Ex-communist Europe
Hackers and the Kremlin
Nashi exposed
Feb 9th 2012, 15:45 by G.F.
THAT the Russian authorities use blackmail and smears to discredit rivals and opponents has never been secret. When the prosecutor general under President Boris Yeltsin, Yuri Skuratov, was investigating Boris Berezovsky and other Kremlin insiders for corruption in 1999, the oligarch’s television channel aired a video of a man resembling him in bed with prostitutes. Despite his denials, the scandal ended his career and stopped the probes. Some saw the hand of the FSB (Federal Security Service) in that, headed by the in those days obscure official Vladimir Putin. Mr Yeltsin's subsequent selection of Mr Putin as prime minister may have been in part reward for that.
A dozen years on, with Prime Minister Putin facing the biggest challenge to his rule less than a month before he plans to return for a third presidential term, the so-called black PR is reaching farcical levels. Compromising videos have appeared on the Internet together with leaks of hacked telephone conversations and private emails from the accounts of blogger Alexei Navalny and other organisers of the first major street demonstrations against Mr Putin. Many of the transcripts have appeared on the pro-Kremlin tabloid site Lifenews.ru, which falsely accused Boris Nemtsov, another protest leader, of spending New Year's with a prostitute in Dubai.
Now a group of hackers that calls itself the Russian wing of Anonymous has posted its own trove of emails hacked from accounts it says belong to the masters of the country’s notorious pro-Kremlin youth groups. Many of the messages over the past year appear to be from the head of the Federal Youth Agency Vassily Yakemenko and its spokeswoman Kristina Potupchik.
They are shown directing journalists and bloggers to extol Putin’s popularity and attack his critics. The emails describe price lists and payments and discuss tactics such as filing hundreds of comments on Websites and creating a video cartoon comparing Navalny to Hitler.
Blogger Anton Nosik points to obvious differences between the email attacks on both sides. If Navalny’s leaked correspondence is mainly personal and exposes nothing compromising, Potupchik’s expose details “fraud, embezzlement, and an unbridled media war against Russian citizens” about which Russian taxpayers have a right to know.
The only Potupchik email that could be considered personal outlines her rationale. Praising her boss Yakemenko, who founded the youth group Nashi, she said she owes him loyalty for having hired her. "If you think someone else can be found in our country who would create such a structure,” she writes, “who would put the refuse from our provincial towns to work, turn provincial shits into princesses of the capital, then fuck off.”
The regime has long had a credibility problem because of the gap between its rhetoric and its actions. This glimpse of the inside will make it easier for critics to portray it as not just cynical, but outright ridiculous. That's not a good start to what may be the most difficult four weeks in Mr Putin's political career.
Readers of this blog who know Russian can read the cache of hacked emails here.
Eastern approaches deals with the economic, political, security and cultural aspects of the eastern half of the European continent. It incorporates the long-running "Europe.view" weekly column. The blog is named after the wartime memoirs of the British soldier Sir Fitzroy Maclean.
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"Readers of this blog who know Russian can read the cache of hacked emails here."
The archive under the link is far from be complete. Only 60+ messages? The full archive seems now to be here:
http://slivmail.com/
and even with search engine. :)))
About "Nashi exposed": sorry, but WHAT is exposed? As far as a have read it -- not much compromising, and not even something especially interesting.
Lol, "If you think someone else can be found in our country who would create such a structure, ..., then fuck off.” That about sums up the whole regime's feelings towards democracy
I am curious to know, Nashi the Reader, now that the earnings of your colleagues are out in public, whether you feel short changed by the Kremlin? After all, contributors around here mostly don't partake in the day-to-day "Kremlin kool-aid" offered up in the motherland. So, surely your work must be harder, not to mention less rewarding.
That's not a good start to what may be the most difficult four weeks in Mr Putin's political career.
Why do you think so? It's not like there is any way he will be allowed to lose -- no matter what ballots are actually cast. So why difficult?
Back in 1999, Putin allegedly planted Skuratov's video, but he also admitted to making Yeltsin look good by hiring TV producers to play the best clips of Yeltsin, as Putin stated in his memoir. Therefore, in the Russian system of doing things, this type of hacking/setting up is normal. As for Nashi, they are the youth of Russia who support Putin, and if they are behind these hacks, they could be making things worse for him.
What is Putin to do now? That's the million-ruble question. Does he let the media portray him in any way they want, incl. giving full coverage of the anti-Putin protests ... or does he continue to take full control? It's also interesting to see how he incorporates Nashi, because they represent the youth vote, yet many of the anti-Putin protestors are youth as well.
Jennifer Ciotta
author of I, Putin (Vladimir Putin novel)
http://vladimirputinnovel.com
Jennifer Ciotta you give credit to Russian hackers saying that “in the Russian system of doing things, this type of hacking/setting up is normal.” However, who can beat the unbeatable West. It is of course abnormal for the West and quite an exception as Wikileaks project, Feels like it is the hand of Putin and his Nashi hackers. I think not many know that Julian Assange got a spot on RT channel and will host ten programs. It’s for sure KGB plot to abuse innocent West.
Kuzmich, You make a good point. Yes, it could be an FSB plot, with Putin at the helm. And, of course, Nashi could allegedly be behind the hacks... but even though I said it's the norm for Russia, that doesn't mean it doesn't exist in the West, such as with Wikileaks.
To me, I find it fascinating how far Putin supporters will go in their lengths to support him. Kristina Potupchik, though said in a rough way, makes a valid point: the provinces do seem to support Putin. According to them, he was their savior. And when he is re-elected, Putin will return the favor.
Jennifer Ciotta
author of I, Putin
http://vladimirputinnovel.com
"Back in 1999, Putin allegedly planted Skuratov's video..."
