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Then what did you mean to say?
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RussiaGate
- Thread starter Don2 (Don1 Revised)
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Then what did you mean to say?
Ordinary assassins aren't necessarily Putin.
Assassinations by means of things like chemical weapons mean state sponsorship--and who else but Putin?
Copernicus
Industrial Grade Linguist
No, you don't understand. I was talking about basically "cable" TV from state owned company called Rostelecom.
If you buy internet from them then they can offer you TV subscription with selection of about ~1000 channels (including adult channels). And the minimum default set (~$2/month) includes CNN/BBC/French/German/Japanese/Belarus and probably few other news channels. You can buy that subscription in US too I think.
I mean you don't need to buy their internet access. Some channels are free for all their users even without subscription. I can't tell how many are free but standard, over the air channels are certainly free. basically if You have internet you don't need ordinary TV antenna.
VPN is not banned and is not really needed for the most part, because Russia does not ban google/facebook and other global companies. The only company which is banned is LinkedIn, I bet you are surprised
Yes, they try to ban certain youtube channels and lift google bans from others. Recently youtube banned RT in Germany and some russian propaganda channel (in russian)
I was not talking about a cable streaming service, but just the raw internet feed. If you were, then you did not make that clear. You get the internet and should be able to access a lot of free news sites from the US, but I honestly don't know what you can get. Of course, there are many sites behind paywalls, but that is true everywhere. These services need to have a revenue stream to support their businesses. I subscribe to Comcast in the US, which provides a similar service to Rostelcom. It includes an internet service that provides access to many free news sources, but I tend to rely mainly on sites that support their activities through advertising.
In Russia, the Putin-controlled legislature can pass pretty much any laws it wants, and I have read that they are thinking about further restricting Russian public access to VPNs, as are the Chinese. Russia has the ability to shut itself off entirely from the Internet backbone, which is largely supported by the US. Youtube and Google tend to follow the dictates of authoritarian regimes in terms of what their citizens can access. That is why Navalny's app was removed by them in the first place. They do so in order to avoid being banned in Russia or having their employees and facilities attacked by government goons.
Again, this is true everywhere, because companies want to develop revenue to support their activities. If you can't get a site outside of the US, that is no different from me not getting sites from European or Australian companies. I used to read the NY Times and Washington Post more often than I do now, but I can get most of the same stories elsewhere for free, if I am willing to tolerate intrusive advertising. When they have exclusive stories, those usually get reported elsewhere outside of their paywalls.
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I'm not the one who is misinformed. The Russian government can do a lot worse than fines when it comes to compeling foreign companies to cooperate. Fines are the least that they have to worry about. Property can be confiscated and employees attacked or jailed. The situation keeps getting worse as the Putin regime continues to tighten its control of access to information.
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Thanks for the link. There are many free movies and shows on that site that are available without a subscription.
barbos
Contributor
We have discussed it already. There're been quite a few purely criminal assassinations using the "same" poisons. So poison itself is not that hard to obtain.
I agree Skripal and Litvinenko clearly are result of corporate policies of russian intelligence
barbos
Contributor
For the million's time, they don't ban your media at all, I can read/watch anything I want. Some very local news sites in US ban outside, but VPN is free, so such bans are just pointless nuisance.
That's a weird way of looking at it. Rostelecom does not specifically provide access to websites. It provides access to internet,.... and TV channels.
There was such talk during war with Telegram, not anymore. And I doubt China can do that reliably too.
They claim that without evidence. And their reason for that ability is that in case of real war, West would cut Russia out, not the other way around. I tend to agree, cutting west out voluntarily would be suicidal for the russian government, they know that.
Can you watch any channels? Free movies are not that interesting.
Copernicus
Industrial Grade Linguist
The talk is more widely publicized in the West. The media in Russia may be a little more circumspect about discussing it. See, for example, these articles:
Russia Blocks Access To Six VPN Providers Ahead Of Elections
Russia Blocks NordVPN, Express VPN in Bid to Control Content
Russia: Growing Internet Isolation, Control, Censorship
...
Interest is in the mind of the beholder. I haven't seen a lot of the Russian entertainment that you have, so much of it is new to me. The cost isn't what determines their value to me. I have been able to stream some Russian TV, but most of what I see are prerecorded clips posted to news sites.
barbos
Contributor
I have not noticed it at all. OK, I checked Nord VPN website, it appears to be working.
What are you? still in the 1980s?
Finding and downloading a movie or even buying it is no longer interesting/problem. Getting real TV channels still kinda is.
I can't easily watch what you watch let say in Chicago. I can listen to all the AM radio though.
