Wednesday, March 16, 2022

A thought about Russian opposition in Russia: Try to support them

This one is from the One Cannot Afford to Ignore Allies files. A commenter here, Doug1943, posted this yesterday:

What would be desirable is if we could prevent the entire Russian people being driven into a nationalist, hail-our-glorious Leader frenzy. There are brave Russians who are trying to prevent this. (I lived there for a few months in 1985, returned several times after that, both before and after the fall of Communism, and made several Russian friends. Every single one of them loathes Putin. But right now, the mood is running against them.)

How can we help Russians now? The worst possible thing is for Russia to be intellectually isolated, for them to feel everyone despises them. Already we're hearing crap like "Russians are natural robots, don't you know where the word 'Slav' comes from?" etc.

So we need to make links. Not to scold them, not to urge them to go to prison by demonstrating -- that's their choice, not ours -- but to say, "We want you to be part of the democratic civilized world." And, ideally, according to me, to acknowledge that NATO expansion -- which we promised Mr Gorbachev would not happen -- has played a role in this horrible affair.

I have some ideas for making this happen. It involves some minimal searching, then cutting and pasting, ending up with a harvest of Russian email addresses. (When I last checked with a friend in Moscow, email was still working.)

Anyone interested in working with me on this should let me know.

Also: At a minimum, if you use the Chrome or Firefox browsers, get the 'Snowflake' (sic) add-on. It turns your computer into a relay point that allows Russian users of the TOR browser to evade censorship. It takes about two minutes to do, is free, and puts no load on your own computer.


The Tor browser is used by some people to evade government surveillance. The Chinese government has banned it. The Tor browser isolates each website you visit so third-party trackers and ads can't follow you. Any cookies automatically clear when you're done browsing. So will your browsing history. It prevents someone watching your connection from knowing what websites you visit. All anyone monitoring your browsing habits can see is that you're using Tor. It tries make all users look the same, making it difficult for you to be fingerprinted based on your browser and device information. Your traffic is relayed and encrypted three times as it passes over the Tor network. The network is comprised of thousands of volunteer-run servers known as Tor relays.

The Tor Project, a 501(c)(3) US nonprofit. Its goal is to advance human rights and defend privacy online through free software and open networks.

A screen shot of the add-on Snowflake for Firefox:


Snowflake is a WebRTC pluggable transport for Tor. Enabling this extension 
turns your browser into a proxy that connects 
Tor users in censored regions to the Tor network.



Fighting the global war for information and truth on the internet --
the Tor Snowflake system
Tor Snowflake turns your browser into a proxy for users in censored countries

The extensions are not meant to be installed by users living in oppressive countries that block access to the Tor network. They're meant for those living in free countries, where governments don't block Tor access.

Users who want to help those living under oppressive regimes can install the Tor Snowflake extensions -- for Chrome or Firefox.

The two extensions effectively transform a user's browser into a proxy, allowing users in oppressive countries to connect through the extension (and the user's computer) to the Tor network.


We would be the Snowflake proxies resisting 
demagogues and tyrants


The Tor network is a collection of servers that encrypt and bounce traffic between each other, to anonymize a user's real location.

This network has multiple types of servers. There are Tor "guard" servers that serve as entry points to the Tor network. There are Tor "relays" that bounce the traffic inside the network and help anonymize the user's location. And then there are Tor "exit" servers, through which Tor traffic reconnects to the regular internet.

Due to their nature, the IP addresses of Tor guard servers are public, listed on the Tor website, so Tor clients (usually the Tor Browser) can read the list and connect to the Tor network through a safe server.

Over the years, countries have realized that they can block access to these servers, and effectively block a user from accessing Tor.

The Tor Project fought back by developing another type of Tor server, called a Tor bridge. These are Tor guard servers that don't have their IP addresses listed publicly.  
However, Tor bridges aren't a foolproof solution. Oppressive regimes have realized they can also request access to Tor bridges as well, and compile a list of IP addresses to block alongside the regular Tor guards.

Tor Snowflake is the Tor Project's reaction to governments that have managed to block Tor bridges.

Tor Snowflake helps the Tor Project create a constantly moving mesh of proxies that no government could ever block.  
The only downside to Tor Snowflake is the fact that another user's traffic now flows through your browser, taking up your bandwidth. Users on metered connections are advised against activating Snowflake, as this will incur additional costs.


Doug makes an important point by arguing that we should not blindly attack the Russian people. That can turn potential allies and neutrals into enemies. 

There is another point important lurking in the room. America and liberal democracies and civil liberties the world over are in a fight to the death with demagogic tyranny and anti-democratic radicalism. Democracy and freedom are under deadly attacks both from within the US (the Republican Party, Christian nationalism, laissez-faire capitalism) and from the outside (China, Russia, etc.). Allies everywhere are precious and need to be supported when possible.

IMHO, it is time to pick a side and fight for it as best one can.

Question for Doug: Would you please elaborate some on your ideas to help Russian allies trapped in Russia?

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