Putin gets his dick out

Looks like Mad Bad Vlad is nostalgic for the USSR:

It was one of the highlights of the Soviet calendar - a chance for the communist superpower to show off its military might and for ordinary citizens to check that their gerontocratic leaders were still alive, perched on top of Lenin’s tomb.

But 17 years after the last hammer and sickle tanks trundled through Red Square, the Kremlin is to revive on May 9 the Soviet-era practice of parading its big weaponry, the Russian defence ministry confirmed yesterday. As well as 6,000 marching soldiers, it will show off its latest tanks and rockets - such as the new intercontinental ballistic missile, Topol-M.

Stalin

Jamie K summarizes Stalin’s economic policies:

… beating plowshares into nukes with the skulls of kulaks …

Like the turn of phrase!

Documentary on the AK-47

Al Jazeera has a documentary on the AK-47, a rifle sixty years old this year.

(via Defense Tech)

A new verb: to usmanov

I’ve just invented a new word:

usmanov /’us mə nɒv/ verb to unsuccessfully attempt to stifle undesired content on the Internet by taking legal action against websites where the content appears, with the result that the undesired content becomes more widespread and better known. [named after Alisher Usmanov, a Russian/Uzbek billionaire who did this regarding allegations made against him by Craig Murray. First use 2007.]

Here’s an example of usage:

Left Behind Games, a company making religiously-themed computer games, were annoyed by the negative reviews that their games were getting, so they usmanoved some bloggers. As a result, the negative coverage of their games got more publicity.

(via Techdirt; also published on The Sharpener)

Usmanov and Schillings can go fuck themselves

Who’s heard the phrase “when you’ve dug yourself into a hole, the fist thing to do is stop digging”? Not Alisher Usmanov, the Russian/Uzbek billionaire who’s been described as a “gangster and racketeer” in the European Parliament. Nor his lawyers, Schillings, who apparently specialise in attempting to gag free speech.

This time Schillings have issued a takedown notice against Indymedia:

Indymedia UK has been issued with a takedown notice [10th of September & 21st of September] from lawyers acting for Alisher Usmanov. The notice served to Indymedia charged Indymedia with publishing allegedly libellous accusations about Usmanov, one of the richest men in Russia, recently linked to a possible hostile takeover of Arsenal FC.

As Obsolete points out:

This only makes Usmanov’s charm offensive this week, involving the flying via private jet of at least 9 British journalists to his offices in Moscow, then putting them up in a five star hotel all the more shallow. He says he’s not a vindictive man and that some of Murray’s allegations are beneath his dignity to respond to, yet his lackey of legal brown-nosing sycophants are still trying to remove all mentions and republishing of Murray’s original post, while still failing to respond either to Murray’s request for them to sue him or to even explain how inaccurate his allegations are, apart from their completely untrue argument that Usmanov was pardoned by Gorbachev.

If either Schillings or Usmanov think we’re going to continue to take their attempts to silence all criticism of this deeply unpleasant man lying down, then they’ve got another thing coming.

Do Schillings and Usmanov really think they can browbeat the entire Internet into submission? Including those parts of it with more sensible libel laws than the UK?

(via Chicken Yoghurt)

Storm: the future of malware

Storm is a program that surreptitiously installs itself on your computer, and when installed, attempts to install copies of itself on other computers on the Internet. it’s a worm, in other words. Unfortunately, Storm is also a very well-designed program. Bruce Schneier explains:

The Storm worm first appeared at the beginning of the year, hiding in e-mail attachments with the subject line: “230 dead as storm batters Europe.” Those who opened the attachment became infected, their computers joining an ever-growing botnet.

Although it’s most commonly called a worm, Storm is really more: a worm, a Trojan horse and a bot all rolled into one. It’s also the most successful example we have of a new breed of worm, and I’ve seen estimates that between 1 million and 50 million computers have been infected worldwide.

