President Vladimir Putin has mocked the Internet as a CIA project and pledged to protect Russia’s interests online.
The Kremlin has been anxious to exert greater control over the Internet, which opposition activists — barred from national television — have used to promote their ideas and organize protests.
Russia’s parliament this week passed a law requiring social media websites to keep their servers in Russia and save all information about their users for at least half a year. Also, businessmen close to Putin now control Russia’s leading social media network, VKontakte.
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 “fight for its interests” online.
(AP)
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5 Responses
It was actually a Department of Defense project, and was never secret. How it worked was always public. Putin is pushing nutty conspiracy theories and unfortunately some Americahaters will believe him.
Putin lost it he would like to control the world and is finding out that he can’t control not only the world but not even his country becouse his country men will put an end to him and his kind
so let him ban the internet in russia will see where it gets him, putin your country lost the cold war, so now he is trying a ‘hot war’ well if he wants it bring it on will isolate him like we did in iran and if that won’t work refer to: cuba mr putin that shall do it.
Charliehall, that is true. He is technically wrong in the details. From the context of this article here, it seems like he is just making an analogy and saying that just like it started as a tool of the US, America continues to use it toward its gains, which is true.
Social media is an essential tool in all recent uprisings and the US did try to manipulate this in Cuba. Putin is not saying he will ban it. He is saying he will not allow the internet to be used against him he will do this by cracking down on anti government tweeters. He has experience in this field.
He probably didn’t want to sound like Syria and Turkey.
Putin keeps telling us more and more about himself (who would be interested if he wasn’t President of Russia?): he’s a paranoid, unhinged and deluded unhappy person on a “moral crusade” to resurrect the Soviet Union. Huh! He doesn’t realise that the risen-again Lenin/Stalin/et al would purge him, sending him to a mental hospital to live out his dreams.