Celebrated Russian Hacker Now In Exile 130
An anonymous reader writes: VKontakte is a Russian social network, more popular there than even Facebook. Its founder, Pavel Durov, was a celebrity for his entrepreneurial skills, much like Mark Zuckerberg elsewhere. But as Russia has cracked down on internet freedoms, 30-year-old Durov had to relinquish control of the social network. He eventually fled the country when the government pressured him to release data on Ukrainian protest leaders. He's now a sort of roving hacker, showing up where he's welcome and not staying too long. "Mr. Durov, known for his subversive wit and an all-black wardrobe that evokes Neo from the Matrix movies, is now a little-seen nomad, moving from country to country every few weeks with a small band of computer programmers. One day he is in Paris, another in Singapore." Durov said, "I'm very happy right now without any property anywhere. I consider myself a legal citizen of the world."
Snowden revenge? (Score:5, Funny)
With Putin giving the US a black eye by harbouring Edward Snowden, maybe this guy will find sanctuary in the US? :)
Re:Snowden revenge? (Score:5, Funny)
Re: (Score:3)
Re: (Score:2)
Unlikely. The US government will find a compliant country to indict him on fake rape charges so he can be held in custody and then get him sent back to Russia.
Re:Snowden revenge? (Score:4)
I wondered how long it would take someone to hijack this thread into "USA evil". Congratulations.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re:Snowden revenge? (Score:5, Insightful)
When all is said and done, the US is still a helluva lot freer than Russia. But I was being facetious; the last place he should go is the USA or we'd see a Snowden - Durov swap in the blink of an eye.
Re: (Score:3)
Re: (Score:2)
I expect Russia has already got everything out of Snowden that it ever will.
Re: (Score:2)
I expect Russia has already got everything out of Snowden that it ever will.
What they get from Snowden is PR. Makes it harder for the US to criticise Russia on human rights.
And it gives a big middle finger to the US administration, showing that Russia is one of the few countries who can afford to not be subservient to the US.
Do you think Snowden had much that the Russians were not already well aware of? He did not research military secrets.
If he is helping the Russians technically, it is in teaching them how to spy on their own people more efficiently.
Re: (Score:2)
No, I don't think Snowden gave the Russians much... that's why I said they've already got all they can. And the PR value diminishes daily; no-one cares about old news.
Re: (Score:2)
When all is said and done, the US is still a helluva lot freer than Russia.
Not to be that guy who says we're living in a police state and quotes Orwell while knowing damn well the government isn't going to bust him in his mother's basement... but in at least one way, I would be willing to bet that we are far less free than Russia. And that would be freedom from surveillance. Between the various NSA programs to log our emails, track our calls, and monitor our online activity, I would be willing to bet that the average U.S. citizen sees far more surveillance than the average Russian
Re: (Score:1)
The average US citizen doesn't do anything online that it would be worth the government surveilling them to detect. Most criminals and malcontents in the US engage in low tech offline crime. The online life of most USians is boring beyond tears.
Re: (Score:2)
It depends upon what Russia really wanted. Based upon US decelerations over the years and their desire to politically corrupt other countries social networks, likely what Russia was really after was not protesters but US espionage agents and proof of US espionage. So Russia now would be swapping for nothing. Right now Russia can gain huge global political advantage by acting as a refuge for people targeted by US political enforcement agencies (many claim absolutely zero requirement to obey other countries
Re: (Score:1)
Right. Let's compare running for president against Mr. Putin vs running against Obama. One of those cases makes you a politician. The other puts you in jail till you decide to give up.
Re: (Score:2)
Actually, I do not rely on stories from the media, but on talking to Russian friends who have left Russia. Say what you like, but people vote with their feet... hence the huge flow of "enslaved" Americans into "free" Russia... yeah, that's it.
Re:Snowden revenge? (Score:5, Funny)
Re: (Score:1)
To spice it up, they could put Chelsea Manning in the apartment too.
Re: (Score:2)
In Russia, Facebook destroys YOUR privacy (Score:1)
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Yes, it is. That one police state is slightly less worse than another doesn't change that both are police states.
