And is not Russia a country that heavily censors social media and the press..........much like China, North Korea, Iran etc. '
Of course, that is a rhetorical question,
But playing out your hand a little, if it is in fact western media as you suggest............then how little faith the citizens of Russia have in their own media or government or both........speaks volumes.
Respectfully,
Playacaribe2
Not a bit. There’s very little censorship in Russia online. There’s no active filtering of news.
The low rate of vaccination in Russia has more to do with the old people mentality there. They reject anything they think they can avoid by keeping certain distance from Moscow.
Russians are very mindful of Moscow’s centrist policies. The people living in the outskirts of the city, see no reason to get vaccinated. The rates of infection outside of Moscow are practically very low.
I’ve been to Russia many times and can tell you they trust very little anything the central government says or does, because of the corruption in all levels.
They don’t even like talking politics, it’s a taboo subject with friends. Only families talk about it and most are always divided on their opinions.
The old reminisced about Soviet times, the young ones are Euro centric, but don’t trust them as well.
Unlike many believe in the West, most Russians are ok with Putin in power. They think he’s more harsh on the corruption than any other President.
Media in Russia is divided between Oligarchs. Each side supports their own interests.
People tend to read it or watch news and treat it like the Sun Mirror or National enquirer, foxnews...
If you want to test the waters of how open the online experience is in Russia, take a moment and use Yandex . ru to get a glimpse of how crazy 😜 it is there.
There’s no Millenium censorship in Russia’s online access.
The big news told on western media about a new internet firewall being put up in Russia, is grossly misleading and misrepresented.
They are creating a firewall to stop any attempts to shut down or redirect online traffic in the country from the outside.
Think banks, shopping, emergency, schooling, state sites, etc...
They have created a server that records most accessed international online sites and put that traffic in a up to the minute cache around two to three days old. If there are attacks or interruptions, online users in Russia would get a response from that cache of sites when the firewall is active, thus keeping a somewhat active experience.
The reason behind that, is to allow their techs to detect and identify the attacks or reroute traffic to other nodes in a more plausible time frame.
Far from the great firewall used in China and their censorship. The state must ask the content providers directly to remove stuff they deem violates any rules of their gov.
Take Navalny, I know first hand his popularity in Russia is null, only Moscow or St Petersburg can he find 14% or less in support from the population come the ballots.
His reputation in Russia is not any better than corrupted Oligarchs. He is deemed a white nationalist and racist by a many there.
I don’t understand how the West can even consider he has any chance at becoming a president there. It’s like electing the KKK chief or the DR nationalist party to power.
The only group that supports him on a national level is a doctor’s group he has been funding there. Everybody discards their news and public statements because of that. More corrupted people.
Most people would believe all the garbage put out in western media about Russia. I recommend you take a trip there to see it first hand and then form a personal opinion.