Old style worms — Sasser, Slammer, Nimda — were written by hackers looking for fame. They spread as quickly as possible (Slammer infected 75,000 computers in 10 minutes) and garnered a lot of notice in the process. The onslaught made it easier for security experts to detect the attack, but required a quick response by antivirus companies, sysadmins and users hoping to contain it. Think of this type of worm as an infectious disease that shows immediate symptoms.

Worms like Storm are written by hackers looking for profit, and they’re different. These worms spread more subtly, without making noise. Symptoms don’t appear immediately, and an infected computer can sit dormant for a long time. If it were a disease, it would be more like syphilis, whose symptoms may be mild or disappear altogether, but which will eventually come back years later and eat your brain.

One major worry with Storm is that there doesn’t appear to be a good counter to it:

Not that we really have any idea how to mess with Storm. Storm has been around for almost a year, and the antivirus companies are pretty much powerless to do anything about it. Inoculating infected machines individually is simply not going to work, and I can’t imagine forcing ISPs to quarantine infected hosts.

Redesigning the Microsoft Windows operating system would work, but that’s ridiculous to even suggest. We simply don’t know how to stop Storm, except to find the people controlling it and arrest them. Unfortunately we have no idea who controls Storm, although there’s some speculation that they’re Russian. The programmers are obviously very skilled, and they’re continuing to work on their creation.

Oddly enough, Storm isn’t doing much, so far, except gathering strength.

Personally, I’m worried about what Storm’s creators are planning for Phase II.

Me too. Personally I’m worried about the military possibilities of this. If an adversary could infect the majority of computers in another country, and then take them down all at once, it could do enormous damage to that countries economy and social structure. And as computers get more ubiquitous, the problem will only get worse. Countries should be preparing now to defend themselves against malware warfare.

As computers get more powerful and software more complicated, it becomes easier to hide a worm. And as software becomes more autonomous, the danger that malware can do becomes bigger. So I can see malware becoming a major force limiting the growth of computer systems; maybe this will even be big enough to prevent a singularity from happening.

Usmanov buys favourable coverage in newspapers

Bloggerheads is reporting that Alisher Usmanov has paid for a planeload of British journalists to go to Moscow on his private jet and stay at the luxury Kempinski Hotel. The journalists then wrote articles about him and his attempt to buy Arsenal FC. Most of the subsequent articles didn’t mention that the journalists got a free trip and hotel stay. Details:

Via Arsenal News Review (with one extra added by moi) a list of 9* 8 of the 10 journalists reported to have been flown to and from Moscow by Alisher Usmanov on a Gulfstream 550 private jet and put up at the five-star Kempinski Hotel:

David Bond (The Daily Telegraph): The resulting article makes much of Usmanov’s ‘knowledge’ of Arsenal, describes Murray’s allegations as “an extraordinary attack” and our only hint about travel and accommodation is given in the following passage; “…in an effort to dispel the mystery and set the record straight, Usmanov invited British journalists to Moscow, to explain his side of the story.”

Jason Burt (The Independent): Two articles here and here, but no mention of travel or accommodation.

Shaun Custis (The Sun): The resulting article is very light on detail when discussing Usmanov’s past, which this ‘journalist’ describes as ’smears’. There is no mention of travel or accommodation.

Matt Dickinson (The Times): The resulting article mentions travel, but not accommodation. [MINI-UPDATE: Another article gives readers some clue as to what's going on by using the words "charm offensive".... but makes no mention of some rather important specifics that show how offensive it is.]

Martin Lipton (The Mirror): Articles headed ‘Martin Lipton in Moscow’ here and here, but no mention of how he got there, and no mention of any fuss over Usmanov’s past. All the folks at home get is “Alisher loves Arsenal.” Way to go, Martin Lipton.

Charlie Sale (The Daily Mail): Sale is quite specific about travel and accommodation here and here, but he dutifully states in his main article that; “Usmanov was pardoned by former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev” (all that jetting about can’t have left much time for research).

Matt Scott (The Guardian): The resulting article airs more detail than most, but does not mention travel or accommodation.

