Russian politics — does it consist in anything but the progressive unraveling of what modest liberalization of civic life the Russians benefited after the crackup of the Soviet Union?
The latest assault on liberty? The government targeting of Russian bloggers. The most popular ones — those with 3,000 or more daily readers — must now register with the government or risk being shut down. As Bloomberg’s Ilya Khrennikov puts it, “Russian President Vladimir Putin is taking names. Potentially thousands.”
The registrants must supply real names, real addresses.
Mother Russia says it’s doing this to combat inaccurate or defamatory information — i.e., opinions it dislikes; i.e., any too critical of the government. Putin already has authority to shut down “extremist” web pages sans judicial oversight. The new law tightens the noose.
It seems there’s little we can do about this in the West except express our sympathy for Russians fighting the commissars.
Well, one other thing, at least; and not so little. Western tech firms can refrain from abetting such repression the way Yahoo did when, several years ago, it turned over user info on Chinese dissidents Wang Xiaoning and Shi Tao to the Chinese government and thus enabled their imprisonment. Facebook, Google+ and other hosts of Russian-language blogs can flatly reject demands to censor or delete these blogs — or to supply the Russian government with identifying info on the authors.
Obviously, predictions of the end of history have indeed proven premature. We’re not all liberal democrats now.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
5 replies on “Registering Dissent in Russia”
Are we really so far behind that situation in this country?
Really, not so free!! WTG! Last i heard NSA has EVERYTHING! BUt they’re all spying and controlling if they can, even if not so openly as Putin.
Russia is not the old Soviet Union. They have opened their society way up since the fall.
The way i see the problem here is the US is wandering in the desert and Putin & China have said enough! Our media continuosly tries to portray them as the Soviet Union when the problem is a mindless White House that doesn’t have the moral integrity to make a real decision without it being political.
I mean, 6 months later we are joining forces with Syria to route ISIS. Putin will be regarded by history as correct on Syria and we drew a REDLINE there. Not to mention the disasters in Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Ukraine, Fast & Furious, the whole Border Problem.…
Everything i see Obama do is weakening us further.
Rick, I was with you until you threw in the phrase, that “whole border problem.” You are too smart to think we need to close our borders. Open Borders are in line with a free people and free markets.
I cannot imagine you wanting the government in charge of ingress and egress, all employers and employees with E Verify,all voluntary transactions and peaceful exchange of goods, services, labor and capital. No, the “Illegal alien” trumped up fears are not in line with other thoughts you have expressed here.
Lynn,
I think you got a little carried away with what i said. I believe in free commerce, trade, immigration. Have you ever been involved with international commerce? You have to go through customs to get in. Along with that you have to prove what you are carrying, where you’re going and what your destination is.
Have you seen what’s coming across the border? I saw a website the other day where the gov’t showed the 145 cities where known killers have been relocated to. Don’t have time to search for it. Tuberculosis, gangs, old people looking for social security and on and on.
I have no problem with immigration but what obama is doing is laying down at the border and letting anybody and everybody in.
IF somebody wanted to shut the US economy down all they would need is a couple dozen drone carried RPGs and they could knock out the refinery capacity in Houston overnight. and btw, they have found korans and muslim prayer mats in the desert near the border. At this point i think it’s fair to assume that we HAVE BEEN infiltrated by people with bad intentions. I can’t understand why anybody is ok with the total breakdown of law and order and protection of the border.
Try to get into Mexico. Or Canada. Or Europe. Maybe you don’t understand what’s involved in the “normal” course of international travel and trade. This is not it.
Gang member
http://www.breitbart.com/Breitbart-Texas/2014/08/26/Unsecured-Border-Results-in-Death-of-Two-More-Illegal-Immigrants-Graphic-Images