Sorry. Putin did not. It was Berezovsky, who did.
This new posting system on the Economist is total confusion. It’s very hard to follow the thread with this “in reply to”. I wish the Economist return to its original posting system. Why are we limited only to three posts now? Has democracy shrunk to three posts? If there are 300 posts or so and I reply to #15... Didomyk, pull the strings and use your impregnable authority. Your voice will be heard.
Sorry, old friend, but my D.I.D.O. intelligence sources have told me that the new TE system has been designed at NATO request in order to confuse all Putin-sympatisers preventing them from flooding the internet with their Putin glorifications and the like with the view to influencing upcoming elections. Disrupting elections is clearly UN-democratic !
As to your concens that democracy has shrank to three posts, no need to worry. You can still post even three comments to each and every other posts. To take a simple example, if there are, say, 20 posts on a given subject your are free to flood the system with 20x3 = 60 comments of your own! That would allow me to respond to your 60 comments by posting 60 x 3 = 180 posts. Get an idea ?
Hey, it looks like you are missing some golden opportunities. So get busy, my friend, let the world capitalists as well as the lazy world proletariat know what do you think about all those.... (I will let you finish the rest !)
Indeed, too confusing and difficult to follow my buddy Dido's comments. One good thing though - your own comments can be edited, in case a person wants to edit some info or correct a spelling mistake, god job on this part, TE.
Didomyk, it’s perfectly clear that I can still post as many comments as I want. Anyway professor, your ABC is really appreciated. The thing is that you lose the logical thread of entire debate. You are with TE limitations to three posts and then when you use “in reply to” option your posts are lost in the multitudes of other posts.
Didomyk, you are too shortsighted by saying that it was NATO designed subversive plan “in order to confuse all Putin-sympathizers preventing them from flooding the internet with their Putin glorifications”. It’s just the other way round. This confusion was devised by Putin himself to confuse Putin’s ‘well-wishers’. And TE fell into that trap and became pro Putin paper.
In any case, you like this illogical system of confusion like in many other things.
Joe, this editing option is not good at all since for instance you’d refer to Didomyk’s post but he would say he never said so since he’d be so smart to edit it. Tricky guy he is. We should stick to the principle ‘what is writ is writ'.
"Tricky guy" must contradict your statement, - you cannot keep editing your text forever. As you said 'what is writ is writ'
However, you haven't written much of substance lately. What's the matter ? Neglegting to make use of your cherished democratic rights !!
Didomyk, you said you hadn’t seen me lately. You know the material on TE was too much identical. We can lock horns debating over Putin, however, you know the saying ‘the dog barks, but the wind bears it away’. Nothing will surprise us on March 4. The only hope that during his next term new leaders will emerge and Russia will transform into a more civilized society since the old faces like comrade Zyu and liberal-democrat Zhirinovsky will extinct like dinosaurs.
I’m surprised too not to see your contributions on the article "Moscow rules".
I think you are right, after all, Dido is a Ukrainian.
There is nothing fundamentally new in the story. The same Kremlim tactic goes for a number international forums, such as this and FT's readers comments sections. The Brigade is busy by copy-pasting and posting the drivel written within a day or two after a topic emerges by a Modest Kotlerov or another Kremlin-funded think tank - that's why occasionally a delay occurs before a forum is flooded by Joes and Kuzmiches of that world. The Chinese brigade did the same when Tibet events broke out a couple of years ago.
You must be a senior member of the notorious Western Brigade.
Omnipresent-oracular-pundit OmniPrescient is displeased. I would suggest you reading then some gossip magazines and papers to stay away from all sorts of “brigades”’. However, I believe even in those you will find “Kremlin-funded think tank”.
Ah, black p.r. the stock in trade of KGB nincompoops like Putin. How would Putin like his families' cell phone conversations publicized or lies about them published? He has no qualms about doing this to Russian human rights activists so all the more reason for a KGB lowlife like Putin to reveal all those chats about his personal palace on the Black Sea and where he hides his assets.
And Russian citizens' taxes pay for these clowns in the PutinJugend Nashi. Nashi and Molodaya Gvardiya should go the same way down in history as their ideological predecessors the HitlerJugend went down.
I wonder if Nashi is still hiring. 600,000 roubles is awfully tempting.
Check with Joey the Corporal, he has years of experience with Putin's NASHI and knows all about 'roubles for services'.
We should swap the British journalist phone hackers for the Russian ones...
An equally (perhaps more) interesting article on 'Nashi', by M. Elder published by the 'Guardian'
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/feb/07/putin-hacked-emails-russian-...
provides compromising reference to "price lists for pro-Putin bloggers and commenters, indicating that some are paid as much as 600,000 roubles (£12,694) for leaving hundreds of comments on negative press articles on the internet".
Considering the frequency of pro-Putin and pro-Kremlin posts on TE site by a few well known Russia-friendly bloggers one cannot help but wonder about their revenue stream originating from the same sources.
"Nashi" reportedly manipulates YouTube viewcounts and ratings, using paid 'Nashi' activists to vote against anti-regime videos.
A particular attention is paid by Nashi to Navalny, an opposition leader who uses his blog and Twitter accounts to help organising anti-Putin sentiments. 'Nashi' have resorted to such incriminating but infantile 'ideas' as a cartoon video comparing Navalny to Hitler.
Meanwhile, Putin's supporters continue to insist that anti-Putin demonstrations have been funded by the US and other Western governments. With about four weeks to go before presidential elections in Russia one could expect even more serious revelations about 'dirt' in Russian politics.
'"Nashi" reportedly manipulates YouTube viewcounts and ratings, using paid 'Nashi' activists to vote against anti-regime videos....'
Sounds like those South Korean NPOs online promoting Korean pop music.