Another day in the Universe
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https://www.onthenatureofthings.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=400
In the USA, the guy would have been shot dead and the whole country would have been traumatized.A Russian drunk driver who rammed his way into Kazan International Airport chased by police has told a court he was meeting a lady friend and "fighting for love".
Driver Raslan Nurtdinov was sentenced to 15 days in jail.
a tragic day, putin will be the last of his breed and russians will turn into hipsters.It's finally happened. Russia's many enemies — foreign and domestic — have successfully conspired to destroy one of Russia's most ancient and holy writs: The right to keep and bear bears. At home. In Moscow. Where your home probably consists of a 2-bedroom apartment. And one of those bedrooms is the kitchen.
Yes, the so-called "Chairman of the Commission on Environmental Policy" in Moscow has decreed that domesticated bears are no longer welcome in Russia's capital. Why not just surrender to NATO and give George Soros the keys to the Kremlin?
It is unlikely in any event that Donald Trump will be able to strike a deal with Vladimir Putin to abandon Russian support for Iran. Similarly the Kremlin has said while it looks forward to improved relations with the United States, it has signaled its intent to build relations with Iran. In February, Russia’s deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov stated “Don’t try to fix what is not broken,” upon being asked about Trump’s policy towards the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.
Over the last 38 years, Iranian policy has been to look kindly towards Russia’s activity in the region.
In Afghanistan, Iran did not provide significant support to the Mujahedeen and, mutually beneficial for both countries during the Russian invasion, later aided the Russian backed Northern alliance in their war with the Taliban.
In Tajikistan, Iran aided in achieving a peace settlement thereby preserving Russian influence in its former state.
In the Northern Caucasus, Iran has behaved rationally, not extending support to Islamist rebels, who Iran could have pocketed as a future ally through furnishing the rebels with arms and financial support.
If Russia and the United States are to divide the region like a cake there is little the United States can potentially offer in exchange for Russian co-operation on containing Iran. Even as Russia’s benefit from having Iran as an energy supplier is diminishing as its dependence on Middle Eastern oil is weaning; the nation represents an important avenue for export and joint ventures. While Russia is unlikely to desire a nuclear-armed Iran, as its effect would be destabilizing to international security as a whole. Russia does not object to an Iran with conventional nuclear power, since this has already generated billions of dollars of high human capital exports for the former.
Another fear is that Russian abandonment of Iran could be filled by China, whose opportunism has already been noted in Pakistan through the Chinese-Pacific Economic Corridor and its increasing involvement in Africa.
more @ link
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In fact tyrannies generally are brittle. They are also brutal, and to some degree they are brutal precisely because they are brittle. (Often they are also brutal because they have murderous world-views and programs.) They know almost everybody sees through their pretences and finds their vainglory seedily pathetic. If they don’t quickly hang or jail anyone who says the emperor isn’t just naked but flabby, their regimes collapse fast. And last Sunday saw surprisingly widespread duck protests in Russia.
So Putin has grounds to be deeply concerned about little rubber ducks. Which starkly reveals his seedy thuggishness.
YMix wrote:In the USA, the guy would have been shot dead and the whole country would have been traumatized.A Russian drunk driver who rammed his way into Kazan International Airport chased by police has told a court he was meeting a lady friend and "fighting for love".
Driver Raslan Nurtdinov was sentenced to 15 days in jail.
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http://www.spiegel.de/international/wor ... 96074.htmlTyphoon wrote:Hypotheses:
1/ Reascension, er, reelection boasting about Russian capabilities to get the apathetic vote out?
2/ A sense of insecurity after the recent encounter of Russian troops against American troops in Syria and the subequent massacre of the Russians by the Americans?
3/ Concern about his fellow autocrat and neighbour Xi Jinping proclaiming himself to be the new Red Emperor of China?
4/ The Russian economy is actually worse off than than is widely believed.
Assuming gender? Wow! That's insensitive!Miss_Faucie_Fishtits wrote:
IcQo93KULd4
I realised something was off with the aspect ratio just as I was getting jealous of that lady's nice long legs.....XD.........
...........I find your virtual brain to be so attractive... I'd probably never even notice if you had legs or not..Miss_Faucie_Fishtits wrote:Perspective is different, sweets. You're looking at opportunity, I'm looking at the batting lineup...... awight.........
Russia Disconnects Itself From The Internet, Asks UN To Let It Have More Control Of Internet Usage Around The World
(Mis)Uses of Technology
from the hey-if-it's-good-enough-for-state-sponsored-cybercriminals... dept
Fri, Jan 3rd 2020 9:29am — Tim Cushing
The Russian government has successfully disconnected itself from the world. "Internet sovereignty" is the term the government prefers. That's what the Russian government actually calls the law signed into effect in May.