Copernicus
Industrial Grade Linguist
Good to hear, but maybe that has something to do with the fact that the election has passed already and there is no longer any perceived need by the authorities to restrict access for now. They have the ability to do it, whenever they feel it necessary to control public access to information.
Yes, I have roughly the same problem in accessing Russian TV, but that is something to be expected, if the media site depends on advertising for local audiences. As for being stuck in the 1980s, you are just dead wrong. I am stuck in the 1960s and maybe early 1970s. Things really went downhill in the 1980s, although there were still glimmers of hope. When you get to be my age, you can be stuck in the 1980s, or whenever your favorite generation keeps its best memories.
barbos
Contributor
I have chrome extension for some free VPN. I use it occasionally only for sites like target.com which are closed to foreign traffic. It never stopped working. Banning VPN sites is possible but pointless because there are thousands of free proxies, and lists which list them.
This is even without p2p networks. If governments try to start really banning VPNs they will create a bigger problem for themselves with p2p/tor.
I don't know about China, But I think the only way to have impenetrable wall is simply blacklist all foreign IPs and then white-list some.
That will make life pretty miserable.
No, it's not the same problem. You keep confusing official websites (with whatever they choose to post there) with having plain stream of the possibly over the air TV channel from another country. For example, I liked watching MeTV. But obviously I can't watch it Russia. I doubt I can even buy it officially even if I was willing to pay.
Websites are not TV channels.
Copernicus
Industrial Grade Linguist
I really hate to say this, but I think that I am a bit more cynical than you on this subject. Anyway, I sincerely hope that you are right and I am wrong. The Russian government has one of the most sophisticated cyberwarfare operations in the world, if not the most sophisticated. They have more tricks up their sleeve than even the NSA.
I know that, except that you can get streaming over web sites. Since IP addresses designate country locations, businesses can use that information to restrict access, and people can use VPNs to get around the restrictions. The Russian, Chinese, and other autocratic governments are clearly working on solutions to bringing the VPN problem under control That would, indeed, make life miserable for you, but I don't think that they really care, if they can find a way to get away with it.
BTW, have you looked at pluto.com, which is a web site that provides free live streaming of quite a few sites in the US, including a limited number of news sites? This is just one of several free services that are eroding the dominance of cable companies like Comcast, which have historically served as a choke point for streaming of live TV. I have also been using tubi.com, which has a lot of Russian offerings, but it does not do live streaming like pluto.com. However, Pluto.com may restrict access outside of the US in order to comply with copyright restrictions on their offerings, so you may need to use a VPN to see it.
barbos
Contributor
I highly doubt that. From what I can tell all these highly publicized hacks attributed to russian hackers are pretty trivial and result of remarkable lack of security in a lot of companies. That's all that is available to Russian government.
NSA&Co just would like you to think Russia is scary to get more tax money. And, thanks to Snowden, we know level of sophistication of NSA espionage.
Blacklisting all IPs is not possible in Russia because all websites depend US providers. Even Simple coding would not be possible because most of the references and help materials are abroad and in english.
Russian political commentators admit that banning foreign internet is not possible, because all these russian instagrammers/influencers would simply revolt. Too many people in Russia making money out of yotube/instagram/facebook and other shit. Some suspect that the whole thing is just provocation. They want russian government to ban internet in order to create chaos and revolution.
Not just for me, for everybody including themselves. Russian government is using foreign software and despite all their attempts they were not able to get rid of it.
What for? I checked, it's inactive.
Check it, it's inactive.
Copernicus
Industrial Grade Linguist
Doubt it all you like, but the evidence says otherwise. See, for example, Microsoft: Russia behind 58% of detected state-backed hacks. North Korea is the runner up in those games.
It was known that the NSA engaged in espionage activities well before Snowden was born. The level of sophistication he revealed only confirmed what was suspected and widely reported before he stole classified materials and dumped them in Chinese and Russian hands. And your criticisms are laughable, given the level of sophistication in your country when it comes to spying on its own and foreign citizens.
That's an interesting, if predictable, line of reasoning coming from you. You think that Putin's regime would not dare to risk cracking down on the internet because of all the internal strife it would cause at the same time that they threaten, attack, murder, and jail all credible domestic opposition to their rule. Obviously, this problem was all created by crafty hostile foreigners to discredit a Russian government that wants nothing but peace and friendship with its neighbors and the rest of the world.
Your response is unclear. Are you telling me to check it? It works fine here. I was just curious as to whether you could get it without resort to a VPN. I think that you mean the link is inactive for you, but you could tunnel to a US server via VPN and get it that way.
barbos
Contributor
State-backed? What about read-headed? how many read-headed? I bet Ireland is a bigger threat than Russia.
And why only US is included as a target? Why not include Russia too?
LOL, that's what you believe.
