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If you speak Russian, call Russia and tell them what is happening in Ukraine

callrussia.org

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Re: If you speak Russian, call Russia and tell them what is happening in Ukraine

#61

Post by dav_Oz »

And how do I know what is happening there?

I'm partial toward the people who got invaded but I cannot even verify the stories and sources to a reliable degree. Simply because I lack the resources.

Having a clear bias (support for one side) makes it cognitively even worse.

So I have two choices:

1. Risking telling "noble" lies because in the grand scheme of things Russia (bad actor) has invaded Ukraine (good actor) so even if I'm wrong in some things my intentions are good.

2. Calling Russians and trying also to hear their side of the story and with an open mind figure out together how to bring this war to an quick end.

I believe the vast majority of Russians and Ukrainians have good intentions and want peace.

But borrowing from the proverb "The road to hell is paved with good intentions" one has to have a way of self-correcting i.e. hearing the other side.

So call Russians and tell them your side of the story but don't pretend to know "better".

Re: If you speak Russian, call Russia and tell them what is happening in Ukraine

#62

Post by martopix »

w_t_payne wrote: post #51
martopix wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not quite. This is causing a relative risk of someone getting arrested in Russia, to create a minuscule chance that this person out of 150 million russians can make a difference in the public opinion, and the minuscule chance that a shift in public opinion in Russia can have any consequence at all on the war in Ukraine.

It's more than a miniscule chance. And it's not just about the shift in public opinion. It's also about consuming the limited bandwidth that the Russian security services have available to deal with stuff like this. Think of it like DDOS-ing their internal security apperatus.

I really don't think this is how you change a warmonger's mind. And it's anyway under the assumption that you get enough people to make it a DDOS level thing.

Re: If you speak Russian, call Russia and tell them what is happening in Ukraine

#63

Post by NoGravitas »

alkonaut wrote: post #56

Why aren't russians telling eachother? At least a fraction of russians read and trust trustworthy (international) news sources, but if their peers won't believe them, why would they believe me if I called them? Russia isn't North Korea. Yes there has been a tightening lately and all easily accessible media has been propaganda for a long time. But that doesn't mean any Russian can't - with some effort - consume a wide…

> Russians have a responsibility to protest the regime now, carrying the personal risk despite perhaps having little to no personal responsibility. Else they have the blood of Ukrainians on their hands.

Back in 2003, Americans had a responsibility to protest the Bush regime. And hundreds of thousands of us did, but it didn't do a damn bit of good. We still have the blood of over one million Iraqis on our hands.

Russia's invasion of Ukraine is illegal and unjustified, but what moral grounds do Americans have to say anything about it?

Re: If you speak Russian, call Russia and tell them what is happening in Ukraine

#64

Post by calculatte »

late2part wrote: post #5
99_00 wrote: post #4

Quoted post unavailable.

https://blog.feedspot.com/ukraine_blogs/ https://ukraineworld.org/ https://ukraineworld.org/podcasts/ep-74 Ep. № 74: 11 days of war: Russia tortures civilians, Ukraine begs to close the skies March 6, 2022 Russia continues to torture civilians and shell humanitarian corridors, breaking earlier commitments to let civilians to evacuate from war-torn cities. Ukraine is begging NATO to close the skies over the country or…

Blogs? That's anecdotal evidence and is therefore completely unreliable and should be dismissed. At least that's what we have been told every day for over a year.

Re: If you speak Russian, call Russia and tell them what is happening in Ukraine

#65

Post by avgcorrection »

decremental wrote: post #35

No one thought about or cared about Ukraine a month ago. Now it's everyone's greatest cause of their lives. Meanwhile, I'm certain there are many atrocities the ruling class isn't forcing your focus on that you don't care about at all. All of this feigned outrage is so fake.

It’s happening in Europe, close to the Western world. So it’s understandable that Westerners care.

I’ve seen a few comments about how outrageous it is that people in places like India and Africa are not up in arms about this conflict (I’m just taking their word for it). Not so strange though if you consider their proximity and compare that (lack of) reaction to how few Westerns care about conflicts like the one in Yemen.

Re: If you speak Russian, call Russia and tell them what is happening in Ukraine

#66

Post by malka »

tpoacher wrote: post #30

What a silly plan. Consider the reverse situation. You are a US citizen, and your phone randomly rings. On the other line, there is a guy speaking English with a heavy russian accent: "Hello. I call from Russia. This website I find ask me to call and inform you of real happenings in Ukraine. Your media full of lies. Trust me. Look. I have pen." Yeah I can totally see Americans taking up arms against their government…

The point is not to convince them.

The point is to:

* create noise in the telephone logbook to annoy the FSB.

* create distrust toward the FSB. This would be the result of people getting arrested for receiving phone calls from the US.

Re: If you speak Russian, call Russia and tell them what is happening in Ukraine

#67

Post by dmix »

codedokode wrote: post #42
dmix wrote: post #23

I'd assume that the majority of foreign calls are wiretapped and automatically converted to text for keyword searches. Russia gets to go directly into the server/networking rooms to install their black boxes. So self-censor certain keywords... as you normally would on the internet.

All phone calls and text messages in Russia must be recorded and stored for at least 6 months according to the law. Also, about 1 month worth of Internet traffic is also recorded.

Interesting, they are at least honest about it...

I've always wondered how good nation states are at converting the speech to text. In my experience working with stuff like Twilio it can be a challenge to do it at scale when trying to identify individual speakers then generating a screenplay like output.

Re: If you speak Russian, call Russia and tell them what is happening in Ukraine

#68

Post by auslegung »

tpoacher wrote: post #30

What a silly plan. Consider the reverse situation. You are a US citizen, and your phone randomly rings. On the other line, there is a guy speaking English with a heavy russian accent: "Hello. I call from Russia. This website I find ask me to call and inform you of real happenings in Ukraine. Your media full of lies. Trust me. Look. I have pen." Yeah I can totally see Americans taking up arms against their government…

You’re probably right, but it’s possible that the environment is such in Russia right now that this could be impactful. From what I’ve been reading and seeing, the Russian people are more willing now than ever to protest and question their government. Those who are on the fence may actually be swayed by a random call like this, but only if they are already suspicious of the information the Russian government is showing them.

Re: If you speak Russian, call Russia and tell them what is happening in Ukraine

#69

Post by dmix »

tpoacher wrote: post #30

What a silly plan. Consider the reverse situation. You are a US citizen, and your phone randomly rings. On the other line, there is a guy speaking English with a heavy russian accent: "Hello. I call from Russia. This website I find ask me to call and inform you of real happenings in Ukraine. Your media full of lies. Trust me. Look. I have pen." Yeah I can totally see Americans taking up arms against their government…

If they don't pick up then you can just dial their number repeatedly until they do. Simple.

Re: If you speak Russian, call Russia and tell them what is happening in Ukraine

#70

Post by WinterMount223 »

malka wrote: post #66
tpoacher wrote: post #30

What a silly plan. Consider the reverse situation. You are a US citizen, and your phone randomly rings. On the other line, there is a guy speaking English with a heavy russian accent: "Hello. I call from Russia. This website I find ask me to call and inform you of real happenings in Ukraine. Your media full of lies. Trust me. Look. I have pen." Yeah I can totally see Americans taking up arms against their government…

The point is not to convince them. The point is to: * create noise in the telephone logbook to annoy the FSB. * create distrust toward the FSB. This would be the result of people getting arrested for receiving phone calls from the US.

Are you okay with getting individuals possibly arrested in the name of a purported common good? You are no better than the FSB itself then.
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