We know social media platforms have been censoring information for a while. Today, YouTube announced that it is blocking channels linked to Russia’s RT and Sputnik across Europe. Facebook has said it would restrict access to RT in the EU and Twitter will reduce the visibility of Russian media. Furthermore, the EU have announced a ban on Russian state-backed channels.
However, is the actual Internet now being censored? I have been trying to read the translated versions of Vladimir Putin’s recent speeches which have been available on the Kremlin website. Now, all I get is this.
We need to be able to read both sides of the story to understand the nuances of the situation. Yes, invasion of another country is never acceptable, yes war is never justifiable but I want to be able to understand why the person ordering it, thinks that it is. Without nuanced discussion the situation is likely to go from bad to worse.
Can anyone else access the website in your country or through a VPN?
UPDATE - You can access the website via a VPN set to Russia.
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As I was growing up in the west I knew, in my naivety, that we were the good guys. I’ve since adopted an altogether more nuanced position. But when ‘our side’ tells me that I will be saved from propaganda from ‘their side’ I know we’re being lied to. Censorship is never, ever, the right approach in a free world.
The great weakness of censorship is that ultimately it consumes itself and totally corrupts those who implement it. We've learned more than enough from Covid to see how this process pans out.
Despite the current censorship in relation to the Ukraine crisis, there will always be ways of obtaining points of view from other perspectives. Perhaps what it does teach us is the art of withholding judgment, and thinking more for ourselves.
For example, how does the history of Ukraine over say the past 150 years play into what's happening now. Until a few days ago, I didn't know that Lviv (formerly Lemberg) was a jewel of a city of the Polish Kingdom, until the end of WWII when the Allies and Stalin agreed to the USSR taking a slice of eastern Poland (including Lviv) in exchange for Poland taking a slice of eastern Germany. The upshot for Lviv was a population transfer (what would be called ethnic cleansing these days) whereby Poles (the majority) were moved out and Ukrainians (until then a minority) were moved in.
The news speaks glowingly as if Ukraine were an integral nation state. As far as I have so far worked out, there are at least three ethnicities involved, each with their own language and religion, living in a state of tension for decades. The simmering war that started in 2014 is just another part of this long story. To me it looks something like the break-up of Yugoslavia, but with a really really big neighbour (Russia) batting for one of those ethnicities, and of course protecting its own long-held interests like the Black Sea ports.
I'm not sure for people like myself (UK citizen and resident with no skin at all in this game) what purpose it serves to follow the minutiae of the current tragedy, which we know are censored and distorted. I'd rather know why they are where they are, and pray they come out of it with as little loss of life as possible. We know what the Western Empire's goals are vis a vis Russia. Encircling (NATO), throttling (sanctions) and eviscerating (hydrocarbon theft) is just the start.
Yes. In the ‘90s the mess in Bosnia was very difficult to follow — I found it hard to work out who was mad at whom and why. One thing that was certain, it was a world away from the simplistic picture painted in the propaganda/“news” at the time.
Yes, it's never as simple as good v bad. MSN is totally running with the evil, mad Putin v brave, plucky harmless Ukraine take. Like you I don't have skin in the game and it's very frustrating that in addition, social media and independent news blogs turn on commentators who just give some background and attempt to understand Putin's point of view. Apparently, giving context now means you are on Team Putin. In addition, having been lied to for the last two years by the media and our leaders, I can't believe how many people are still lapping up the crap they are putting out.
I remember tuning in to Radio Moscow when there were crises during the cold war. You always knew that they were full of crap. I don’t like being treated like a child. Censorship is wrong. It’s makes you wonder what we may be trying to hide. Our government used to trust us….
When you watch RT or Al Jezeera you know & accept that you’re seeing propaganda. But western mainstream misleadia presumes to inhabit some lofty virtuous place where only truth prevails. What a croc.
I used to listen on short wave radio. Even as a (pretty dumb) teen I marveled at the lies. As I do now. Maybe the experience from the early ‘70s sharpened my detection skills.
I listened (also as a teenager) during the Carter disaster. Everything they said was either a lie or hopelessly distorted, much like CNN, MSNBC et al…..
Exactly! The whole idea that we are clueless eaters not capable of critical thought is too pervasive in the west. MSM and in fact many ordinary folks are excusing their blatant misinformation regarding covid and the vaccines. We all know how well that worked out.
To be honest, considering the education system in America, most people ARE clueless. It's just the way it is. They gobble up the propaganda with eyes wide open, no critical thinking involved whatsoever. And of course, part of it is virtue signaling, being part of the "cool kids" crowd, by jumping on the bandwagon du jour. It's all sickening to see.
my experience is that people don't want the truth, as a combination of laziness and probably also, the reasonable thought that they can do nothing about it (which in my book I call cowardice)
Maybe they now want to censor it precisely so that you, and folks like Lon Guyland and Soyelcaminodelfuturo, have no reference point to detect when they themselves are blatantly lying to you.
We all know that Google has changed its algorithms but I was recently deeply saddened by how far it has gone: classic mathematics:(. I wanted to find a good video on the Golden Rectangle however all I could find were videos on how ‘it’s your opinion on how much you like the rectangle’. I eventually remembered that the Davidson Institute had created one I had previously shared with a different student. Looking at Google’s search results in contrast to the Davidson video is both lamentable and alarming.
Which engine do you use? I used to use Startpage but read that Google purchased them. Duck Duck Go has very similar results to Google ...I use Ecosia on my phone. Since saying ‘I ecosiaed golden triangles’ sounds freaky I use Google as a verb—lazy.
I went to reply to your comment just now and got "This page is unavailable" ! Worked okay with a refresh. I use Brave with Duck Duck Go. However, I still use google for my email etc. It's difficult to find alternatives if, like me, you have no interest in the tech, you just want to use it!
Yes the legacy media and now insidiously, social media censorship is rampant. Twitter is the worst. I don't know why i go back....possible addictive personality, possible closet abuser, or just creeping insanity. Substack is a Godsend.