Re: (Score:2)
A Ukrainian joke (Score:4, Funny)
One Ukrainian says to another:
Re:A Ukrainian joke (Score:5, Funny)
A better joke:
Two Ukranian men are sitting in Odesa, discussing what is going on in Ukraine over a drink.
Man 1: I stopped speaking Russian.
Man 2: Why? Afraid the Ukranians will beat you?
Man 1: No, that Russians will come to protect me.
Re: (Score:2)
Re:A Ukrainian joke (Score:5, Funny)
Haha, touche! Half of me wants very much to see my friends in kyiv, dnepropetrovsk & lviv, but the other half says wait a little while longer....
also: What do Putin, oil and the ruble have in common? They all hit 63 next year. ;)
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
Ask any Russian today, why his country invaded Crimea — and they'll tell you, it was done to "protect the Russian-speaking population from the Nazis in Kiev". The joke has plenty of truth to it, though, I suppose, Germans in Czechoslovakia were making similar jokes in 1938...
Re: (Score:2)
And if your country has oil, keep quiet about it or the US will come free the shit out of you.
Re: (Score:2)
The US is the world's biggest oil producer [bloomberg.com] nowadays. Getting Iraq's oil back then — which anti-Americans like yourself keep alluding to — would've been far simpler by simply lifting the embargo, not go to war. Oil is much cheaper than blood — both to humans and the "evil KKKorporations"... Venezuela — not anyone from the Middle East — used to be our main foreign oil supplier, but we ne
The oil fallacy (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3)
Re: (Score:2)
Taking seriously doesn't mean squat, when the West has been disarming ever since the Cold War ended. Even the wars in the Middle East didn't cause a resumption in the West arming itself, since the enemies in question are savages w/ far inferior weapons - there is a major difference b/w running a war in Afghanistan, Iraq or Syria, where the enemy has no air defenses, vs running one against Russia.
Yet, even against Afghanistan & Iraq, the US at least wanted, if not needed, a coalition. During the Col
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Here is another one:
An Ukrainian sees his neighbor felling trees on his property and asks puzzled:
- Why are you cutting down all these beautiful birches?
- I don't want the Russians to come and say: that landscape looks just like home
Re: (Score:2)
Q: What do Putin, oil & the ruble all have in common?
A: All three will be 63 next year.
Yeah, easy for you (Score:5, Insightful)
When your net-worth is 7 figures at a minimum, that's a bit easier to do.
He sounds like an idiot (Score:3)
If he's wanted (Score:2)
how is moving around the world on a Russian passport?
Re: (Score:1)
With enough money a nationality and passport are trivial to acquire.
Re: (Score:2)
Which is pretty peculiar, since it implies one of two fairly unlikely events : that the Russian authorities can't get someone of their own into the administration system of VKontact (which I think implausible for a multi-million userbase system), or that the way the system has been set up by Durov has him mis-trusting his own administrator staff
Re: (Score:2)
pressured in Russia means you're wanted. I'm sure if Putin wanted this guy he could get him but it seems a bit Kim Dot Comic to me. Maybe he'll wind up in New Zealand.
Tired of this bullshit (Score:2)
All those 'businessmen' tend to dump all results of their incompetence and infighting on government. Always government at fault in Russia, even for things it's not remotely involved in. Local cultural flavor. Pretty much everyone has proven and detailed theory that the government is after him personally! It's easier to pretend to be Sakharov than getting actual work done.
Also Dunning - Kruger effect [wikipedia.org] applies to selection of government officials too, especially elected ones. Anyone remotely skilled would sta
Re: (Score:2)
"Always government at fault in Russia, even for things it's not remotely involved in."
Given that the Russian government involves itself in everything from who you have sex with to running of companies, to how sovereign states should vote to annexation of their territory the number of things it's not involved in is pretty much nil anyway.
"Putin is a lot better than he could be"
Yes, he could do worse, he could actually fire the nukes. Unfortunately doing everything but that doesn't exactly act as a valid argu
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
It's no more emotional nonsense than your apologism of Putin's authoritarianism is. If you want to discuss the issue rationally you'll have to start by quitting with the apologism and start accepting reality - that numerous companies have been hijacked by Putin and his cronies not because those companies were failing (how could anyone call VKontakte failing under this guy? It's been growing like crazy in Russia) but because they didn't do what Putin wanted.
