What bothers me the most is the title of the thread. It makes it as if Tzar Putin sits on a throne and hands out laws. Whereas in reality, the legislative branch in Russian Federation is State Duma (Parliament), and they can be quite creative with the laws they coin. Putin may suggest that something needs attention. So can a quite powerful lobby that has seen a number of laws not favourable to Russia passed.
This blogger law, as well a number of laws targeting the internet are not well thought-out, but they are there to protect Russia from the 5th column and a repeat attempt on performing a colour revolution, just like it was done in many post-Soviet countries. Russia has military to protect it against an open armed invasion. No one says that Russia should not have an army. (OK, maybe US complains a bit that Russia moves its army within its own borders.) But the world is changing and an invasion can take different forms. These laws are forming a groundwork for a defence system that aim to protect Russia from this new threat vector. These laws will also need to be refined and revised. And the current outcry and pointing out of the absurdities will be a valuable feedback to further legislative effort.
And to digress. If Russia, as a democracy, decides to have a ruler with monarch-like powers, is it in US jurisdiction to say that such a choice is wrong undemocratic and perform a corrective democratic bombing/sanctioning? There's been precedents for such a democratic choice of monarchy: Novgorod Republic is one. So what if Putin has the support of the population and said population chooses to go the way of more authocratarian leader? Russia in general has a tendency to view a need for a strong central figure. If Obama became a president of Russia, he would be expected to look into all local affairs and to personally direct local bureaucrats on complaints from the citizens. There was one time when Russia started to drift away from the strong central ruler - after the February revolution of 1917, when the foundation for constitutional monarchy and for state Duma were laid. However, that path of development was cut short, and Russia again fell under the central monarch-like rule of the Soviet leaders. What Russia is going through now is a way of finding a governance system that works for it and the mindset of the people populating the country. That this emergent form might not coincide with what the Western "democracies" view as "correct", is not the business of those Western countries.
Seems like titles like
Ethnic cleansing in Ukraine
Donetsk, Kharkov, Lugansk - way to Russia
EU contractors in Ukraine
Russian Federation against paid trolls.
MH17 - Where is shrapnel?
Are not bothering you.
The title is because of his statements:
Putin calls internet a 'CIA project'
http://news.yahoo.com/russias-putin-calls-internet-cia-project-144259718--finance.htmlThe Russian president told a media conference in St Petersburg that America's overseas espionage agency had originally set up the internet and was continuing to develop it.
Speaking Thursday at a media forum in St. Petersburg, Putin said that the Internet originally was a "CIA project" and "is still developing as such."
To resist that influence, Putin said, Russia needs to "f
ight for its interests" online.