With duckduckgo.com (which is private/uncensored), the normal search page appears for en.kremlin.ru I am also using kaspersky VPN - when you try to access the site ....... the following appears.
read tcp 10.239.7.16:34641: read: connection reset by peer
NE, I completely agree with you about being able to read "the other side" - how else to even begin to understand? This just reinforces my feeling about the ferocity of the narrative makers, and their fears. Thank you for whatever you report back with.
Mar 1, 2022·edited Mar 1, 2022Liked by NE - Naked Emperor Newsletter
"...war is never justifiable..." according to?
But you are right. Don't censor, it's makes us all more stupid. Even by learning untruths you can learn truths - and if one wants to understand, one must undrstand the motivations and reason of that which is being observed. In this case, Russia.
The object of the censorship is likely to be part annoying Russia and making a point, part trying to protect people outside Russia from russian propaganda, which of course is both stupid and insulting.
Stupid because then we can't know what they want us to think and insulting because it implies you and me and us are too stupid to be discerning. (Though recent events regarding masks, unknown injections and the the like might conceivably undermine my argument here...)
I mean, western media never censored the ludicrous fairy tales they used to spout about the Kim family of DPRK, did they? And that's how to deal with propaganda without cnsoring it: publish/reference it, and amp it up even more by contrasting it to actual reality.
This an example I've used teaching media analysis: picture of Madeleine Albright and a quote about collateral damage juxtaposed with a picture on children's bodies torn to pieces with the same quote. (And do note I do not use that example to pick sides - Baghdad Bob provided plenty too.)
Just take Russia's latest attempt at controling the narrative as an example: the invasion is to prevent Ukraine from developing nuclear weapons. Clever, since the rethoric used mimics the US' rethoric regarding "weapons of mass destruction", and pointing out (or making it look like) hypocrisy is a standard tool in russian propaganda, always was.
Edit: oh and just to add to the paranoia one always start to feel when looking at censorship and propaganda, what if it's Russia who's making it seem as if they are being attacked? (Not that I believe that to be the case.)
The "pay no attention to the man behind the curtain"-school of rethorics is a definite point, I agree. Trouble is it's more or less impossible to prove that is what's being used, as opposed to say blatant lies and obvious exaggerations (such as the current Kim's father's perfect golf score, or their pet unicorn).
A censors "for the good of B".
B gets annoyed because B notices something is fishy.
A sees this annoyance as proof more censorship is needed.
B gets angry for real because B's professional knowledge shows A is censoring/lying.
A censors even more and makes it a crime to talk about it.
B now furious organises protests.
A clamps down and starts state media, trusted news initiatives and fact checkers.
C through Ö is now also angry regardless of political leanings.
A calls for unity, calls for ousting of dissenters and splitters.
By now, A's censoring is hurting A's own knowledge needed to operate the state.
Looking at it with an eye to history, it is quite probable that this is the only pattern censoring can create no matter when, where or who is doing it.
"And that's how to deal with propaganda without cnsoring it: publish/reference it, and amp it up even more by contrasting it to actual reality."
Maybe that's part of the problem. If what is emanating from the "Other Side" starts matching reality, rather than contrasting with it, then what do you (if you are an elite in the West)? And is it even propaganda anymore as opposed to actual news (with flair added or a slant?). They likely censor it for them same reason the Soviets and their Warsaw Pact allies used to censor Western media in the Cold War - because they are terrified of their own populations seeing the truth and how much the truth differs from what they tell their own citizens.
If we are in a new Cold War it is an oddly flipped one (or one that much more closely resembles Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four) where the West is the side steeped in ideology and attempting to spread it worldwide via revolution (see the Colour Revolutions and Arab Spring).
"Just take Russia's latest attempt at controlling the narrative as an example: the invasion is to prevent Ukraine from developing nuclear weapons."
to be fair, it was not widely picked up on here in the West even though his comments were reported, but Zelensky DID say:
"Since 2014, Ukraine has tried three times to convene consultations with the guarantor states of the Budapest Memorandum. Three times without success. Today Ukraine will do it for the fourth time. I, as President, will do this for the first time. But both Ukraine and I are doing this for the last time. I am initiating consultations in the framework of the Budapest Memorandum. The Minister of Foreign Affairs was commissioned to convene them. If they do not happen again or their results do not guarantee security for our country, Ukraine will have every right to believe that the Budapest Memorandum is not working and all the package decisions of 1994 are in doubt."
Western leaders and media may not have picked up the implications, but it is almost certain that Putin did.
Was Ukraine going to develop nuclear weapons if Russia did nothing? Unlikely. It was almost certainly just veiled empty threats on the part of Zelensky. It was also quite stupid however, since doing just that is almost guaranteed to invite the intervention on the part of a nervous power, which is why states like Israel and North Korea did it the smart way and developed their nukes in secret FIRST and then either announced it to the world or started dropping hints like that.
As for the idea of Ukraine and nuclear weapons, many now think Ukraine should have kept their nukes as a real deterrent against Russia. If I'm not mistaken, my research into that suggests that doing so would not have worked out the way folks think because the launch ability for the nukes remained with Moscow and even if they had retained them, they would have needed to maintain them (and possibly replace them) for the past 30 years. Given what happened to Ukraine during those 30 years I have major doubts as to the latter occurring. Ukraine went from being a major aircraft manufacturing hub in the Soviet Union (Anotonov aircraft were all designed and built there) to no longer manufacturing any aircraft by the mid-2010s. And this is in a country that started off in 1991 of comparable population and area to France, which today designs its own aircraft still like the Rafale. Ukraine's GDP per capita today is still below where it was in 1990, before independence and the end of communism, if I'm not mistaken.
Remember in the 1990s and early 2000s all those media investigations, movies and discussions about loose Soviet nukes and how Russia was so poor that terrorists might well bribe the ones responsible for guarding the nukes (or nuclear material) or the scientists who could design them into allowing them to steal nukes or to design nukes for them? Yeah, this is an unconventional take, but Ukraine represents what Russia might well have been if the oligarchs had continued to accrue power and capture the state to completely serve their own ends. Admirably Ukrainian voters and a small number (very few) of Ukrainian politicians have tried to end that state capture through anti-corruption drives, but this isn't helped when such drives clash against Western interests that are "hunting" down insane rents and profits and unwilling to a"bide" by the very values they supposedly encourage.