The idea is to isolate the Russian internet from the internet the rest of the world uses. It's not to protect Russia or Russian internet users. It's to force all Russian internet traffic through Roskomnadzor servers, which will allow the government to surveil its citizens' internet use, presumably to facilitate censorship efforts and prosecutions.
Lots of experts doubted the plan was feasible. At best, it would subject all Russian internet traffic to government surveillance. At worst, it would cause critical systems to fail. The plan was to pull the plug in April. It didn't happen until December. According to the Russian government, this extreme Balkanization of the internet went off without a hitch.
"It turned out that, in general, that both authorities and telecom operators are ready to effectively respond to possible risks and threats and ensure the functioning of the Internet and the unified telecommunication network in Russia," said Alexei Sokolov, deputy head of the Ministry of Digital Development, Communications and Mass Media, as cited by multiple Russian news agencies [1, 2, 3, 4].
That's the only source we have, so trusting this narrative means trusting the Russian government -- a government that is claiming it's essential to seal off its internet to protect it from threats when all it really wants to do is control narratives, perform mass censorship, and hunt down citizens who color outside the lines.
Russia wants to make its policy an everywhere policy. Its proposal -- currently being considered by the United Nations -- pushes for more internet sovereignty everywhere. Again, this tool of censorship and control is being portrayed as an anti-cybercrime tool meant to secure nations, rather than censor citizens.
It seems harmless enough in Newspeak:
The representative of the Russian Federation, presenting the draft, said cybercrime threatens entire sectors and is a crucial national security priority. Despite the importance of the issue, there is a lack of an instrument to tackle it, and until last year’s resolution 73/187, the General Assembly had not addressed the need for a unified conceptual framework. While inclusive international dialogue has commenced, its geographic scope is “limited”, and there is a clear need to bolster international cooperation, he said. Stating that the draft complements similar initiatives — including the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime — he said it must also take on board work done by the Expert Group to Conduct a Comprehensive Study on Cybercrime in Vienna. He pointed out that the draft resolution “does not cost much, at less than $200,000”, and fosters a more just, balanced world order in the digital sphere by ending “club-based” agreements.
A draft of this proposal [PDF] has already been approved by the UN. Maybe the UN should have looked a little closer at the parties behind the proposal -- all of which already engage in strict control of internet services and engage in mass censorship.
Belarus, Cambodia, China, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Myanmar, Nicaragua, Russian Federation and Venezuela
The proposal says things about "cooperation," but the only cooperation being asked for is assistance in making it easier to run country-specific versions of the internet.
The resolution -- Countering The Use Of Information And Communications Technologies For Criminal Purposes -- would create a new cybercrime treaty written by Russia, a country analysts have said is cracking down on Internet freedom at home to stifle opposition to the Kremlin.
“The Russians clearly are interested in pushing their vision of what the Internet should look like in the future, and that’s conflating this idea of cybercrime with cybersecurity and cyber controls,” a State Department official told media on December 19.
Russia wants “a form of lockdown on information” over the Internet and a “curtailment of those freedoms” that the United States stands for, the State Department official said.
There's also the attendant irony of Russia leading the fight against misinformation and the use of the internet for criminal purposes. The countries in agreement on this proposal routinely engage in state-sponsored attacks on foreign government entities and Russia is internationally infamous for its interference in the last US presidential election. Russia wants all the best foxes to guard the internet hen house. That the draft passed with plenty of support indicates the world is loaded with foxes who see only an upside to taking control of the internet their citizens have access to.
Moscow rules in London: how Putin’s agents corrupted the British elite.
Exiled oligarchs reveal the unseemly enthusiasm of our [British] politicians, bankers, lawyers and real estate agents for dirty Russian cash.
Who could have guessed that one of the symptoms of COVID-19 is auto-defenestration.A doctor at an ambulance unit in Russia's western Voronezh region is in serious condition after falling from a hospital window following complaints that he was forced to work even after testing positive for COVID-19, the third such case in the country in recent days.
Wasn't he wearing a mask? I thought the mask was the key to avoiding co-morbidity of COVID-19 and other diseases.... like murder.Colonel Sun wrote: ↑Mon May 04, 2020 9:44 pm In Putin Russia, window finds you.
RFERL | Third Russian Doctor Mysteriously Falls From Hospital Window Amid Coronavirus Outbreak
Who could have guessed that one of the symptoms of COVID-19 is auto-defenestration.A doctor at an ambulance unit in Russia's western Voronezh region is in serious condition after falling from a hospital window following complaints that he was forced to work even after testing positive for COVID-19, the third such case in the country in recent days.
I used to have a satellite dish set up to watch Soviet Sat TV. They used to have kids cartoons where children were hailed as martyrs dying in the defense of the motherland.
A tradition that goes back to the apocryphal story of Pavlik Morozov who was lauded as an exemplary hero for reporting his parents to the KGB.
A gas station, run by mobsters, pretending to be a nation.