Back To 99 posted:

Russians were in Crimea before the Tatars so how can they be the original inhabitants article?

Back To 99 posted:

Russians were in Crimea before the Tatars so how can they be the original inhabitants article?

quote:

Volunteers who maintain the Tor network are sometimes hassled by the authorities. Perhaps child pornography travelled across their exit node—the part of the network where a user's traffic joins the normal web—or maybe it was implicated in the hacking of a website. The FBI has even raided the houses of Tor operators in response to instances like these.

Now, another Tor exit node volunteer is receiving attention, but his case is somewhat more bizarre. Polish authorities have requested British law enforcement to interrogate the node operator because of a 2014 forum post supposedly insulting the ex-mayor of a small Polish town; apparently an illegal act in Poland.

A letter from the District Public Prosecutor’s Office in Bialystok, Poland, to the UK Home Office points to Article 212, paragraph 2 of the Polish Penal Code, which says, in sum, that characterising someone else in such a way that might “degrade them in public opinion or expose them to the loss of confidence necessary to occupy a given position […] is subject to a fine or the penalty of limitation of liberty.”

According to the letter, a user called “~Gość~” wrote a rambling post on “Forum.Poranny.pl” about Roman Czepe, a former mayor of small town Łapy.

“When he read the post, Roman Czepe felt offended by the words used in it,” the prosecutor's letter continues. “He testified that such a statement clearly humiliated him in the face of public opinion.”

The poster allegedly used an IP addresses of a now-closed Tor exit node run by Thomas White (who is also known as The Cthulhu). So, the Polish Prosecutor's Office wants UK authorities to question White as a witness, and find out who the author of the post was.

Obviously, even if UK authorities did go along with the plan, an exit node operator has no way of telling where the Tor user ultimately connected from: That's the whole point of Tor. And White isn't ecstatic about helping out Polish investigators anyway.

“I wish to make my position known that I have no intention of complying with the request from the Polish authorities,” White told Motherboard in a statement.

“As far as I am concerned, the person who made the post is expressing a personal opinion on a public official, somebody to whom Mr. Czepe is accountable and answerable as a former democratically elected person and a supposed representative of the people of Poland. As such, the poster is entitled to share his opinion and have it entered into the public sphere,” White's statement continues.

Katarzyna Dubowska from the Prosecutor's Office in Bialystok confirmed that it is handling the investigation, but declined to answer specific questions.

A Home Office spokesperson told Motherboard in an email, “We can neither confirm nor deny the existence of mutual legal assistance requests.”

HUGE PUBES A PLUS posted:

Article in the Torygraph today about the Crimean Tatars struggle on to resist Russian rule.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/07/07/special-report-crimea-tatars-endure-second-tragedy-under-russian/


Also:

HUGE PUBES A PLUS posted:

https://motherboard.vice.com/read/polish-authorities-want-to-question-uk-tor-operator-over-offensive-forum-post


Good luck with that.

GreyjoyBastard posted:

I was really hoping that at least the Russians would treat the Tatars okay.

GreyjoyBastard posted:

I was really hoping that at least the Russians would treat the Tatars okay.

GreyjoyBastard posted:

I was really hoping that at least the Russians would treat the Tatars okay.

Lucy Heartfilia posted:

death to putin

DrProsek posted:

In my experience, ultranationalistic irredentist militias and ethnic minorities mix poorly.

waitwhatno posted:

That's adorable, I'm totally in favor of old people trying to learn how to work with computers and the internet.

Warbadger posted:

Crimea had like zero militias involved. The Russian government has already admitted it was an operation by the Russian military (and issued a bunch of medals for it). Of course that just means it was an ultranationalistic irredentist military.

szary posted:

It's just C.Y.A. procedure, the prosecutor is more than happy that she'll be able to discontinue the investigation due to being unable to identify the author of the comment. Unfortunately or fortunately, even the most absurd crime reports have to be at least cursorily examined before being dismissed, I once saw a criminal file where some poor cop had to type out a 20-page statement from a loony who showed up at a police station and reported a vast conspiracy by atheists and communists to commit genocide against Polish catholics, and then various courts had to consider his appeals when the case got shut down for being nonsense.

A Buttery Pastry posted:

The new Polish postal service uniform looks a tad fascist.

icantfindaname posted:

Lucy I'm disappointed in your choice of support for Korean Asuka instead of the far superior Mei

A Buttery Pastry posted:

David Cameron looks like what he thought was a fart was actually something more, and the guy behind him just realized.

HUGE PUBES A PLUS posted:

HUGE PUBES A PLUS posted:

They play the drum AND the bugle when they deliver parcels!

Kristov posted:

Lol. Is that merkel in the middle looking around awkwardly?

"poo poo, I knew I should've worn navy blue."

Kristov posted:

Lol. Is that merkel in the middle looking around awkwardly?

"poo poo, I knew I should've worn navy blue."

Discendo Vox posted:

Who's the dude with the baller cane?

Lichtenstein posted:

I'm on the phone, somebody please post the "Tusk did Smoleńsk" leaflets that are given out to NATO officials.

HUGE PUBES A PLUS posted:

Palpek posted:

https://twitter.com/kuziemsky/status/751325169277427712

quote:

On Friday, June 24, Russia's State Duma approved a final draft of several anti-terrorist laws spearheaded by deputy Irina Yarovaya. Though lawmakers removed many of the legislation's most odious amendments at the last minute (which, in part, would have made it possible to revoke convicts' Russian citizenship and their right to travel abroad), the bill still revises dozens of existing laws in ways that could have profound consequences for people living in Russia. For “Yarovaya's legislation” to become law, the Federation Council must next approve the legislation, and then President Putin needs to sign it. There is no doubt that this will happen. Meduza offers a brief summary of what the State Duma just set into motion.