So let's imagine a Ukraine that kept their nukes in 1994 but otherwise remained fairly unchanged (and why would keeping nukes change anything else about Ukraine's trajectory anyway? It isn't like nukes are to the oligarchs as garlic is to the aptly comparable vampires). The nukes are ageing and corruption is rife. Ukraine has managed somehow to work on the bombs so that they can be launched on Kyiv's orders, not Moscow's and they now have full control over the arsenal. Meanwhile, in the late 1990s, along comes the scion of a wealthy Saudi family with a hatred for America and a desire to bring death and destruction to American shores supposedly because of the death and destruction America has brought to the Middle East. How much are people willing to bet that the scary scenarios of that time would have zero chance of coming into fruition? Even if an actual nuke isn't denotated as a nuclear explosion in say New York City, would it be so inconceivable in that scenario that a dirty bomb isn't used? Either in America itself or perhaps more likely at American interests elsewhere? Maybe in Europe or the Middle East?
Here's the thing about nuclear weapons. They really shouldn't be around. But if they are going to be around it is preferable that they are in the hands of well functioning states and militaries. Either in democratic well functioning states like the US, UK, France, Israel and India. Or in dictatorial well functioning states like China and North Korea. Note that "well functioning" here does NOT imply they must be rich or provide for their citizens but simply that the government has actual control and isn't really run by corrupt corporate interests that don't mind letting the state rot so long as they make money doing so. North Korea is poor, but there is little doubt that they control their weapons the same way they do their population - with an iron fist. If North Korea's communist regime ever collapses I would be worried about the control of those weapons if the collapse is not followed by German-style reunification of North and South Korea and the North remains an independent power that falls into rule by oligarchs (or worse ends up like Somalia).
Mar 1, 2022·edited Mar 1, 2022Liked by NE - Naked Emperor Newsletter
How is this not a form of editorialzing? I know the two are not the same per se as an apple and an orange aren't the same, but it is taking a side etc by proxy.
I pay a little extra on my Malwarebytes account for a facility called "Privacy" & can change my VPN as often as I like. This means I can appear to be in whatever country I am investigating for as long as I need. I then have access to local news. It has been very useful to me so far...
I learned some time ago that duck duck go must still go through Google. Can't remember the details, but it's not as private as it may have been when it was created. I'm using Brave now, but even that browser has no control over websites that are being attacked.
Google used to own a “duck” domain that used to redirect to Google. Now it points to and is owned by DuckDuckGo. I don’t think there’s any more to this story, but good luck finding results on either search engine that will tell you otherwise!
I get the exact same error message I just tried here in Thailand. It's possible that the site is overwhelmed with web traffic for its servers you aren't the only one curious what Putin has to say about this stuff. It's also possible that they're going to use all this stuff as cover for Cyber Polygon parts of the Great Reset, perhaps one place at a time...
According to zeenews.India, top Russian government websites are intermittently unavailable, including Purim’s and the State Duma websites…..(Bing), also Ukrainian websites are also problematic…..
I posted the following message on another substack column and it seems relevant here as it looks at the "other side" to try and understand what is going on. Here are some points that provide greater context than the simple "Putin is mad, bad..."; "supporting democracy and upholding the values of freedom" and other platitudes of war-mongering:
1) When the USSR fell, the George H.W. Bush administration pledged to Gorbachev that NATO would not push further east in Europe as that would be recognized as a legitimate national security concern to Russia. Since that pledge in 1991, NATO has invited, among others, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, and Slovakia, and they have all joined NATO. There are two countries which are not NATO members which have long borders with Russia — Belarus and Ukraine. U.S. foreign policymakers and experts, for years after the fall of the USSR, acknowledged that eastward expansion of NATO was, and had to be, a red line for Russia and that such a position was entirely rational. Putin has always insisted, again and again, that this push of NATO eastward toward the border of Russia was a provocation that would not have good outcomes. Here we are at those bad outcomes.
2) Yanukovych was elected president of Ukraine in 2010 in a democratically free and fair election. In time, he rejected the Ukrainian-European Association Agreement and decided to strengthen Ukraine’s ties to Russia.
3) The U.S. and the West took issue with this and in 2014 promoted and paid $6 billion for an uprising in Ukraine against the Yanukovych government. This was, simply put, another regime change operation. The orchestration of the coup by the U.S. was documented by the leaked phone call between Victoria Nuland, assistant secretary of state at that time and then-U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, Geoffrey Pyatt. They discussed, among other things, who should replace Yanukovych once he was ousted.
4) The protests were fueled by the U.S. and the West, as protests were paid for, encouraged and egged on. Those Ukrainians who wanted Yanukovych gone were Ruossophobic ultra-nationalists and neo-Nazis. It is known but not widely reported by the MSM, then or now, that the snipers who ratcheted up the protests by shooting both protestors and policemen were not sent and instructed by Yanukovych but by others, most likely the anti-Russia element looking to create chaos and replace the duly-elected Yanukovych. This was what a violent, armed coup, an actual insurrection, looks like. Yanukovych and other officials had to flee the country with their families as armed militiamen stormed the halls of government.
5) Ultra-nationalist militia members began attacks on ethnic Russians, gay people, Jews, and others who are considered by the pro-Nazi extremists to be untermenschen, sub-humans. The pro-West, “democratic” authorities installed after the coup did nothing to stop the attacks or prosecute the extremists.
6) The militias were incorporated into the Ukrainian armed forces.
7) A 2017 Amnesty International report stated that Kiev had lost control of the radical groups. Some statements from militia members over the years since the coup have indicated that eventually they might have to oust the existing government and install a more ultra-nationalist regime.
8) Attacks on the Donbass region where ethnic Russians live, including Donetsk and Luhansk (these two cities have asked Putin to recognize them as independent republics), have continued unabated for the years since the coup.
9) Putin is a realpolitik leader. He is not a new Hitler, nor a madman. The neocons hate him and Russia. The American people have been indoctrinated for a long time to despise him and Russians.
It appears to me that that the U.S. has been playing a bait-the-bear game for a long time. And putting into effect the idea that “the enemy of my enemy is my friend,” the U.S. has enabled and fed the growth of fascism in Ukraine. Paying and propping up “rebels” in every country in which we have intervened and brought about regime change has resulted not in “democracy” and “freedom,” but in failed states, intensified ethnic rivalry and hatred, and social chaos.
