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On ‘Island’ in Russian Arctic, Arrival of Fast Internet Shakes Political Calm

nytimes.com

31–37 of 37 posts

Re: On ‘Island’ in Russian Arctic, Arrival of Fast Internet Shakes Political Calm

#31
post #7

This is just really confusing to me. I had no idea that propaganda was so resurgent in Russia. I thought openness to modern/popular media would have knocked down a lot of misinformation about "the west". I think of Russians as being active participants on the Internet; I would have thought that this would keep a bit of a lid on single-point-of-view propaganda. (Obviously there's plenty of misinformation on the intern…

Russian media is mostly state-owned, and independent journalists are jailed for speaking out against the current regime. The government is in the process of trying to emulate China's Great Firewall. The country is in a state of disarray, where the oligarchs are getting hit with sanctions, oil sales are dwindling, and the only way to maintain the status quo is to keep the public focused on an outside enemy, which curr…

I believe Russian media does exaggerate about US problems. But just as well, I also believe US media exaggerates about Russian problems too.

Paraphrasing your post, I could also say US mainstream media is indirectly state-controlled, and independent journalists are fired or discredited for speaking out against the current regime.

I really hope we all could move ahead of this Cold-War mentality, that puts the whole world in danger of a nuclear holocaust.

Re: On ‘Island’ in Russian Arctic, Arrival of Fast Internet Shakes Political Calm

#32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Russian media is mostly state-owned, and independent journalists are jailed for speaking out against the current regime. The government is in the process of trying to emulate China's Great Firewall. The country is in a state of disarray, where the oligarchs are getting hit with sanctions, oil sales are dwindling, and the only way to maintain the status quo is to keep the public focused on an outside enemy, which curr…

I believe Russian media does exaggerate about US problems. But just as well, I also believe US media exaggerates about Russian problems too. Paraphrasing your post, I could also say US mainstream media is indirectly state-controlled, and independent journalists are fired or discredited for speaking out against the current regime. I really hope we all could move ahead of this Cold-War mentality, that puts the whole wo…

"I could also say US mainstream media is indirectly state-controlled, and independent journalists are fired or discredited for speaking out against the current regime."

I guess you was downvoted for that phrase which can't be true /s

Re: On ‘Island’ in Russian Arctic, Arrival of Fast Internet Shakes Political Calm

#33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Russian media is mostly state-owned, and independent journalists are jailed for speaking out against the current regime. The government is in the process of trying to emulate China's Great Firewall. The country is in a state of disarray, where the oligarchs are getting hit with sanctions, oil sales are dwindling, and the only way to maintain the status quo is to keep the public focused on an outside enemy, which curr…

I believe Russian media does exaggerate about US problems. But just as well, I also believe US media exaggerates about Russian problems too. Paraphrasing your post, I could also say US mainstream media is indirectly state-controlled, and independent journalists are fired or discredited for speaking out against the current regime. I really hope we all could move ahead of this Cold-War mentality, that puts the whole wo…

There's a degree of state influence on the US media, but turn on any news site and you'll see criticism of the current regime. I'm speaking as a Ukrainian immigrant who sometimes tunes into Russian news, where they call me a Nazi and say I'm a threat to the Russian way of life. I don't give a shit about US/Russia relations, but if you wanna talk about China and their human rights violations, Russia is a close second.

Re: On ‘Island’ in Russian Arctic, Arrival of Fast Internet Shakes Political Calm

#34
post #29
post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

" So in line with that they're simultaneously crafting the beginnings of Russia's version of the Chinese firewall " What they actually doing is making sure that their internal internet based infrastructure does not depend on what POTUS de jour feel like. Russia once had been threatened to be cut off from the Visa and other financial services and that had led them to create their own payment system. After the lesson l…

The independence of infrastructure is the stated goal. But I doubt it's the main one. They've been trying to shut down opposition political commentary[0] by forcing them to move outside of the .ru domain. The next step is to limit the access to non-ru TLDs since they can't control those. [0] For example, grani.ru had to move to graniru.org several years ago, which was then blocked by most ISPs in Russia due to a gove…

I am not here to claim that Russia is all nice and fluffy. But their stated goal for making infrastructure independent from the West is totally legit. It makes 100% sense. The rest is all guesses and speculations.

Re: On ‘Island’ in Russian Arctic, Arrival of Fast Internet Shakes Political Calm

#36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can confirm, Russia has extremely low English competency. 3% sounds about right from my experience (I live here). Which is a good thing of course, as it forces me to learn Russian.

I was pretty surprised recently when I visited St Petersburg. I went on a tour and the tour guide spoke flawless English for the whole three hour tour. Until someone asked her a question in English. And another. And another. And with each one it became more apparent that she did not speak English, she just memorized the tour in English. One of the more interesting things I took from the trip.

She probably knows some english, just not conversational. I can read spanish and I could certainly memorize a spanish language speech and even pronounce it fairly well, but I struggle to have anything beyond and extremely basic conversation in Spanish.

Re: On ‘Island’ in Russian Arctic, Arrival of Fast Internet Shakes Political Calm

#37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can confirm, Russia has extremely low English competency. 3% sounds about right from my experience (I live here). Which is a good thing of course, as it forces me to learn Russian.

I was pretty surprised recently when I visited St Petersburg. I went on a tour and the tour guide spoke flawless English for the whole three hour tour. Until someone asked her a question in English. And another. And another. And with each one it became more apparent that she did not speak English, she just memorized the tour in English. One of the more interesting things I took from the trip.

Hearing and understanding is easier than forming responses in real time. I understand a lot more Russian than I can speak. She probably understood a lot of English, but struggled coming up with responses.
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