shmobot

Lately I also wonder about the geopolitical lock-in and balkanization of the internet. US won't have this problem I guess. But with all that's happening in the world right now and the current trends, for the rest of us we need to think hard what AI company we trust with our data or trust to still have access to once we're on the other side of the wall.

Exactly, this type of economy feels like it's built for the peace and globalization times. Sadly, lately it seems like those times are over.

This NewsGuard's Reality Check website [0] claims it is currently being done by Moscow. I think it's only a matter of time before we see the internet flooded with this kind of activity.

[0] https://www.newsguardrealitycheck.com/p/a-well-funded-moscow...

Sure, you can tell now when looking back. But at the time, it tremendously surprised everyone, both inside and outside.

The country could have continued like this for years, if not decades, were it not for a few men and coincidental events.

Such resets are sometimes followed by civil wars, economy crashes style "there is no food for tomorrow" and a generational trauma. As the one who has been through it, be careful what you wish for.

Just be careful when using analogies. The massive ship named USSR sank in a matter of months.

I don't think there are many people who believe the state shouldn't intervene at all and that humanity will blossom without it. I'm sure most people strive for some kind of balance.

For those of us who are old enough and were born in the USSR, it feels like we've seen how a similar scenario with too much state intervention has played out before. On one hand, we were so proud of putting a man in space before anyone else; on the other hand, we used to hoard a year's supply of toilet paper and other basic necessities.

If you read the full report by The Insider, it's not just the new eyewitness testimony: https://theins.ru/en/politics/270425

More discussion here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39889517

Previous discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39889517

The tactics of Russian operatives have always been more nuanced than simply "eliminating the adversary". Typically, such extreme measures are reserved for traitors, like Sergei Skripal or the helicopter pilot who defected to Ukraine.

In certain instances, they opt for psychological warfare techniques, similar to those employed by the Stasi in East Germany during the 1970s and 1980s. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zersetzung

Guess where Putin was stationed in the '80s during his tenure as a KGB officer?

Russia doesn't allow ukrainians back to the occupied territories, they deport the non-complicit ones and the remaining ones are heavily oppressed. That should be the excuse for Poland or the rest of EU to not let the refugees in?

Let's assume Russia indeed felt threaten by NATO and US and it somehow justifies taking a military action against. Then why Putin instead of dealing with NATO and US bombs women and children of Ukraine? Sieges and shells Mariupol for a month so people have to dig graves right in the yards of residential buildings and along the streets?

Oh, don't worry, it has been the shibboleth word for many years way before this invasion. The beauty here that even if you know the word it is somewhat hard for a person to learn and remember how to pronounce it. I've tried to teach a couple of my non ukrainian friends for many years, they rarely get it nearly right and cannot repeat consistently. Besides there a few backup words like this, if you need to verify.

I genuinely wonder if such kumbaya rhetoric stays the same once the person actually experiences the bombing of his own house and see people around him heart or dead. Or just forced to leave his own home abandoning everything behind.

Watching closely Russian politics for the last 20 years, the one thing they do perfectly is use this kindness and tolerance of the West against them. Once in house the authorities repress everything that is democratic, decent, free and different, they demand the outside world to stick to their values to the letter, ousting every little deviation from it as the West hypocrisy. And then using it to further convince his own people that the West is rotten.

You can't win the fight if the other side always plays dirty. I believe this is more than just Ukraine-Russia conflict, this is the Cold war that actually never ended.

I think it's the lack of transparency, claims that Telegram is the most secure messenger despite the fact that e2e encryption is off by default and therefore hardly used, unclear source of funds used to run the whole operation.

There are few scandals from his past that draw at least a controversial picture of Durov's morals (throwing paper money from the top of the building in the center of the city, working quietly with the FSB during the protest, deleting messages from the Telegram account of his opponent who accused his brother in firing him over a girl, and so on). He persistently keeps throwing out loosely supported accusations towards the rival messengers like Signal, Whatsapp and so on.

There was a great article in The Wired lately and following discussion on Hacker News [0]

[0]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30267787

I don't consider myself super smart, but i read a lot of news on the non government controlled websites (vc.ru, tjournal.ru, exler.ru for instance), that usually have an audience that is more intelligent than the average population. The common motif from those who worked for the Russian authorities that this is indeed the case in various parts of the government, total corruption and incompetence and talented people usually don't stay long. It also comes together with what we see about Russian army progress in Ukraine, looks like quite a failure considering how much armed forces they have.

What a pity, such a beautiful bird, my dad used to work in Antonov Bureau and she was a great pride for him and for all the ukrainian people. Her Ukrainian name is "Dream" btw.

I think they've counted on the Ukrainian government (especially Zelensky and his closest circle) to give up the fighting and surrender early in the operation. Or have Ukrainian army overthrow him, Putin already suggested they don't need to take commands from this "narc" and "nazi" (btw Zelensky is jewish). It's either their intelligence is that bad (which I don't believe) or Putin just didn't listen, having some delusional picture of the current political and cultural state of Ukraine in his head.

Yes, it's an age-old dilemma, to try to soften the aggressor or to stand up to him. Delaying the confrontation hoping something will change for the best vs standing the ground and fighting back. Some lessons from the not that recent history might suggest that choosing the former might lead to quite a disaster.

In Russia they've been preparing for this and were slowly moving to use their inside systems at least for the transactions inside the country. As well as they've been preparing for the moment their internet infrastructure might be cut off from the rest of the world (Cheburnet). It's only delaying the inevitable, Russia was clearly heading for isolating itself from the influence of the west.

Many of them have kids and other relatives in the West, living off their money. Releasing the information who they are and cutting them off can be the next step.

In any case it won't stop him from continuing his anschluss of Ukraine at this very moment.