It's the typical Eastern European (or non-US centric) Internet. The IP laws make sense only if people have the capital to buy stuff. When I was a kid in a post-Soviet country, no one ever bought anything original (like a CD with a game). Everything was bootleg or pirated from the Internet.

After [the US lobby started to push for copyright enforcement in the EU under the threat of sanctions](https://falkvinge.net/2011/09/05/cable-reveals-extent-of-lap...), things have changed. The copyright and IP laws that US lobbies push to the world are killing the idea of free Internet and only benefit large corporations that are untouchable.

Elsevier is Dutch-based and they are fierce in suing everyone who tries to get away with getting free papers that were paid for by the taxpayers.

The "free" Internet doesn't exist anymore, but it's good to have places like Russia where the IP law is not strictly enforced, because everything is broken so no one cares.