As Russia Expands Internet Blackouts, Kremlin Tells Citizens to Use the Radio

Invades neighbouring countries to 'protect' the German I mean Russian minorities there.

Fascism is a dumb person's revolution. It's the information age, and bullshit isn't information. The dummies who have bullshitted their way through life don't like that, and think that going back to medieval times will put them back on top.

Brother, Muscovy never entered an age of ideas.  They might have smartphones and internet but they're still in the 16th century mentally. 

Actually someone who does control at least to some extent the railways and the means of production.

USA is bullying the world for years , and they created the probaganda of Russia being super power to collect money from ppl and invest in arms so it can become super power by biking third world countries . So to keep countries like USA under control Putin become actual villain now ..

> Nazis actually made conscious use of all of the media available to them, rather than restricting access as Russia does today? The historical context was that the Germans built **their** propaganda radio stations while making listening to **other** stations a capital offense. As in: for committing the crime of [Feindsender](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feindsender) (tuning into a foreign radio station), you could be executed. They absolutely **did** restrict access to media, **as well as** tightly controlled the exchange of information **between** people. If you actually read the article, you'd know that Russia only disrupted **mobile** Internet access, ostensibly as a security measure. There are many good reasons for an authoritarian regime to do that, namely: * Testing the control systems * Testing how far they can go with restrictions * Boiling the crab, i.e. making the population used to that * **Impeding communication at mass gatherings**, making organized protests difficult The latter is important in light of the May 9th parade, the biggest event of the year. It makes sense for Putin to want to avoid a [Ceausescu moment](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romanian_revolution#Ceau%C8%99escu's_speech) (the Romanian dictator was overthrown when he gathered 100K people to listen to his speech, and they collectively decided that they've had enough). Russia isn't exactly *winning* in Ukraine now, so a *victory* parade might give people thoughts. However, there's also a very simple pragmatic reason: * **Drones can use cell phone data link for command and control** Both Russia and Ukraine have used that. It's **very** hard to prevent a SIM card getting into wrong hands, and a drone is just a small aircraft. Cell phones are **supposed to** work on helicopters and Cessnas; the network equipment wasn't designed to detect whether a SIM card is on a drone (it's not impossible, but it's a technically challenging problem). So.. there you have it. Not that Putin would want to admit that the parade being hit by Ukrainian drones is a big enough risk that he'll disrupt the life of everyone in the capital to mitigate it. Hence the confusion.

Yes, they made use of *state-controlled media* while russia today is restricting things they can't fully control, trying to limit all but... *state-controlled media*.

Link about the radios and state propaganda [Volksempfänger - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volksempf%C3%A4nger)

The point I'm making is that russia wants to block outside info and be the only source of propaganda to the masses like Goebbels. Hypothetically, if they had internet then, Goebbels would have tried to control it. His ministry absolutely did everything in their power to control the propaganda and limit outside influence. [Reich Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reich_Ministry_of_Public_Enlightenment_and_Propaganda)

There's a dedicated 'power plug' that can receive some sort of radio in my MIL's commie block apartment. She doesn't used it anymore and blocked it off so people don't accidentally try to use it to charge a device (haha western morons visiting...), but you used to be to connect some small shit and listen to radio. The radio probably had to be indeed bought. However, in Soviet times if you had such an apartment you would eventually anyway buy that radio, it isn't like there were so many things to buy... And life without radio is boring so....

Right, and this has been used extensively in the past by intelligence agencies. The “back-EMF" from computer speakers is what’s being exploited to cause them to function as a microphone. Most motherboards also contain high definition audio codecs that can silently flip an output port to an input port.

This is a surprisingly common phenomenon. Another example is that all electric motors are also electrical generators, which is what enables regerative braking in electric and hybrid cars.

> but unlike Trump, he has competent people around him I really don't believe he does. He surrounds himself by people who are complete loyalists and extremely corrupt (corruption helps keep people loyal). If he decides he wants to do something then no one is going to stand up and tell him "you can't do that" We've seen Russia make a lot of mistakes as a result of leadership being fundamentally disconnected from the reality on the ground. That's not to say Russia isn't extremely dangerous but they've made other miscalculations.

Whataboutism, that is what it is about.

The point is the blatant hypocrisy

Sure, all of that is the point I’m making. Russian citizens are no different than the rest of us in that regard

I don't know for sure, but I guess at the moment the people in Iran hate the US and Israel more than they hate their own government. Nothing like a hot war to unify the people. In Russia, its a bit different. Iran has been under sanctions and oppression for decades, they are used to it, and considering they were the most sanctioned country in the world for a while and didn't collapse economically, I wouldn't bet on it now. Russia though, people have been used to at least the illusion of freedom and choice for the last couple of decades, and even a measure of prosperity, especially those in the cities, so they will be taking it harder. I lived there for close to 20 years before the war started, i still have friends there. Outside a few Z supporters, most hate what Putin is doing to Ukraine and Russia, but they can't speak out. They are simply waiting for something to happen, too scared to take action themselves.

I hope you’re right about people making a move, but I feel like people are willing to endure quite a bit when the other option is being killed. Especially these days with modern comforts and convenience, people can endure a LOT.

\> I don't know much about what Russians are thinking about Putin though Grandpa is old, grandpa doesn't care. It will pass on its own.

The US is the largest producer of oil in the world. It gets most of its oil from the US, Canada and Mexico. The US will be fine.

I wish optics still mattered in the west, but apparently you can be an evil piece of shit anywhere in the world and always have a spot in politics

It's way harder to mobilize and organize without internet, my friend. If you're from Venezuela, you know the regime has specifically cut internet and mobile communications in the big centers every time they were threatened.

There's pretty aggressive censorship in Russia. They've killed people for what they've said about Putin.

They are doing things in drips and drabs, slowly tightening the screws so as not to create a big issue all at once. The worst things get and the more paranoid putin gets, the more control is asserted. This story is public but he also signs decrees in secret that give him more control. The Moscow Times, among others, report on these topics often.

Because Russians are now sick of the war. 2 years ago, they weren't.