Excellent summary. Been watching this closely for 8 years.
Along with the deterioration of the dollar reserve currency situation which is mostly what’s driving this at the west’s core. The MIC and billionaires rely on the endless printing press for their wealth and power, and as Catherine Austin Fitts pointed out, Mr. Global can’t do that anymore once they run out of places to pillage. It’s do or die for the deep state and they’ve made it do or die for Russia. BTW, Mr. Global’s deep state doesn’t care one iota for Ukrainians. Which makes the media crocodile tears all the more repulsive.
• I would have “liked” your comment but I get an error message on all my substack subscriptions when I try
Terry T, thanks for your feedback and your points about the dollar reserve currency situation. I see it the same way, as you have described.
If you are interested, here is a good article by Glenn Greenwald and how the single-minded Establishment narrative means that all alternative viewpoints are to be considered "siding with the enemy" and all dissenters vilified as traitors: https://greenwald.substack.com/p/war-propaganda-about-ukraine-becoming?utm_source=url. We are truly living through some horrific times!
Last Thursday when I was doing my site I could not get on RT at all. Haven't had a problem since, but I'm sure that could change at any moment. Will be linking your heads up today @https://nothingnewunderthesun2016.com/
I have proton VPN and can connect to Russian servers but cannot access the Kremlin's site. The US may have taken it down in a cyber attack? Perhaps that's why they're preparing us for one givent hat we've attacked them?
Same here. So we can expect also that covid/vaccine information will be black-holed as well.
The sheer fact that this censorship is applied shows actually what is going on.
Back in the communist time the folks in the communist countries did try to cut off the western media, while for obvious reasons the west didn't bother.
Now it seems the roles have been switched.
Regarding your open thread about the Ukraine war - the black-holed information from Russia adds to the argument that Russia/Putin is genuinely against the WEF agenda.
Try using the Way back machine archive. This link contains some useful commentary and at least part of an important speech. The link to the entire speech is broken though. To use the archive, copy this link into the search bar. You'll get a calendar showing highlighted dates. Click on one to access the versions on that date. It should bring the article up. Worked for me just now when my bookmarked page didn't.
Yeah it probably is. I don't think anyone (or at least any non state actor) can DDOS the entire Russian government. If it was being censored, the relevant agencies (to use a Putin term) would do it under the deniable guise of grassroots hacktivism.
StartPage gets me to a # of articles that the site is down or hacked due to the war; clicking on the website goe nowhere. I don’t even get the message you got (but I may not be waiting long enough.
There is some sort of site or app called Way back machine that I’ve heard of but never used that holds things supposedly disappeared. Try that?
The US had military bases next to the Russian border as well as Level IV bio labs.
IMO that justifies bombing and I can appreciate why he would want a different puppet than our puppet.
We did take out a democratically elected official to put in someone controlled by the US. Of course that concerns Putin. What if he put his boy and his bio labs and military bases in Tijuana?
My concern because of the date he went in (Pluto’s) and because of his connection with the WEF that this is the next trip down Fear Monger Lane after the plandemic. This one sounds like it might be epic.
I saw that! Mark Kristin Miller recommended it. I found a livestream by the same businessmen which traced the history of Ukraine. Fascinating. Different. Your opinion?
I noticed very early on in 2020 that mask testing and hydroxychloroquine trials for SARS and MERS were being censored. Not hard censored as in removed, but not easy to find. Maybe in January I could search for the information and it would come up on the first page. 4 months later when I am telling someone about what I read a searched the same terms and got nothing but propaganda. Not until I did a search with date parameters did I find the trials on both topics. I bookmarked them then I copied them to my computer. I tell you this, at that moment I knew it was game on. I suspected it before, but I knew things were gonna get strange and dirty.
As I was growing up in the west I knew, in my naivety, that we were the good guys. I’ve since adopted an altogether more nuanced position. But when ‘our side’ tells me that I will be saved from propaganda from ‘their side’ I know we’re being lied to. Censorship is never, ever, the right approach in a free world.
I heard through the grapevine that Hollywood was making a sequel to the movie Wag the Dog. It’s titled Wag the Bear.
The great weakness of censorship is that ultimately it consumes itself and totally corrupts those who implement it. We've learned more than enough from Covid to see how this process pans out.
Despite the current censorship in relation to the Ukraine crisis, there will always be ways of obtaining points of view from other perspectives. Perhaps what it does teach us is the art of withholding judgment, and thinking more for ourselves.
For example, how does the history of Ukraine over say the past 150 years play into what's happening now. Until a few days ago, I didn't know that Lviv (formerly Lemberg) was a jewel of a city of the Polish Kingdom, until the end of WWII when the Allies and Stalin agreed to the USSR taking a slice of eastern Poland (including Lviv) in exchange for Poland taking a slice of eastern Germany. The upshot for Lviv was a population transfer (what would be called ethnic cleansing these days) whereby Poles (the majority) were moved out and Ukrainians (until then a minority) were moved in.
The news speaks glowingly as if Ukraine were an integral nation state. As far as I have so far worked out, there are at least three ethnicities involved, each with their own language and religion, living in a state of tension for decades. The simmering war that started in 2014 is just another part of this long story. To me it looks something like the break-up of Yugoslavia, but with a really really big neighbour (Russia) batting for one of those ethnicities, and of course protecting its own long-held interests like the Black Sea ports.
I'm not sure for people like myself (UK citizen and resident with no skin at all in this game) what purpose it serves to follow the minutiae of the current tragedy, which we know are censored and distorted. I'd rather know why they are where they are, and pray they come out of it with as little loss of life as possible. We know what the Western Empire's goals are vis a vis Russia. Encircling (NATO), throttling (sanctions) and eviscerating (hydrocarbon theft) is just the start.
Yes. In the ‘90s the mess in Bosnia was very difficult to follow — I found it hard to work out who was mad at whom and why. One thing that was certain, it was a world away from the simplistic picture painted in the propaganda/“news” at the time.