Personally, from now on I’m going to trust blogs over the mainstream press regarding stories about Usmanov.

(via Mr Eugenides)

Usmanov allegations repeated in European Parliament

The allegations that Craig Murray made against Alisher Usmanov (see here for backstory) have been repeated in the European Parliament by Tom Wise MEP. This means they are now covered by parliamentary privilege and can be repeated by anyone. Way to go, Schillings.

You can hear the allegations on blip.tv, or download the MP3 file.

Alternately, here is a transcript I’ve made of Wise’s speech:

Madam Chairman, Mr Commissioner,

when the EU talks of a common foreign policy you need to be very aware of exactly who you propose to do business with. President Putin is on record as [unclear] should be under no illusions if it wants to buy gas it has to deal with the Russian state. Gazprom is not a private company, it is a state-controlled tool of Russian foreign policy, one moreover in the hands of President Putin and allegedly organised crime.

Take for example Alisher Usmanov. This gentleman, the son of a Communist apparatchik, is chairman of Gazprom inside Russia. He is the man we would be doing business with. He is the man who cuts off gas supplies if client states dare to question Gazprom’s demands.

Allegedly a gangster and racketeer, he served a six year jail sentence in the Soviet Union in the 1980s, his eventual pardon coming at the behest of Usbek mafia chief and heroin overlord Gafur Rachimov, described as Usmanov’s mentor.

Usmanov bought the newspaper Kommersant; 3 months later the journalist Ivan Safranov, a critic of the Putin regime who just weeks earlier had been vigorously interrogated by the FSB — as the KGB is now called — mysteriously fell to his death from his apartment window, still clutching a recently purchased [unclear]. According to Craig Murray, the former British ambassador to Uzbekistan, it was Usmanov who ordered the cutting-off of supplies to Georgia earlier this year. Please take note [unclear] the construction of a pipeline to the EU over Georgian territory

These are the people you want to do business with? These are the people you are moulding your foreign policy on energy around? Commisioner, good luck, you’ll need it.

(via The Wardman Wire, England Expects, Mr Eugenides, Bloggerheads)
[This article also posted on The Sharpener]

Alisher Usmanov is a scumbag

Alisher Usmanov, the Uzbek billionaire who wants to buy Arsenal football club, is a scumbag.

Why? Apart from his criminal behaviour in the past — for which he was imprisoned — because he got libel lawyers Schillings to take down Craig Murray’s blog after Murray used it to write uncomplimentary things about Usmanov.

As Lenin puts it:

Craig Murray, as former ambassador to Uzbekistan, has raised these claims on his website and was followed by a number of other blogs and message boards. Evidently, Usmanov feels threatened by them, and has employed the libel lawyers, Schillings, who have applied pressure to service providers to pull the websites in question - before a single thing has been tested in court. The issue as it now stands is not whether the allegations against Mr Usmanov are correct, but whether you should have a right to hear about them and whether the promise of the internet can be shut down by an affronted oligarch. It is one thing to expect a single post to be withdrawn, although even this is unconscionable if it results from straightforward goldplated bullying by a plutocrat. But to take down the whole site is outrageous. Fasthosts is not a free service: you pay to register the website, and you to pay for the web hosting. Whatever contractual stipulations they might use in their defence, Fasthosts ought to be compelled to defend the internet access of their customers and specifically to restore the websites in question. (Update: looking through the Google cache of some of Murray’s articles mentioning this, I see that the service providers repeatedly edited his posts after threats from Schillings).

