Facebook blocks Russian page supporting Navalny, Putin's biggest critic
washingtonpost.com
washingtonpost.com
Like the web? Sorry for the snark but being blocked from Facebook is the equivalent of being blocked from Geocities in my mind. I do think a decentralised social network would be a step forward but let's not attribute too much power to Facebook as it only gives them more legitimacy.
In general, follow the money trail (or the power trail) and it's easy to see who's censoring stuff. Maybe not very obvious in other countries, but in Russia it's clear as day. In Russia-wide issues the power trail always terminates at Putin, with local issues it could be some local government official.
A bit more here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8778653
Unfortunately in the general case it is usually very difficult to follow the money and power trail - and one needs to first identify that there is censorship (or coercive information) to begin with. In Russia, there are many actors - the US and Western allies have a lot of interests (both monied and power) there as well - as does China.
Not sure exactly what I was expecting you to say about the general case, but thank you.
Wherever you may live, don't expect Facebook to be your agent for freedom. On the contrary.
See bunch of sites banned by Генпрокуратура since 21st of December? This is mostly personal blogs with posts about planned 15.01.2015 protests.
Somebody quickly created another one which gathered followers twice as quickly [1]: https://www.facebook.com/events/406603402849183/
Since there are no organizers, if this one is taken down, people will create a new one.
Finally, there's a website redirecting to the newest unblocked event in case current one gets blocked: https://15.navalny.us
if he really thinks like that, he won't be as rich as he is today (and i m also speaking generically about those who are very rich). You don't become _that_ successful without giving up something.
http://www.businessinsider.com/google-pulls-out-of-russia-20...
Russia may ultimately ban Facebook for similar reasons. China eventually decided that it wouldn't deal with the US's weaponization of large web corporations - this may eventually be the end state of all the large powers.
What do you mean by “registered in Russia”? If Facebook doesn’t employ IP geolocation or something of that sort then anyone who feels strongly about the issue will simply change or unset their country in profile settings.
Facebook and Twitter though ... they don't have much choice, do they? They don't comply - they get a site-wide ban in Russia, which is hardly a headache they want being for-profit entities. Capitalism at work.
I, personally, am not a fan of Navalny (I dislike racial slur in his blog posts and some of his views that I consider chauvinist), but the trend is clear: he and Khodorkovsky have been the only viable opposition leaders in Russia in the recent years. Both of them ended up in jail on similar white-collar crime charges.
Agreed re Navalny, but Khodorkovsky was charged with three murder cases (and one case of attempted murder), so I'm less sure about the collar color.
p.s. I have seen a lot of the original materials of the cases and I can assure you that State failed to prove his guilt.
With Navalny cases (yes, he and his associates have been charged with many things including stealing a picture) it has reached the whole new dimension.
It's interesting to note here that in America the IRS is regularly weaponized to attack political opponents of whichever current administration.
They do imply collaboration, too. Most of them see no reason to champion liberal values other than being paid for it.
What you're doing is rationalizing the crime. People do that because they can't stand the alternative - admission than those in power can and do railroad people's lives because they feel like it, and there is nothing you can do to stop it. The mere thought of it is unbearable, so it's easier to come up with an excuse as to why the victim had it coming, and therefore why this won't happen to me and people I care about. It's called "the just world fallacy" - a mistaken belief that everything happens for a reason, and so nothing needs to be done about it. It's where the fear of doing something meets the excuse for not having to do it.
But here's some good news - you can actually admit that those things are unjust, and you are not obligated to right the wrongs by yourself. It would be nice if you did, but just being honest with yourself is an achievement in its own right.
The matter of fact that Navalny's stubborn persistence doesn't correlate with his personality, at all. He looks and acts like an artificial construct with no obvious genuine motivation.
Khodorkovsky was one of them and he went against the gang. He got shot down, surprise. Was he opposed to the state? Yes. Was he an opposition? Hell, no.
But Navalny and Kasparov are not, and have never been, oligarchs; however they are either in prison or in exile (I'm sure Kasparov would be prosecuted right now, but he chose to leave Russia in 2013).
Putin prosecutes everyone who goes against him apart from allowing a minimal opposition to exist for the sake of appearance and venting off angry people's steam.
"Shut up, look down and you'll be allowed to live" is a very popular theme in Russia across all levels from the president down to local municipal offices. If you go against those in power you will be persecuted proportionally to their power.
The important thing to understand about modern Russia is that there is no separation of power. Putin owns the parliament, the government, the military, and the judges. As a corollary, everyone is guilty of something, and if not, they are made to be.
0: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/dec/21/vladimir-putin-...
In fact, he sort of benefits from people struggling. When you're hungry you don't care about democracy that much.
By the way, Russians' lives did improve relative to early 1990s which is what most people remember most vividly. It's just that Putin has little to do with it, it's just a matter of rising oil prices and increased trade.
Still, no matter what Putin's thinking, I don't like what's going on.
On the flip side, rampant corruption makes government spending incredibly inefficient. Putin could kill all this off in a year if he wanted to, but he doesn't, because he knows how to work this kind of system. Be closer to the top, get more benefits to screw everyone else. That makes for a very stable power structure. No one will rise against him because all those with any sort of power are part of the scheme and treasure their position in the food chain.
So, even though Russia is filthy rich with oil money (50% of federal budget), they can only use a tiny fraction of that money for actual improvements to the country. Russia could by far surpass Eastern Europe in quality of life today if its government was working with any comparable efficiency, but that is the opposite of what is happening.
but that money has to go somewhere - what is being spent on? Any sort of domestic production is surely going to improve the lives of some people (ala, trickle down effect).
Also, the oil money can't last - there's limited oil after all. If the country can't produce other things except natural resources, it's going to get fucked, only a matter of time. And world war 2 is essentially a fight for resources.
At the same time, Russia produces very few such goods and thus much of this money simply flows out of the country. Besides, rich people spend a much lower percent of their income than the average Ivan does, so they park their savings offshore – in foreign bank accounts, real estate, etc. The reason they do it is because anything they have in Russia can be taken away in a matter of hours if they ever find themselves on the wrong side of the power field.
So yes, as you see corruption leads to capital outflow which is a real problem in Russia. In fact, we had some new laws passed to address that, not sure about the extent or effectiveness.
You're right though, Russia is beginning to see resource exhaustion – easily accessible forests, oil fields, etc. are gradually drying up. That's why we're ramping up arctic research for example. So while oil money won't last forever, we could have used it to kick-start our economy and infrastructure. There are so many talented engineers in Russia.
No, that's not my point. This is your strawman :)
Point being that Khodorkovsky is a mafia member going public against the boss and using his crime-sourced wealth as a stepping stone. I personally don't give a flying f#ck what his fellow clan members will do to him for that and I certainly don't want to be manipulated into thinking that his a noble martyr.