You blame the business leaders and offer excuses fo
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Well you're shifting the blame of arbitrary seizures of corporations away from him and onto the victims so how can that be seen as anything other than apologism?
I'm not terribly sure how Putin can ever be called a Western parrot when he's spent the last decade or more so desperately trying to stir up confrontation with the West.
I can only conclude that you're an incredibly confused individual as nothing you say bears any resemblance to reality or makes any kind of sense.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Okay I guess you're living in your own world and I can't really discuss things any further. I really have no idea what's going on in your world but it has nothing to do with what's happening to reality.
There is plenty of unified stances in the West, and Russia doesn't want to be part of it, he wants his own groupthink that he controls.
That's what's happening in the real world FWIW, what's happening in your world may be completely different so there's no point comparing.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
You say I'm wrong but nothing, absolutely nothing backs up your claims. It's all nonsensical bullshit that is completely contradicted with what's actually happening in reality.
"Why should I buy into artificial Russia - West conflict when it's already long obsolete?"
Because some people still crave power and suffer tribalist tendancies? Do you really have this little understanding about the world, how old are you, 10?
"But pretty much all what Putin's government does would be ignored if he was, say, French pre
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Sure and Russia doesn't spot the double standards of annexing Crimea saying it's what the people whilst hanging on to Chechnya which isn't what the people want. You can spot double standards everywhere, but quite how you jump to this absurd conclusion that it's about picking on Russia but that Russia and the West are all in it together I don't know. Do you take way too many drugs or something?
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Is there anything in your world of paranoia that isn't an absolute conspiracy theory? I mean, are you one of those guys who think 9/11 was done by the Jews, and NASA never actually made it the moon?
I have to wonder if people as batshit insane as you are have any grasp of how crazy you actually sound?
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Oh I see, so you're confusing Russian regulars with Chechen guerillas? If you can't even tell the difference between the two sides it's no wonder you're more than a little confused about it all. I'll give you a hint, the Russian regulars of Chechen descent aren't the same as the vast amount of Chechens that want independence.
Re: (Score:2)
Yet another red herring (Score:1)
Yet another red herring from âoeanonymousâ/PsyOps. There are no such things as Internet âoefreedomsâ anywhere that Russia could have âoecracked downâ on.
I'd take that kind of Exile (Score:2)
So the guy's rich enough to fly himself to a different country every day, and the only downside is he can't go back to Russia?
Where do I sign up?
Re: (Score:2)
My thoughts exactly. One week in Paris, and then another in Singapore. What a horrible life. Where is it going to take Durov the following week, perhaps Buenos Aires, Tokyo, or Morocco? Hard to say... such crazy world.
Re: (Score:3)
A rather pointless and misguided post and a list.
Trotsky was Stalin's own arch-enemy. It's very hard to think of who could possibly play such role to Putin's regime today. Berezovski was the last one, and he was a non-player since the end of 20th century. The other guy, Khodorkovky, the CEO of now dead Yukos, has already served a decade in prison and has been pardoned.
Litvinenko's killing in London was clearly a very public execution to send a message to major politically involved oligarchs in exile, such a
It is delicious ironic (Score:2)
Its 2015 in a few weeks and its clear (Score:2)
Its not the US vs Russia vs China vs Iran anymore
Its the collective people vs the state.
Re: (Score:1)
Anywhere in the west - just need to make sure that the SVR/FSB doesn't get to put some Polonium isotopes in his food
So who runs VKontakte now? Durov himself, or has ownership passed on to someone else? If it has, surely the Kremlin can target that guy?
Re:Commie Critter On The Lam? (Score:5, Informative)
http://dealbook.nytimes.com/20... [nytimes.com]
The Russian Internet giant Mail.ru said on Tuesday that it had bought the remaining stake in Vkontakte, the country’s largest social network, that it did not already own for $1.47 billion.
Mail.ru is owned by Alisher B. Usmanov.
From http://qz.com/268023/this-puti... [qz.com] :
Usmanov is one of Russian president Vladimir Putin’s “oligarchs,” a group of businessmen with close ties to the Kremlin, and last year Putin awarded him Russia’s highest civilian award, the Order for Service to the Fatherland.
That ought to clear up who is running/owns VKontakte.