Update: this is all over the UK blogosphere, e.g. Chicken Yoghurt, Curious Hamster, Pickled Politics, Harry’s Place, Tim Worstall, Dizzy, Iain Dale, Ten Percent, Blairwatch, Davide Simonetti, Earthquake Cove, Turbulent Cleric (who suggests dropping a line to the FA about Mr Usmanov), Mike Power, Jailhouse Lawyer, Suesam, Devil’s Kitchen, The Cartoonist, Falco, Casualty Monitor, Forever Expat, Arseblog, Drink-soaked Trots (and another), Pitch Invasion, Wonko’s World, Roll A Monkey, Caroline Hunt, Westminster Wisdom, Chris K, Anorak, Mediawatchwatch, Norfolk Blogger, Chris Paul, Indymedia (with a list of Craig Murray’s articles that are currently unavailable), Obsolete, Tom Watson, Cynical Chatter, Reactionary Snob, Mr Eugenides, Matthew Sinclair, The Select Society, Liberal England, Davblog, Peter Gasston Pitch Perfect, Adelaide Green Porridge Cafe, Lunartalks, Tygerland, The Crossed Pond, Our Kingdom, Big Daddy Merk, Daily Mail Watch, Graeme’s, Random Thoughts, Nosemonkey, Matt Wardman, Politics in the Zeros, Love and Garbage, The Huntsman, Conservative Party Reptile, Ellee Seymour, Sabretache, Not A Sheep, Bartholomew’s Notes on Religion, The People’s Republic Of Newport, Life, the Universe & Everything, Arsenal Transfer Rumour Mill, The Green Ribbon, Blood & Treasure, The Last Ditch, Areopagitica, Football in Finland, An Englishman’s Castle, Freeborn John, Eursoc, The Back Four, Rebellion Suck!, Ministry of Truth, ModernityBlog, Beau Bo D’Or, Scots and Independent, The Splund, Bill Cameron, Podnosh, Dodgeblogium, Moving Target, Serious Golmal, Goonerholic, The Spine, Zero Point Nine, Lenin’s Tomb, The Durruti Column, The Bristol Blogger, ArseNews, David Lindsay, Quaequam Blog!, On A Quiet Day…, Kathz’s Blog, England Expects, Theo Spark, Duncan Borrowman, Senn’s Blog, Katykins, Jewcy, Kevin Maguire, Stumbling and Mumbling, Famous for 15 megapixels, Ordovicius, Tom Morris, AOL Fanhouse, Doctor Vee, The Curmudgeonly, The Poor Mouth, 1820, Hangbitch, Crooked Timber, ArseNole, Identity Unknown, Liberty Alone

Our debt to Russia

The war machine of Nazi Germany was the greatest, most finely crafted, fighting implement the world has ever seen. And what destroyed the German army, the best army in the world, was the Russians. As Ian Shaw put it:

The Russian Army was the largest in the world in World War II. Its training was simple, logistics crude, and medical facilities nearly non-existant. It also defeated the best army in the world, and produced some of the war’s best generals.

The great battles that broke the back of the Wehrmacht — Moscow, Stalingrad, and Kursk — were fought by the Red Army, and for that the world owes them a debt. As Paul Keating puts it:

The visit to Australia by Vladimir Putin is the first ever by a Russian head of state or head of government.

President Putin, who arrives on Friday, is representing Russia at this week’s APEC leaders’ meeting. Moscow’s membership of APEC is as much an accident as it is a reflection of Russia’s Far East economy.

Russia was offered a place at the APEC table, not because it was a natural constituent, but as a consolation prize by the Americans, for their having taken strategic advantage of it in the years immediately following the Cold War.

No one should ever forget that the Russians carried the primary burden of winning World War II, losing 26 million of their people in the process. More than the present population of Australia. A level of death, destruction and misery on a scale unprecedented in human history.

When Hitler failed to smash Britain with his blitz, he unleashed on Russia the full might of his army and air force, then the largest in history. What followed was carnage and human suffering on an unimaginable scale as the Russian people absorbed his ferocious power. A battering they took for four solid years before a second front was opened in the west at Normandy.

History tells us that the Russian people, with all resolution, summoned all human strength and resources to repel the Nazis, right down through the bloody battles of East Prussia and into Berlin.

Without that Russian sacrifice, Europe could never have been liberated from the west.

While the cause they fought for was evil, the German army of WW2 was probably the best army that’s ever existed — at least in modern times — and I salute them for it. And the Red Army beat them, and I salute them too.

(Link from Normblog)