From the BBC:
Russia enacts 'draconian' law for bloggers and online media
If you get over 3,000 visits per day in Russia:
- you will have to register (you cannot remain anonymous)
- you must "conform to the regulations that govern the country's larger media outlets" (not sure what exactly they are)
On the radio here they were saying that you will also be held responsible for comments made on your site (not sure what consequences involved) - I dont see this mentioned in the BBC article, but maybe that's covered by the "regulations that govern the country's larger media outlets".
^ This last bit ties in with Ren's recent post about the trial of Ross Ulbricht (the "Dread Pirate Roberts"):
tl;dr - This fight is about the transfer of intent, e.g. I post something potentially illegal on your site, then you get charged for it. Good discussion there though, and worth a listen.
-Renegade
-tomos
You got my comment on the matter exactly right!
This will allow the FSB to post kiddie porn links on someone's blog then arrest them "for the children".
And again, this is why people should support Ross.
Communist Party or no Communist Party - Russia is Russia. It's "business as usual."
And that "business" never changes. No matter which 'legal' framework it operates under. 
(see attachment in previous post)
(Being of Russian descent, I can say that. 
)
-40hz
Good point. To follow up a bit on that...
Russia is a fundamentally different civilisation than that of Western Europe. It's descended in part out of the Byzantine empire.
From one top historian:
https://archive.org/...s/TragedyAndHope_501Part Three — The Russian Empire to 1917
Chapter 7 — Creation of the Russian Civilization
In the nineteenth century most historians regarded Russia as part of Europe but it is
now becoming increasingly clear that Russia is another civilization quite separate from
Western Civilization. Both of these civilizations are descended from Classical
Civilization, but the connection with this predecessor was made so differently that two
quite different traditions came into existence. Russian traditions were derived from
Byzantium directly; Western traditions were derived from the more moderate Classical
Civilization indirectly, having passed through the Dark Ages when there was no state or
government in the West.
Russian civilization was created from three sources originally: (1) the Slav people, (2)
Viking invaders from the north, and (3) the Byzantine tradition from the south.
And...
In time the ruling class of Russia became acquainted with Byzantine culture. They
were dazzled by it, and sought to import it into their wilderness domains in the north. In
this way they imposed on the Slav peoples many of the accessories of the Byzantine
Empire, such as Orthodox Christianity, the Byzantine alphabet, the Byzantine calendar,
the used of domed ecclesiastical architecture, the name Czar (Caesar) for their ruler, and
innumerable other traits. Most important of all, they imported the Byzantine totalitarian
autocracy, under which all aspects of life, including political, economic, intellectual, and
religious, were regarded as departments of government, under the control of an autocratic
ruler. These beliefs were part of the Greek tradition, and were based ultimately on Greek
inability to distinguish between state and society. Since society includes all human
activities, the Greeks had assumed that the state must include all human activities. In the
days of Classical Greece this all-inclusive entity was called the polis, a term which meant
both society and state; in the later Roman period this all-inclusive entity was called the
imperium. The only difference was that the polis was sometimes (as in Pericles's Athens
about 450 B.C.) democratic, while the imperium was always a military autocracy. Both
were totalitarian, so that religion and economic life were regarded as spheres of
governmental activity. This totalitarian autocratic tradition was carried on to the
Byzantine Empire and passed from it to the Russian state in the north and to the later
Ottoman Empire in the south. In the north this Byzantine tradition combined with the
experience of the Northmen to intensify the two-class structure of Slav society. In the
new Slav (or Orthodox) Civilization this fusion, fitting together the Byzantine tradition
and the Viking tradition, created Russia. From Byzantium came autocracy and the idea of
the state as an absolute power and as a totalitarian power, as well as such important
applications of these principles as the idea that the state should control thought and
religion, that the Church should be a branch of the government, that law is an enactment
of the state, and that the ruler is semi-divine. From the Vikings came the idea that the
state is a foreign importation, based on militarism and supported by booty and tribute,
that economic innovations are the function of the government, that power rather than law
is the basis of social life, and that society, with its people and its property, is the private
property of a foreign ruler.
The book is a stunning read. It lays out all the history "behind the scenes" that you never learned in school.
The mode of thinking and approach to issues of society and the state are radically different.
So, what "makes sense" in one mode of thought, doesn't in another.
"Draconian" just means "traditional".
Or... Putin is just a romantic at heart.