Failure to report a crime

Beginning on July 20, 2016, “the failure to report a crime” will itself become a criminal offense. Russians will be required to inform the authorities about anything they know regarding preparations for terrorist attacks, armed rebellions, and several other kinds of crimes on a list that has more than half a dozen different offenses. Anyone who doesn't faces up to a year in prison.

Justifying terrorism on social media

Publishing online incitements to terrorism, or even expressing approval of terrorism on the Internet, will be regarded legally as publishing such comments in the mass media, subjecting individuals to the same strict penalties now imposed on media outlets. The maximum punishment for publicly inciting or justifying terrorism is seven years in prison.

Telephone and SMS records, and police access to that data

One part of Yarovaya's legislation that passed the Duma almost without revisions is the language creating new requirements for how Russia's telecoms store data. Now companies like Megafon, Beeline, and MTS will have to store records of all calls and text messages exchanged between customers for a period of six months. And for three years, the companies will need to keep the metadata on all calls and text messages (the information about when and between whom messages occurred, but not the actual content of the messages). The same rules will apply to “the organizers of information distribution on the Internet.” (State regulators will identify the Web resources that qualify as “information-distribution organizers.“) While telecom companies will have to store metadata for three years, “organizers” will only need to hold onto the information for one year.

Data encryption

There's another important amendment aimed at “organizers of information distribution on the Internet”: if an online service—a messenger app, a social network, an email client, or even just a website—encrypts its data, its owners will be required to help the Federal Security Service decipher any message sent by its users. The fine for refusing to cooperate can be as high as a million rubles (more than $15,000).

Missionary work

Yarovaya's legislation tightens regulations on Russia's religious sphere of life, creating a thoroughly broad definition of missionary work, which will now be off limits to anyone not formally affiliated with registered organizations or groups. And any kind of missionary work will now be restricted to specially designated areas. The fines for violating these new regulations can reach 1 million rubles.

Tougher punishments for extremism

The legislation means people convicted of extremism go to prison more often and for longer. Those who don't end up behind bars will pay more money in fines. In some cases, the changes are extraordinary. For example, people currently convicted of financing extremist activities (Article 282.3 of Russia's criminal code) now face up to three years in prison, though they're not always incarcerated. Under Yarovaya's reforms, the maximum sentence rises to eight years, and the crime now carries a minimum prison sentence of three years.

Inducing people to join mass unrest

Yarovaya's legislation introduces a new criminal-code article that outlaws “inducing, recruiting, or otherwise involving” others in the organization of mass unrest. The maximum penalty for breaking this law is ten years, and the minimum prison sentence is five years.

Criminal liability from the age of 14

Yarovaya's legislation greatly expands the criminal liability of adolescents over fourteen. Currently, people in this age group can be prosecuted for 22 different criminal-code articles. Now the number will rise to 32. It will be possible to prosecute 14 year olds for international terrorism, for participation in terrorist communities, terrorist organizations, and illegal armed groups, for taking part in terrorist training camps, for participating in mass unrest, for making an attempt on the life of a state official, and for attacking an official or facility that enjoys international protection. The legislation even says 14 year olds can be prosecuted for the new offense of failing to report a crime.

International terrorism

Russia's criminal code is also getting a new article “against international terrorism,” which prosecutors can use against people accused of carrying out terrorist attacks beyond the country's borders, in any attack that killed or injured Russian citizens. The law also applies to anyone accused of financing acts of terrorism. This crime carries a maximum sentence of life in prison.

Inspections of mailed parcels

The legislation will obligate “postal operators” (Russia's official postal service and all private postal companies) to monitor that they aren't shipping anything illegal. The list of banned items includes money, weapons, narcotics, poisons, perishable products, and substances that might harm postal service employees or damage other parcels. The costs of carrying out these inspections fall on the postal operators.

What didn't make it into the legislation?

Revoking people's citizenship. Before the second reading of the legislation, Yarovaya and her coauthors proposed various grounds for revoking Russians' citizenship. This would have applied in several circumstances, including anyone convicted of terrorist or extremist crimes, and even Russians who cooperated with certain kinds of international organizations.

Revoking people's right to leave the country. The legislation's first reading also proposed banning foreign travel for anyone who received an “official warning” regarding “the inadmissibility of illegal actions committed.” This would have applied extrajudicially. For the second reading, lawmakers changed the amendment, proposing foreign travel restrictions only on Russians with outstanding or unexpunged convictions for certain crimes (namely, terrorism and extremism). In the end, the State Duma decided to drop these reforms altogether.

OddObserver posted:

Merkel always seems to look awkward. Kind of incredible for such a successful politician.

... and doesn't the big honcho get to have a separate uniform style anyway?

HUGE PUBES A PLUS posted:

This is what happened in Russia today.

https://meduza.io/en/feature/2016/06/24/russia-s-state-duma-just-approved-some-of-the-most-repressive-laws-in-post-soviet-history


https://twitter.com/Snowden/status/751019610258964480

Baronjutter posted:

I just love that NATO has to be NATO / OTAN just for the french.

Cat Mattress posted:

Don't forget half the Belgians and some of the Canadians!

Cat Mattress posted:

English and French are both official languages of the organization, it's been like this since it was created, deal with it.