. Have you considered for the innocent Russian people who doesn't agree with the war? What about their daily lives in Russia where they need to get driver's license online to be renewed but couldn't because their DMV website is inaccessible?

Economical / sports / Internet sanctions are double edge sword. There are unintended consequences and unfortunately no way to do it without collateral damages.

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"What about their daily lives in Russia where they need to get driver's license online to be renewed but couldn't because their DMV website is inaccessible?"

I struggle to imagine a less consequential outcome... A whole country of people are being bombed out of their houses, vs some portion of people maybe won't be able to renew their driver's licenses?

You've convinced me; cut the internet.

Didn't see your comment when I posted, but I have the same thoughts

Oh, look; Russia just decided to do it themselves:

https://twitter.com/mathieuvonrohr/status/149952892745850880...

It's a fallacy to consider Russian people are "innocent" in this situation. The nation as a whole is complicit to choosing the same old dictator for 20+ years. Like Germans in 1930s.

Also, why should Ukrainian cities be bombed every day, while Russians just happily go about their daily lives? It's morally inexcusable.

> they need to get driver's license online to be renewed but couldn't because their DMV website is inaccessible

Perhaps, they can go to the DMV office?

Like those Jewish Germans? Would you punish them for Hilter's actions?

This is oddly reminiscent of the justification Osama bin laden gave for 9/11 and it's a bit shocking. Why would Americans civilians be "innocent" and just happily go about their daily lives while middle eastern cities were bombed and Muslims were routinely killed by the American military?

Do you not see how dangerous that rhetoric is?

> choosing the same old dictator for 20+ years

You don't _choose_ a dictator..

Dictators stay in power by force: they kill, torture, jail and brainwash people. They control the media and monitor all communications and anyone who speaks against them will suffer dire consequences.

Perhaps you ask, well why don't people just "rise up"? Take up arms and overthrow the regime? Well in that case, the government would rather flatten the entire nation with airstrikes than let the rebels win..

Even after painting the streets with their own blood and somehow accomplishing this, there is no guarantee that a democracy would take place if the central government is weakened..

Still don't believe me? Look at the Arab spring and where it led the people of Egypt and Syria.

Honestly, the comments on HN regarding this matter are very naive..

PS: If you think you have the stomach for it and want to _actually_ see what this path ends up looking like, have a look at The Cave: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7178226 (Warning: very graphic)

I don't know how people keep missing this. It's especially ironic, considering we just came from 4 years of hearing "I hate Trump he's not my president I wish we could kick him out but my voice is too small".

> Have you considered for the innocent Russian people who doesn't agree with the war? What about their daily lives in Russia where they need to get driver's license online to be renewed but couldn't because their DMV website is inaccessible?

I assume that a Russian accessing a Russian website would be unaffected by any such measures.

Also, I wonder what backdoor facilities the NSA put into Apple and Android phones? The US would very much like to continue getting any such intelligence.

As I mentioned, this wouldn't impact any domestic access to any services. Everything would remain available and accessible inside of Russia.

> That could be perceived as a posture of war by adversaries. And it's a really bad idea.

IMHO, Putin's Russia has gotten really good at exploiting "fears about perceptions" to get away with a lot of shit, because it's "sensible" adversaries pull their punches.

I doubt a Russian DMV site is running on a foreign sever. Didn't Russia itself do some kind of test disconnection from the internet a year or two ago?

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