Yes, it's never as simple as good v bad. MSN is totally running with the evil, mad Putin v brave, plucky harmless Ukraine take. Like you I don't have skin in the game and it's very frustrating that in addition, social media and independent news blogs turn on commentators who just give some background and attempt to understand Putin's point of view. Apparently, giving context now means you are on Team Putin. In addition, having been lied to for the last two years by the media and our leaders, I can't believe how many people are still lapping up the crap they are putting out.
Good catch, NE. I can confirm that I have the same problem as you when accessing http://en.kremlin.ru/
Using the free Hoxx VPN Chrome extension, and setting the IP to Russia, the site works perfectly.
I'm in France BTW.
Thanks that worked for me
i have express vpn but it wont offer me a Russian link. i tried a few close countries like Belarus but computer said no
I heard a brief mention today about worldwide hackers targeting Russian internet sites. Don't know if it's accurate or not.
Same here
Great - so therefore, it's not a DDOS problem.
If not DDOS what is it then?
It’s probably a hamfisted defence against a very real DDoS currently underway.
trial run on cyber polygon ?
Good question, certainly not being done at DNS level like I thought:
https://dnschecker.org/#A/en.kremlin.ru
Interesting article here - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_blocking_in_the_United_Kingdom
(Yes I know, it's Wikipedia 😊)
I remember tuning in to Radio Moscow when there were crises during the cold war. You always knew that they were full of crap. I don’t like being treated like a child. Censorship is wrong. It’s makes you wonder what we may be trying to hide. Our government used to trust us….
When you watch RT or Al Jezeera you know & accept that you’re seeing propaganda. But western mainstream misleadia presumes to inhabit some lofty virtuous place where only truth prevails. What a croc.
I used to listen on short wave radio. Even as a (pretty dumb) teen I marveled at the lies. As I do now. Maybe the experience from the early ‘70s sharpened my detection skills.
I listened (also as a teenager) during the Carter disaster. Everything they said was either a lie or hopelessly distorted, much like CNN, MSNBC et al…..
Exactly! The whole idea that we are clueless eaters not capable of critical thought is too pervasive in the west. MSM and in fact many ordinary folks are excusing their blatant misinformation regarding covid and the vaccines. We all know how well that worked out.
To be honest, considering the education system in America, most people ARE clueless. It's just the way it is. They gobble up the propaganda with eyes wide open, no critical thinking involved whatsoever. And of course, part of it is virtue signaling, being part of the "cool kids" crowd, by jumping on the bandwagon du jour. It's all sickening to see.
my experience is that people don't want the truth, as a combination of laziness and probably also, the reasonable thought that they can do nothing about it (which in my book I call cowardice)
however most of us our literal clueless eaters....having access to resources as an individual is imo a big part of the long game.
Maybe they now want to censor it precisely so that you, and folks like Lon Guyland and Soyelcaminodelfuturo, have no reference point to detect when they themselves are blatantly lying to you.
Either that, or it's a "cyberpandemic with coronavirus properties." :)
http://www.freedomsphoenix.com/News/321229-2022-02-27-here-is-the-full-text-of-putin-39-s-speech.htm?From=News
Found it!
Thank you Judy! Then goodness for PCR, and any others who are reposting the texts of the speeches on their own sites.
We all know that Google has changed its algorithms but I was recently deeply saddened by how far it has gone: classic mathematics:(. I wanted to find a good video on the Golden Rectangle however all I could find were videos on how ‘it’s your opinion on how much you like the rectangle’. I eventually remembered that the Davidson Institute had created one I had previously shared with a different student. Looking at Google’s search results in contrast to the Davidson video is both lamentable and alarming.
Don't use google search
Which engine do you use? I used to use Startpage but read that Google purchased them. Duck Duck Go has very similar results to Google ...I use Ecosia on my phone. Since saying ‘I ecosiaed golden triangles’ sounds freaky I use Google as a verb—lazy.
I went to reply to your comment just now and got "This page is unavailable" ! Worked okay with a refresh. I use Brave with Duck Duck Go. However, I still use google for my email etc. It's difficult to find alternatives if, like me, you have no interest in the tech, you just want to use it!
protonmail.com
Throw out your books! Burn them in the streets!
Are you a traitor? Burn you!
Laser his eyes!
Lobotomise him!
How DARE you care what OUR enemy is saying?
BURN, BURN, BURN!!
Yes the legacy media and now insidiously, social media censorship is rampant. Twitter is the worst. I don't know why i go back....possible addictive personality, possible closet abuser, or just creeping insanity. Substack is a Godsend.
With duckduckgo.com (which is private/uncensored), the normal search page appears for en.kremlin.ru I am also using kaspersky VPN - when you try to access the site ....... the following appears.
read tcp 10.239.7.16:34641: read: connection reset by peer
Might be some kind of denial of service attack.
NE, I completely agree with you about being able to read "the other side" - how else to even begin to understand? This just reinforces my feeling about the ferocity of the narrative makers, and their fears. Thank you for whatever you report back with.
I'm being censored here. I can post, but not like posts!
I think that's just a glitch with substack, if you return to the page your like is normally visible.
incognito mode with chrome works for me
Seems like you are the only one - what country are you in?
Germany, it used to work this morning, though very slow. But it is not working anymore that way
"...war is never justifiable..." according to?
But you are right. Don't censor, it's makes us all more stupid. Even by learning untruths you can learn truths - and if one wants to understand, one must undrstand the motivations and reason of that which is being observed. In this case, Russia.
The object of the censorship is likely to be part annoying Russia and making a point, part trying to protect people outside Russia from russian propaganda, which of course is both stupid and insulting.
Stupid because then we can't know what they want us to think and insulting because it implies you and me and us are too stupid to be discerning. (Though recent events regarding masks, unknown injections and the the like might conceivably undermine my argument here...)
I mean, western media never censored the ludicrous fairy tales they used to spout about the Kim family of DPRK, did they? And that's how to deal with propaganda without cnsoring it: publish/reference it, and amp it up even more by contrasting it to actual reality.
This an example I've used teaching media analysis: picture of Madeleine Albright and a quote about collateral damage juxtaposed with a picture on children's bodies torn to pieces with the same quote. (And do note I do not use that example to pick sides - Baghdad Bob provided plenty too.)