Yes, I do think that US is actively supporting crap in many countries they deemed worthy of regime change.
That's an interesting, if predictable, line of reasoning coming from you. You think that Putin's regime would not dare to risk cracking down on the internet because of all the internal strife it would cause at the same time that they threaten, attack, murder, and jail all credible domestic opposition to their rule. Obviously, this problem was all created by crafty hostile foreigners to discredit a Russian government that wants nothing but peace and friendship with its neighbors and the rest of the world.
It's pluto.tv, not pluto.com It works, with VPN.
barbos
Contributor
Attachments
lpetrich
Contributor
The sight of right-wingers falling for Russia I find remarkable.
I have a picture of Vladimir Putin and his friends discussing this phenomenon and saying:
I have a picture of Vladimir Putin and his friends discussing this phenomenon and saying:
Swammerdami
Squadron Leader
barbos
Contributor
Why US is not on the list? Or Israel? Or great Britain. Are you saying they are conducting cyber attacks?
have you asked Iran? they might have some data.
Copernicus
Industrial Grade Linguist
State-backed? What about read-headed? how many read-headed? I bet Ireland is a bigger threat than Russia.
And why only US is included as a target? Why not include Russia too?
The term "state-backed" refers to the fact that the Russian government allows criminal groups to conduct attacks on foreign businesses and also uses those groups for espionage activities. The only constraint on them appears to be that they not conduct attacks inside of Russia. Most ransomware attacks in the world these days appear to be conducted from Russian soil because of the protection that such criminal gangs enjoy. When they are exposed publicly, they sometimes pretend to disband and then reappear under a new name. Russia could easily shut these groups down, but your government finds them useful. There is also good reason to believe that Russian intelligence agencies cooperate with these groups to carry out cyberattacks in foreign countries and steal data from companies and government agencies.
Ransomware gangs are working with Russian intelligence services, report says
Dark Covenant: Connections Between the Russian State and Criminal Actors
Of course, it is true that just about every country conducts spy operations, even against allies, and the US has been guilty of plotting and carrying out coups in other countries, although much of that happened during the Cold War. At present, there is no reason to believe that the government routinely protects and cooperates with criminal groups that carry out cyberattacks in other countries, and the expectation is that the Russian government should at least adhere to the same standard when it comes to criminal activity that can be easily shut down.
Yes, that was my mistake. I fell victim to a lazy habit of assuming that the URL end in ".com" without checking. The problem with streaming over a VPN, of course, is that encryption can slow down the connection, so it isn't necessarily a convenient way to get live TV.
barbos
Contributor
Let me spell it out. Statistics you quoted is crap. It starts with selecting only "state sponsored" hacks. That automatically excludes every country except Russia China and Iran. Not only that, it also assumes that all attacks are state-sponsored. It may be true for China but it is certainly not true for Russia. Russia has a large and very vibrant cyber-criminal community which has no links whatsoever to the government. Remember https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silk_Road_(marketplace) in US? Well, Russia had and has even bigger black market cyber site https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Гидра_(даркнет-рынок) , which has no links to the government. So your statistics is crap, if anything it actually indicates that state-sponsored attacks from Russia are lower than from China. And we don't know how it compares to US/Israel/etc, because these countries were conveniently excluded from the statistics.
Having said that, it works but quality is pretty low, I suspect bandwidth is limited by VPN.
It works for Canada too, it shows Canadian TV if I use Canadian VPN.
It's interesting because I remember few years ago there was a company which tried to do the same but major TV companies were against it and forbade broadcasting over-the-air signal over internet. Now it seems some channels are being broadcasted. Don't know what happened.
That's not a problem at all, problem is that free VPNs are not designed for that level of traffic, so chances are, they would cut me off pretty quickly or simply limit bandwidth beyond usefulness. VPNs do not encrypt already encrypted traffic. And encryption nowdays is very cheap.
Having said that, it works but quality is pretty low, I suspect bandwidth is limited by VPN.
It works for Canada too, it shows Canadian TV if I use Canadian VPN.
It's interesting because I remember few years ago there was a company which tried to do the same but major TV companies were against it and forbade broadcasting over-the-air signal over internet. Now it seems some channels are being broadcasted. Don't know what happened.
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barbos
Contributor
Anyway, with recent developments, shouldn't this thread be renamed into "facebookGate" or even capitalismGate?
Yes, these russian trolls created some of the content and would very much like to take credit for destruction of mighty US democracy, but let's be honest, it was facebook&Co who pushed it for profits, knowing damn well what they were doing.
Yes, these russian trolls created some of the content and would very much like to take credit for destruction of mighty US democracy, but let's be honest, it was facebook&Co who pushed it for profits, knowing damn well what they were doing.