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Comment by JabrZer0 | Hacker News Reader

It was recently put to me like this (I'm not sure I agree with the analysis completely, but I think there's some truth to it, at least in the perceptions of the two countries):

While the Chinese are certainly sometimes nefarious in their online activities, their goal, as you mentioned, seems to usually be gaining IP. The perception is that Russian hacking is usually more (a) directed at stealing directly from the populace (credit card phishing, etc), or (b) directed towards political ends (see recent American politics for examples). These effects are both more visible to the general public and politically damaging. Thus they receive more focus on the political stage.

To me, (b) seems like the real differentiating factor.

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The Cold War didn't end after the fall of the wall, IMHO.

We've been fighting a repeat of the 80's proxy war in Afghanistan for nearly 15 years. Roles reversed, though. Russia arms the Taliban, just like we did in the 80's with the Mujahadeen.

Syria, another blatant proxy war, is probably a better example. We're arming rebels and providing support to fight Russian (and therefore communist) interests. Sounds just like the Cold War to me.

With the recent Russian propoganda campaign (see: "fake news") going over so well that they took to celebrations in the streets, expect a lot more funny business in elections in the West.

France's election seems to be the next plaything for Russia to influence, it's setting a precedent that will restore Russia to superpower status if allowed to continue unchecked.

The power of the internet works both ways. Information, and therefore misinformation, is spread more quickly than ever. Propoganda has never been easier to dress up and present as fact. Nor have people been so willing to eat it by the spoonful, as long as it validates their own opinions and/or biases.

> The Cold War didn't end after the fall of the wall, IMHO.

It didn't with the fall of the Beeline wall, but did with the fall of the USSR. Unfortunately, by the late 1990s (particularly, this was noted during the Serbia/Kosovo conflict and subsequent peacekeeping operation) a new Cold War had clearly started between NATO and Russia.

My thought as well.

Also, there's a pretty clear understanding that targeting Russians is career suicide. So you'll find documentation in Russian, but templates in English.

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