Just take Russia's latest attempt at controling the narrative as an example: the invasion is to prevent Ukraine from developing nuclear weapons. Clever, since the rethoric used mimics the US' rethoric regarding "weapons of mass destruction", and pointing out (or making it look like) hypocrisy is a standard tool in russian propaganda, always was.
Edit: oh and just to add to the paranoia one always start to feel when looking at censorship and propaganda, what if it's Russia who's making it seem as if they are being attacked? (Not that I believe that to be the case.)
I agree only I think they don’t consider us stupid. Incurious & distractible perhaps.
They fear our intelligence and sense of fairness. That’s why they have to actively censor & misinform.
The "pay no attention to the man behind the curtain"-school of rethorics is a definite point, I agree. Trouble is it's more or less impossible to prove that is what's being used, as opposed to say blatant lies and obvious exaggerations (such as the current Kim's father's perfect golf score, or their pet unicorn).
A censors "for the good of B".
B gets annoyed because B notices something is fishy.
A sees this annoyance as proof more censorship is needed.
B gets angry for real because B's professional knowledge shows A is censoring/lying.
A censors even more and makes it a crime to talk about it.
B now furious organises protests.
A clamps down and starts state media, trusted news initiatives and fact checkers.
C through Ö is now also angry regardless of political leanings.
A calls for unity, calls for ousting of dissenters and splitters.
By now, A's censoring is hurting A's own knowledge needed to operate the state.
Looking at it with an eye to history, it is quite probable that this is the only pattern censoring can create no matter when, where or who is doing it.
"And that's how to deal with propaganda without cnsoring it: publish/reference it, and amp it up even more by contrasting it to actual reality."
Maybe that's part of the problem. If what is emanating from the "Other Side" starts matching reality, rather than contrasting with it, then what do you (if you are an elite in the West)? And is it even propaganda anymore as opposed to actual news (with flair added or a slant?). They likely censor it for them same reason the Soviets and their Warsaw Pact allies used to censor Western media in the Cold War - because they are terrified of their own populations seeing the truth and how much the truth differs from what they tell their own citizens.
If we are in a new Cold War it is an oddly flipped one (or one that much more closely resembles Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four) where the West is the side steeped in ideology and attempting to spread it worldwide via revolution (see the Colour Revolutions and Arab Spring).
"Just take Russia's latest attempt at controlling the narrative as an example: the invasion is to prevent Ukraine from developing nuclear weapons."
to be fair, it was not widely picked up on here in the West even though his comments were reported, but Zelensky DID say:
"Since 2014, Ukraine has tried three times to convene consultations with the guarantor states of the Budapest Memorandum. Three times without success. Today Ukraine will do it for the fourth time. I, as President, will do this for the first time. But both Ukraine and I are doing this for the last time. I am initiating consultations in the framework of the Budapest Memorandum. The Minister of Foreign Affairs was commissioned to convene them. If they do not happen again or their results do not guarantee security for our country, Ukraine will have every right to believe that the Budapest Memorandum is not working and all the package decisions of 1994 are in doubt."
Note that last sentence carefully. As outlined on this substack: https://claireberlinski.substack.com/p/an-apology-to-our-readers
Western leaders and media may not have picked up the implications, but it is almost certain that Putin did.
Was Ukraine going to develop nuclear weapons if Russia did nothing? Unlikely. It was almost certainly just veiled empty threats on the part of Zelensky. It was also quite stupid however, since doing just that is almost guaranteed to invite the intervention on the part of a nervous power, which is why states like Israel and North Korea did it the smart way and developed their nukes in secret FIRST and then either announced it to the world or started dropping hints like that.
As for the idea of Ukraine and nuclear weapons, many now think Ukraine should have kept their nukes as a real deterrent against Russia. If I'm not mistaken, my research into that suggests that doing so would not have worked out the way folks think because the launch ability for the nukes remained with Moscow and even if they had retained them, they would have needed to maintain them (and possibly replace them) for the past 30 years. Given what happened to Ukraine during those 30 years I have major doubts as to the latter occurring. Ukraine went from being a major aircraft manufacturing hub in the Soviet Union (Anotonov aircraft were all designed and built there) to no longer manufacturing any aircraft by the mid-2010s. And this is in a country that started off in 1991 of comparable population and area to France, which today designs its own aircraft still like the Rafale. Ukraine's GDP per capita today is still below where it was in 1990, before independence and the end of communism, if I'm not mistaken.
Remember in the 1990s and early 2000s all those media investigations, movies and discussions about loose Soviet nukes and how Russia was so poor that terrorists might well bribe the ones responsible for guarding the nukes (or nuclear material) or the scientists who could design them into allowing them to steal nukes or to design nukes for them? Yeah, this is an unconventional take, but Ukraine represents what Russia might well have been if the oligarchs had continued to accrue power and capture the state to completely serve their own ends. Admirably Ukrainian voters and a small number (very few) of Ukrainian politicians have tried to end that state capture through anti-corruption drives, but this isn't helped when such drives clash against Western interests that are "hunting" down insane rents and profits and unwilling to a"bide" by the very values they supposedly encourage.
So let's imagine a Ukraine that kept their nukes in 1994 but otherwise remained fairly unchanged (and why would keeping nukes change anything else about Ukraine's trajectory anyway? It isn't like nukes are to the oligarchs as garlic is to the aptly comparable vampires). The nukes are ageing and corruption is rife. Ukraine has managed somehow to work on the bombs so that they can be launched on Kyiv's orders, not Moscow's and they now have full control over the arsenal. Meanwhile, in the late 1990s, along comes the scion of a wealthy Saudi family with a hatred for America and a desire to bring death and destruction to American shores supposedly because of the death and destruction America has brought to the Middle East. How much are people willing to bet that the scary scenarios of that time would have zero chance of coming into fruition? Even if an actual nuke isn't denotated as a nuclear explosion in say New York City, would it be so inconceivable in that scenario that a dirty bomb isn't used? Either in America itself or perhaps more likely at American interests elsewhere? Maybe in Europe or the Middle East?
