The self-proclaimed, Russian-backed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) and Luhansk People’s Republic (LNR) announced that they have restricted access to Facebook and Instagram, aligning themselves with Russia’s policy on the American social media platforms.
In a statement on 11 May, the DNR’s communications ministry stated the telecom operators have begun blocking prohibited content that threatens its inhabitants. ‘In particular, access to the information resources of the American company Meta, which allows calls for violence against Russian-speaking users on its social networks, has already been blocked.’
The LNR communications ministry said it had also blocked access to social networks in a separate statement, which at the time of writing cannot be accessed.
The USA, the EU, Canada, and the UK attributed the Viasat cyberattack to Russia. The cyberattack disrupted broadband satellite internet access provided by the US telecoms firm Viasat on 24 February, the first day of the Russian invasion.
According to the Council of the EU, the attack caused ‘indiscriminate communication outages’ in Ukraine and several EU member states. British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss called the Viasat cyberattack ‘deliberate and malicious’. The attack aimed ‘to disrupt Ukrainian command and control during the invasion’, said the US Secretary of State Antony Blinken. Blinken’s statement also attributed a series of cyberattacks on Ukrainian government agencies and companies, which happened before and after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, to Russian hackers.
Big tech companies, torn between adhering to sanctions and providing promised support to clients, face lawsuits in Russia due to their withdrawal from the country.
In the latest case, the Russian courts seized $11 million belonging to Dell LLC for failing to provide technical support services for VMware; Dell is the VMware representative in Russia and was reselling VMware’s services until 1 March 2022.
Russian Android users and developers will no longer be able to download or update paid apps from the Google Play Store due to sanctions. According to the new changes, all updates to paid apps will be automatically blocked for compliance reasons.
The latest changes, for now, will not affect Russian developers when it comes to publishing and updating free apps, and users will still be able to download them from the store.
Russian manufacturers of microprocessors, Mikron, Baikal Electronics, and MCST (Moscow Center of SPARC Technologies), have been added to the UK government’s sanctions list. The Russian manufacturers will no longer have access to processor architecture from chip designer Arm, as Arm Ltd, the licensee, is based in Cambridge, England and must comply with the sanctions.
‘The purpose of this provision is to encourage Russia to cease actions destabilizing Ukraine or undermining or threatening the territorial integrity, sovereignty or independence of Ukraine,’ explained the UK government.
Although the chips manufactured by these companies have been described by experts as inferior to their competition, they are believed to be critical to Russia’s efforts to achieve technological independence and bridge the shortages in the Russian IT sector.
Russian state media, particularly Russia Today (RT) and Sputnik, have found various ways to circumvent social media bans and continue to spread their content and reach audiences across the EU, according to the not-yet-public findings of the Disinformation Situation Center (DSC).
Twitter has been the most effective at identifying, labelling, and blocking the accounts and material onf RT.com. Retweets of RT.com postings were not visible in Europe, and previews of the site’s material were not shown inside tweets. However, within the EU, the accounts of Radio Sputnik and SNA and Sputnik’s German division were still accessible, while RT DE used links to a proxy site that hosted their content.
Links to RT proxy sites, RT material hosted on other social media channels, and visual content bearing RT logos uploaded by users were not identified or removed by Facebook. Similarly, Instagram and YouTube have blocked the official accounts of RT.com, but users can post direct links to and from the RT DE and Sputnik sites.
The report identified other loopholes in the enforcement of the sanctions, including the use of VPNs. The report concludes that RT ‘had made changes that placed them multiple steps ahead of regulators’. RT’s international website remains accessible and shows a 50% increase in global traffic compared to pre-war levels.
A near-total internet shutdown was reported in the Kherson region in Ukraine, affecting providers and users. After several hours, the connection was restored, but various metrics showed traffic being routed through Russia: ‘Connectivity on the network has been routed via Russia’s internet instead of Ukrainian telecoms infrastructure and is hence likely now subject to Russian internet regulations, surveillance, and censorship,’ NetBlocks said on its website.
Two days later, Mykhailo Fedorov, Vice Prime Minister of Ukraine and Minister of Digital Transformation of Ukraine, tweeted that the telecoms connection was restored in Kherson. ‘Three telecom operators are available again. Dear Kherson, the problems with service were temporary.’
On April 11th Vladimir Kara-Murza was detained outside his home in Moscow after an interview with CNN in which he criticised Russia’s actions in Ukraine. He was sentenced to 15 days in jail for disobeying police orders during his arrest and now Russia has opened a criminal case against him on the grounds of spreading false information about Moscow’s military campaign in Ukraine. Russia’s parliament passed a bill last month that includes jail terms of up to 15 years for those convicted of intentionally spreading fake news about what Moscow calls its “special military operation” in Ukraine. Public officials claimed the new law was needed to protect its military in the context of the conflict.
Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova stated that Russia is in possession of information that Ukrainian diplomats are ‘participating in provocations against Russian nationals in other countries’ as well as ‘recruiting mercenaries to be sent to the combat zone and also recruiting cyber mercenaries.’
Ukraine previously established the International Legion of Territorial Defense and waived visa requirements for foreign nationals coming to fight on Kyiv’s side.
The Economist discusses the deeper motives behind Russia’s war in Ukraine:
- Russia’s shift away from modernization towards conservative priorities.
- The idea of the ‘Russian World’ is based on a shared heritage, religion, and ethnicity. – The ‘Russian World’ ideology is carried out by those from the security apparatus who are members of Putin’s intelligence and military communities.
- Putin’s contract with the Russian people’ is built around a desire for a better quality of life. It is not clear if it can be replaced by a social contract based on national feelings.
- The global trend of an impact of pandemic years on ideology of identity and nationalism could also be observed in Russia. The impact of pandemic crises on identities and ideologies worldwide is an under-researched topic.
- Putin is returning to conservative thinkers in Russian history, including Konstantin Leontyev.
Source: The Economist