What's the Kremlin really after, then? (Score:3)
I'm not getting it, then. If the Kremlin now has its guy owning VKontakte, why would they give a shit about Durov? They wanted data on Ukrainian protest leaders, which they can now get from Mail.ru, so why would they care about him one way or another? The big reason to go after him would be that ostensibly, he has all that data, but if he doesn't and his (now ex) company has it, and would give it, then what's his value to Moscow?
Also, Ukrainian protest leaders means what? Pro-Russian separatists in th
Re: (Score:2)
As far as protest leaders go, they meant the people on the maidan from a year or so ago - i.e. Ukranians protesting against Putin's puppet Yanukovich. As for why they prefer VKontakte to Facebook? No idea as I don't use either, but I'm sure there are "reasons".
Durov just has the potential to raise all sorts of hell if he should like to - I don't personally think he has that information, and it this point, the accounts in question have probably long since been deleted. It's more of political in nature tha
Re: (Score:2)
> then what's his value to Moscow?
What about revenge? Dictators a big on this.
Re: (Score:2)
Because Putin holds grudges. Defy him and you're on his hit list.
Putin's regime has a long history of not just seizing companies or putting a stop to things that dare defy it but also crushing the lives of the people who carried out the defiance in the first place.
Look at Litvinenko, he hadn't been in Russia for years, was a British citizen, yet they were still willing to send Lugovoi to poison him in London with Polonium.
Like all brutal authoritarian regimes, it's about sending a message - do as we say wit
Re: (Score:2)
Correction: Fatherland is Germany and putin's empire is called Mother Russia.
Correction to your Correction:
The Order "For Merit to the Fatherland" (Russian: ) is a state decoration of the Russian Federation. It was instituted on March 2, 1994 by Presidential Decree 442.[1] Until the re-establishment of the Order of St. Andrew in 1998, it was the highest Order of the Russian Federation, though it is still the highest Civilian decoration of the state.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/O... [wikipedia.org]
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2, Funny)
Run?
He's in Exile living well. I've thought of going there but plane fare is expensive to Exile and there's this long layover in Timbuktu.
It's even harder when you are on a Lamb. The TSA won't let you through security on the Lamb and let's not get into bording the plane.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
eggcorn |egg korn| noun In linguistics, an eggcorn is an idiosyncratic substitution of a word or phrase for a word or words that sound similar or identical in the speaker's dialect (sometimes called oronyms). The new phrase introduces a meaning that is different from the original, but plausible in the same context, such as "old-timers' disease" for "Alzheimer's disease".
humor
(h)yoomr
noun
noun: humour
1. the quality of being amusing or comic, especially as expressed in literature or speech. "his tales
Re: (Score:2)
Hackers are criminals. Why am I supposed to feel sorry for a criminal?
Why am I supposed to feel sorry when you are wrongfully accused as one?
It's always funny to see that ignorant look on people's faces as the shoe slips on the other foot...
Re: (Score:2)
Hackers are not criminals. Hacking is not illegal (not in the US nor Russian Federation).
Re: (Score:1)
citation needed
Re: (Score:2)
Are you sure that hacking your roomba wouldnt be illegal? I'm sure there's some kind of esoteric clause in the TOS/EULA/70 page licensing agreement. and god help your soul if you try teaching other people to modify iRobot's intellectual property on their 'own' device.
replace 'hacking roomba' with 'jailbreaking* your phone' or "modifying your console's firmware"
*is the exemption to this still in place?
Re: (Score:1)
I 'rooted' my phone a few weeks ago, and discovered that the Kindle books on it could be pulled out of the hidden directory onto my PC and converted to unlocked EPUB files using calibre.
That borders on hacking, though it's really just script-kidding at the level I did it (easy to follow guides online.)
Re:Snowden vs Durov (Score:5, Insightful)
And what has Durov done that was traitorous or cowardly?
And for that matter, Snowden was a patriot, and far from a coward. A coward would have kept his mouth shut.
Re: (Score:1)
Sort of. Snowden joined the NSA with the explicit goal of "exposing" them. I don't disagree with his actions, but it's not like he was an unwitting dupe that stumbled onto wrong-doing. He had an agenda; mission successful.
Re: (Score:2)