Here's the thing about nuclear weapons. They really shouldn't be around. But if they are going to be around it is preferable that they are in the hands of well functioning states and militaries. Either in democratic well functioning states like the US, UK, France, Israel and India. Or in dictatorial well functioning states like China and North Korea. Note that "well functioning" here does NOT imply they must be rich or provide for their citizens but simply that the government has actual control and isn't really run by corrupt corporate interests that don't mind letting the state rot so long as they make money doing so. North Korea is poor, but there is little doubt that they control their weapons the same way they do their population - with an iron fist. If North Korea's communist regime ever collapses I would be worried about the control of those weapons if the collapse is not followed by German-style reunification of North and South Korea and the North remains an independent power that falls into rule by oligarchs (or worse ends up like Somalia).
How is this not a form of editorialzing? I know the two are not the same per se as an apple and an orange aren't the same, but it is taking a side etc by proxy.
I pay a little extra on my Malwarebytes account for a facility called "Privacy" & can change my VPN as often as I like. This means I can appear to be in whatever country I am investigating for as long as I need. I then have access to local news. It has been very useful to me so far...
The internet has always been under observation with a view to censor.... I wrote about it here:
https://francesleader.substack.com/p/welcome-to-the-thought-ghetto?utm_source=url
plus see this report:
https://youtu.be/qIveKFTjW-Q
Can't get to http://en.kremlin.ru unless I use the opera free vpn and set the virtual location to asia (americas and europe are blocked).
Well, was working a minute ago. Now I get "en.kremlin.ru’s server IP address could not be found", so the ip was removed from DNS?
https://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2022/02/24/here-is-the-full-text-of-putins-speech-this-morning-feb-24-2022/
Try this.
DuckDuckGo appears to work...until you actually try to open anything on the list.
So its not just google censoring.
I learned some time ago that duck duck go must still go through Google. Can't remember the details, but it's not as private as it may have been when it was created. I'm using Brave now, but even that browser has no control over websites that are being attacked.
Google used to own a “duck” domain that used to redirect to Google. Now it points to and is owned by DuckDuckGo. I don’t think there’s any more to this story, but good luck finding results on either search engine that will tell you otherwise!
https://www.searchenginejournal.com/google-transfers-ownership-of-duck-com-to-duckduckgo/283023/
I get the exact same error message I just tried here in Thailand. It's possible that the site is overwhelmed with web traffic for its servers you aren't the only one curious what Putin has to say about this stuff. It's also possible that they're going to use all this stuff as cover for Cyber Polygon parts of the Great Reset, perhaps one place at a time...
If a VPN allows access, it sounds like access to the websites are being geo-blocked from the Russian side.
According to zeenews.India, top Russian government websites are intermittently unavailable, including Purim’s and the State Duma websites…..(Bing), also Ukrainian websites are also problematic…..
“Yes, war is never justifiable.” Did you really mean to state that?
It may be necessary but the killing of innocent men and women is not justifiable
UK - can't get to it. No VPN.
I posted the following message on another substack column and it seems relevant here as it looks at the "other side" to try and understand what is going on. Here are some points that provide greater context than the simple "Putin is mad, bad..."; "supporting democracy and upholding the values of freedom" and other platitudes of war-mongering:
1) When the USSR fell, the George H.W. Bush administration pledged to Gorbachev that NATO would not push further east in Europe as that would be recognized as a legitimate national security concern to Russia. Since that pledge in 1991, NATO has invited, among others, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, and Slovakia, and they have all joined NATO. There are two countries which are not NATO members which have long borders with Russia — Belarus and Ukraine. U.S. foreign policymakers and experts, for years after the fall of the USSR, acknowledged that eastward expansion of NATO was, and had to be, a red line for Russia and that such a position was entirely rational. Putin has always insisted, again and again, that this push of NATO eastward toward the border of Russia was a provocation that would not have good outcomes. Here we are at those bad outcomes.
2) Yanukovych was elected president of Ukraine in 2010 in a democratically free and fair election. In time, he rejected the Ukrainian-European Association Agreement and decided to strengthen Ukraine’s ties to Russia.
3) The U.S. and the West took issue with this and in 2014 promoted and paid $6 billion for an uprising in Ukraine against the Yanukovych government. This was, simply put, another regime change operation. The orchestration of the coup by the U.S. was documented by the leaked phone call between Victoria Nuland, assistant secretary of state at that time and then-U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, Geoffrey Pyatt. They discussed, among other things, who should replace Yanukovych once he was ousted.
4) The protests were fueled by the U.S. and the West, as protests were paid for, encouraged and egged on. Those Ukrainians who wanted Yanukovych gone were Ruossophobic ultra-nationalists and neo-Nazis. It is known but not widely reported by the MSM, then or now, that the snipers who ratcheted up the protests by shooting both protestors and policemen were not sent and instructed by Yanukovych but by others, most likely the anti-Russia element looking to create chaos and replace the duly-elected Yanukovych. This was what a violent, armed coup, an actual insurrection, looks like. Yanukovych and other officials had to flee the country with their families as armed militiamen stormed the halls of government.
5) Ultra-nationalist militia members began attacks on ethnic Russians, gay people, Jews, and others who are considered by the pro-Nazi extremists to be untermenschen, sub-humans. The pro-West, “democratic” authorities installed after the coup did nothing to stop the attacks or prosecute the extremists.
6) The militias were incorporated into the Ukrainian armed forces.
7) A 2017 Amnesty International report stated that Kiev had lost control of the radical groups. Some statements from militia members over the years since the coup have indicated that eventually they might have to oust the existing government and install a more ultra-nationalist regime.
8) Attacks on the Donbass region where ethnic Russians live, including Donetsk and Luhansk (these two cities have asked Putin to recognize them as independent republics), have continued unabated for the years since the coup.
9) Putin is a realpolitik leader. He is not a new Hitler, nor a madman. The neocons hate him and Russia. The American people have been indoctrinated for a long time to despise him and Russians.
It appears to me that that the U.S. has been playing a bait-the-bear game for a long time. And putting into effect the idea that “the enemy of my enemy is my friend,” the U.S. has enabled and fed the growth of fascism in Ukraine. Paying and propping up “rebels” in every country in which we have intervened and brought about regime change has resulted not in “democracy” and “freedom,” but in failed states, intensified ethnic rivalry and hatred, and social chaos.
