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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

#51

Post by w_t_payne »

martopix wrote: post #25
javert wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This suggestion amounts to letting Ukrainian citizens die to avoid a miniscule chance of getting a Russian citizen arrested.

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.

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

#52

Post by krapp »

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…

No, think about it. We have all of these free speech advocates who insist that sunlight is the best disinfectant, that only necessary response to misinformation is information, that one simply needs to engage with extremists in rational debate on the facts, etc. Let them loose on the Russian public and the war could be over in a matter of days!

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

#54

Post by fouc »

dncornholio wrote: post #32

I'm sorry for mentioning this but so far the content on HN about Ukraine has been of very low quality. Today only a 'call Russia' and a 'Putin is actually smart' post. I hoped to find many interesting developments, but HN has been awfully quiet on this war (for good reasons probably), but the content that has been posted has been mediocre IMHO.

I mean it really depends on what gets upvoted so you'd have to monitor the new submissions and upvote the relevant ones.

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

#55

Post by w_t_payne »

It's helpful to think of this as akin to a DDOS-like attack on the Russian internal security infrastructure.

They've only got so much bandwidth - money, personnel and time - to deal with all of the myriad security issues which keep popping up.

The more people we can reach out to, the more 'leads' the security services will have to investigate, then the less effective they will be at propping up Putin's empire of fear.

Putin holds power because everyone is so afraid. As soon as the security services stop being effective, and people learn that they don't need to be afraid any longer ... then the only thing keeping him in power will begin to evaporate.

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

#56

Post by alkonaut »

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 selection of news. And that's their damn responsibility to do so. For example, if you are a soldier asked to go fight in a country, it's your responsibility to read news from other countries before you leave. Otherwise, how can you be sure you know whether the orders are even legal?

We need to stop giving a pass to russians because they have an authoritarian leadership and strict media control. It's very easy to say this from an armchair in a liberal democracy but I'm still going to say it: 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.

And the same applies to anyone else in an armchair whose armchair is in room temperature because of russian oil or gas.

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

#57

Post by zelon88 »

bombcar wrote: post #48
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…

This is a wonderful way to make some poor Russian have to explain to the FSB why he got calls from the United States. Or maybe they don't even bother asking and just gulag him.

Well then maybe his friends and family left behind will find the motivation to take action against their shadowy oppressors.

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

#58

Post by neolefty »

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…

I would guess that cognitive biases are in play, in part. People want to believe that their country is doing something good, and that their suffering is for a good cause. So if a news source reinforces that (such as "Special Operation to liberate Ukraine from Nazis"), it's easier to listen to than a narrative that runs counter ("Destroying both countries to appease a tyrant's ego").

That's not the only factor, but here in the US it's certainly a big part of the appeal of misleading news sources.

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

#59

Post by jszymborski »

rini17 wrote: post #46

I am from Czechoslovakia, trying to imagine what would happen in 1980s if people then were getting unexpected political calls from unknown foreigners. They would mostly assume it is a secret service provocation and react accordingly. Yes that's hard to believe for westerners that your own state would do such nasty stuff to you, but it was commonplace then. Shortwave radio station that is possible to tune to in Moscow…

Maybe robocalls reminding people of the shortwave frequencies and how to listen?

That might be less suspicious and would not implicate anyone since it's clearly just a random advertisement (but of course, you can come up for grounds of arresting anyone looking at a Coke-Cola can the wrong way).

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

#60

Post by geoka9 »

There are plenty of Russians on Youtube commenting under pleas posted by Ukrainians asking them to help stop the war. And there are plenty of videos taken by people on the ground in Ukraine that show what's going on. But due to the way Youtube works, the Russian users are not very likely to come across those videos.

Consider interacting with them by replying with links to the videos.

If somebody from Youtube is reading this, I understand that you need to curb spammers who post a lot. But if you could somehow help with this effort, it might actually help change the public opinion in Russia.

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