When I first heard about the laws, I only heard of the cell communication part, which states:
- Now companies like Megafon, Beeline, and MTS [the biggest cell providers in Russia — TFG] 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
But holy shit, is it not it.
- “the failure to report a crime” will itself become a criminal offense.
- 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).
- Yarovaya's legislation introduces a new criminal-code article that outlaws “inducing, recruiting, or otherwise involving” others in the organization of mass unrest.
- Currently, people in this age group [age 14 till 18 — TFG] can be prosecuted for 22 different criminal-code articles. Now the number will rise to 32.
- 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 two of the most infuriating parts of what now became law - the ability of the government to strip people of their Russian citizenship or deny them the ability to travel outside of the country - have been removed at the last minute.
I'm scared.
EDIT: Apparently, the lawmakers are willing to make revisions "if Russians’ phone bills spike".
Either Russian IT guys are much less insubordinate than American IT guys or saying that ensured that the project will be expensive enough to make the phone bills spike whether or not it needed to be expensive enough to make the phone bills spike.EDIT: Apparently, the lawmakers are willing to make revisions "if Russians’ phone bills spike".
The promised price spike is said to come from the expenses of purchasing and maintaining the necessary equipment - data storage, eventual repair, electricity to run the whole thing etc.. Whether or not it's that expensive is beyond me, but common sense dictates to agree with the cell providers.
Thankfully, I'm not under most of the dangers. The state censorship and data surveillance apparati are not yet implemented, and I'm not to commit to extremist of any sorts. All I have to do now is keep away from mass protests and get enough shit together to get out of the country.
Heh. I wish it was that simple: pack my things and go. If I were, though... How would I stay? Seems like I should prove my worth to the country - personal skills or having relatives in - to stay, should I not? That's what the visa description for the US've been telling me all along.the weather is nice: you'll feel right at home ;)
Canada works with a point system when you apply for immigration. Age, kids, language, education, profession all play a role in the process. A little easier if you know some basic French, because Quebec really values french-speaking immigrants and gives a lot of points for that. It's a lengthy process for proper immigration but getting a school visa or something like that is easier.
Not elizabeth, but that's the visa I had when I moved to Canada from Russia a few years back. Went through middle/high school with it before getting my PR and citizenship. Looking at this website, it seems like the student visa also extends to university/post-secondary education, although be warned, you'd have to pay two to three times as much compared to someone with their permanent residence/citizenship documents (for my program that would mean around $20 000-25 000 versus the $8000 I'm paying right now).