Putin’s speech made on 2/24 (https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-02-24/full-transcript-vladimir-putin-s-televised-address-to-russia-on-ukraine-feb-24) is pretty rational and sensible. That does not make him a “good” guy. But there is blame and responsibility on the West for the 2014 interventionist, regime-change part played in creating this mess. Now some U.S. politicians and pundits are calling for regime change in Russia!
Excellent summary. Been watching this closely for 8 years.
Along with the deterioration of the dollar reserve currency situation which is mostly what’s driving this at the west’s core. The MIC and billionaires rely on the endless printing press for their wealth and power, and as Catherine Austin Fitts pointed out, Mr. Global can’t do that anymore once they run out of places to pillage. It’s do or die for the deep state and they’ve made it do or die for Russia. BTW, Mr. Global’s deep state doesn’t care one iota for Ukrainians. Which makes the media crocodile tears all the more repulsive.
• I would have “liked” your comment but I get an error message on all my substack subscriptions when I try
Terry T, thanks for your feedback and your points about the dollar reserve currency situation. I see it the same way, as you have described.
If you are interested, here is a good article by Glenn Greenwald and how the single-minded Establishment narrative means that all alternative viewpoints are to be considered "siding with the enemy" and all dissenters vilified as traitors: https://greenwald.substack.com/p/war-propaganda-about-ukraine-becoming?utm_source=url. We are truly living through some horrific times!
Last Thursday when I was doing my site I could not get on RT at all. Haven't had a problem since, but I'm sure that could change at any moment. Will be linking your heads up today @https://nothingnewunderthesun2016.com/
I'm in Mexico and no access.
I have proton VPN and can connect to Russian servers but cannot access the Kremlin's site. The US may have taken it down in a cyber attack? Perhaps that's why they're preparing us for one givent hat we've attacked them?
It is for me. This is very concerning. That means they can fully control the narrative when moved to do so.
Can't access it from Germany, and not with Opera's free VPN when set to e.g. Asia (or anything else of the few things it offers)
Same here. So we can expect also that covid/vaccine information will be black-holed as well.
The sheer fact that this censorship is applied shows actually what is going on.
Back in the communist time the folks in the communist countries did try to cut off the western media, while for obvious reasons the west didn't bother.
Now it seems the roles have been switched.
Regarding your open thread about the Ukraine war - the black-holed information from Russia adds to the argument that Russia/Putin is genuinely against the WEF agenda.
I did get in using my Brave browser. Chrome and Bing I could not.
Did you try Wayback? I don’t have any other ideas….
I’m in Asia. Tried setting my VPN to various countries and no luck until I set it to Russia.
Try using the Way back machine archive. This link contains some useful commentary and at least part of an important speech. The link to the entire speech is broken though. To use the archive, copy this link into the search bar. You'll get a calendar showing highlighted dates. Click on one to access the versions on that date. It should bring the article up. Worked for me just now when my bookmarked page didn't.
https://consortiumnews.com/2022/02/24/what-putin-says-are-the-causes-aims-of-russias-military-action/
AVG VPN Moscow....while in Germany. Okay to view in my side
http://en.kremlin.ru/
No access through chrome incognito or duckduckgo here in MA, USA
Yeah it probably is. I don't think anyone (or at least any non state actor) can DDOS the entire Russian government. If it was being censored, the relevant agencies (to use a Putin term) would do it under the deniable guise of grassroots hacktivism.
Can't get it here in Canada. According to Wikipedia, it's been intermittent since the 24th. Here is an article in the Independent about it going dark: https://www.independent.co.uk/tech/kremlin-website-down-broken-russia-putin-ukraine-b2022503.html
StartPage gets me to a # of articles that the site is down or hacked due to the war; clicking on the website goe nowhere. I don’t even get the message you got (but I may not be waiting long enough.
There is some sort of site or app called Way back machine that I’ve heard of but never used that holds things supposedly disappeared. Try that?
I tried that but nothing
No availability from France (Chrome, Chrome incognito, Firefox, Firefox private).
Is invasion never acceptable? Is was never acceptable? Never? Are you sure?
The US had military bases next to the Russian border as well as Level IV bio labs.
IMO that justifies bombing and I can appreciate why he would want a different puppet than our puppet.
We did take out a democratically elected official to put in someone controlled by the US. Of course that concerns Putin. What if he put his boy and his bio labs and military bases in Tijuana?
My concern because of the date he went in (Pluto’s) and because of his connection with the WEF that this is the next trip down Fear Monger Lane after the plandemic. This one sounds like it might be epic.
This is worth a watch while available
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=1vdiEABLFoo&t=1129s&pp=2AHpCJACAQ%3D%3D
I saw that! Mark Kristin Miller recommended it. I found a livestream by the same businessmen which traced the history of Ukraine. Fascinating. Different. Your opinion?
There may be reasons war is necessary but the killing of men and women is not justifiable
I can't open http://en.kremlin.ru/events/president/transcripts/67843 using Firefox or Brave from Southern California
N/a in neither Norway nor Switzerland (the latter via VPN). Note that neither country is in the EU.
Not available in Spain.
Nope-Maryland, USA
Censorship or hackers?
Would that matter (much)?
Not available in South Africa
I noticed very early on in 2020 that mask testing and hydroxychloroquine trials for SARS and MERS were being censored. Not hard censored as in removed, but not easy to find. Maybe in January I could search for the information and it would come up on the first page. 4 months later when I am telling someone about what I read a searched the same terms and got nothing but propaganda. Not until I did a search with date parameters did I find the trials on both topics. I bookmarked them then I copied them to my computer. I tell you this, at that moment I knew it was game on. I suspected it before, but I knew things were gonna get strange and dirty.
I ran into the same thing early on, so I knew I'd have to work extra hard to get good information.
Technocracy: The Operating System For The New International Rules-Based Order
https://unlimitedhangout.com/2022/02/investigative-reports/technocracy-the-operating-system-for-the-new-international-rules-based-order-1/
I love unlimited hangout 👍🏼
This is interesting: emails from Ukraine to US tech companies asking them to block Russian 'propaganda' https://the.ink/p/exclusive-ukraines-email-pleas-to