Russia: LiveJournal DDoS-Attacked

Global Voices Online
Tuesday, June 5, 2007

LiveJournal's Cyrillic users are in distress again: for the past week or so, Russian bloggers have been experiencing problems when they tried to post their entries or leave comments.

Some claimed they were being censored.

LJ user insie wrote (RUS) about "political terror in LJ" on June 4:

Just a few hours it was impossible to post messages that contained the following links: "ru_nbp", "nbp_ru" [NBP is the National Bolshevik Party], "ru_politics" и "dрni" [DPNI is the Movement Against Illegal Immigration] (the last one is written with the Russian "p" because Latin script is still not being let through). It doesn't matter what my attitude toward NBP or DPNI is. What's important is that a purposeful pressure on democracy is taking place and the citizens' constitutional right of free access to information is being limited.

Since plenty of apolitical bloggers were also unable to use their journals, it wasn't easy to accept censorship as the reason for the blackout. But Russian politics is behind the current crisis after all.

Here's an explanation (RUS) from a representative of Sup, the Russian online media company running the "Russian-speaking" segment of LiveJournal in partnership with Six Apart:

[DDoS Attack]. Official reaction from Six Apart

According to the explanations we've received from Six Apart this morning, a powerful DDoS-attack is being carried out against the LJ servers in California since Friday, June 1. The source of the attack is allegedly located in Russia. Servers are receiving 50,000 requests per second. The attack's main goals are dрni, ru_рolitics и ru_nаzbol communities. To resist the attacks, the LJ administration introduced filtration of incoming packages and limited access to the server for large blocks of Russian IP-addresses beginning last Friday. These are temporary measures that had to be taken. Technical services of Six Apart decide on the specific lists of words and addresses to be blocked, taking into account the analysis of incoming requests.

These filters make it impossible to post LJ entries and comments that contain the words "ru_рolitics," "dрni" и "ru_nbр."

[...]

Needless to say, there's an avalanche of comments to this post, dealing both with the political and technical aspects of the issue, but here's a translation of just one thread (RUS), which begins with a serious question and evolves into an absurdly comical exchange:

natias: I'm not a member of the communities and organizations mentioned above, but I'm still not able to post anything. When will this ban be over?

beri_llii: "When the oil runs out, and our president dies..." (c) [DDT, a Russian rock band]

Around that time.

v_katin: An "A"

supmaker [a Sup representative]: As soon as the programmers of Six Apart stop the attack. Otherwise, LiveJournal servers would've been dead for everyone.

welgar: Nowadays, it's not enough not to be a member of "these organizations." You have to publicly renounce NBP, DPNI and ru-politics (only once, still, thank God), and the copy of your renouncement should be sent to this address: fsb@fsb.ru. Then they'll restore your LJ access, as well as NTV+ [satellite channel], and, possibly, even hot water. [Hot water is turned off for a few weeks every summer in most cities in Russia and Ukraine, allegedly to allow maintenance and repairs.]

natias: Thanks. I do have NTV and hot water =)

But why just once??? What if the copy doesn't reach the addressee)))

welgar: Renounce three times then and request a delivery confirmation for the letter.

grajo_che: And while doing that, don't forget to cross yourself three times in front of the portrait of Putin wearing a KGB lieutenant's uniform ))

heleknar: Damn! Are you sure they'll turn hot water back on? I'd renounce my membership in anything for hot water! :)

welgar: Well, that depends on how sincere you are in your renouncement...

Russia: Dissenters' March in Samara

Global Voices Online
Saturday, May 19, 2007

On Friday, police at Moscow's Sheremetyevo Airport prevented Russian opposition leaders Garry Kasparov and Eduard Limonov from boarding a flight to Samara, where they planned to take part in the Dissenters' March, scheduled to coincide with the Russia-EU Summit. A number of other opposition activists and journalists didn't make it to Samara as well that day, and Kasparov's aide Marina Litvinovich (LJ user abstract2001) was one them. Here's what she wrote (RUS):

[...] I've just returned from Sheremetyevo-1, where they didn't allow us to take our 9 AM flight. We were released around 1:45 PM, only after the 1:30 PM flight to Samara had departed (we, of course, didn't have tickets for it, and we couldn't buy them without our passports [that were taken away by the police], and moreover, they were not letting us out of the waiting lounge). [...]

Despite the absense of Kasparov and Limonov, the opposition rally did take place.

LJ user insie (Stanislav Sazhin) attended and posted his photos here and a 27MB video - here (WARNING: both links are bandwidth intensive). Below are excerpts from two of insie's May 18 posts (RUS):

01:57 pm

The situation around the Russia-EU Summit is incredibly banal. "Potemkin Villages" is what it's called. Mr. Putin thinks that Merkel and company are a bunch of idiots if he hopes that by showing Russia's presentable side he'll manage to deceive the European leaders. And this exactly is the goal of all the latest actions, which are more like state terrorism.

First of all, all who in some way had been revealed to have something to do with the marches were hunted down in a rude and mean way on their way to Samara. And they aren't even looking for reasons to detain. They give no reasons. They just detain and that's it. [...]

The second stage is no less intricate and smells even worse because of that. All the Summit's guests are transported from the airport to the site of the event ... on helicopters! Yes, on helicopters, to keep them from seeing the Russian reality, so that they didn't notice the empty villages, broken down roads, rusty cars. And you know what - I've seen it all on the way from the airport to the city today. [...]

What is the regime thinking of - does anyone really believe that the European leaders aren't aware of the way things really are in the country? Is Putin really sure that it's possible to [embellish the truth] of his crimes [...] by ordering all villagers to stay away from their garden plots during these days (yes, so that they didn't spoil the view)? [...]

This morning, I saw for myself how the arriving passangers stood in line at Samara international airport. But it wasn't an ordinary line, no. People were being searched. Their personal passport information was being read aloud and they were forced to wait. Those who complained were rudely admonished. [...] Every last name was openly checked against some printed list. And they were openly saying this: "You aren't on the list of undesirable persons, you may go!" The very fact that citizens of the Russian Federation can be undesrable persons in the Russian Federation - this needs no further comment, I guess.

[...]

07:10 pm

Streets leading up to the fountain on Osipenko blocked, empty asphalt, lots of water cannons and gloomy policemen on every crossing: each step I was making in this sleepy kingdom led me to think that soon I'd see Something. Something that all these special services are so afraid of.

But I failed to see it. Didn't see it! From afar, it seemed as if young people were getting drunk near the fountain. The only thing that seemed to ruin this idyllic Friday afternoon were the [Imperial flags] [...].

[...] Near the fountain, there were about 200 people - merry, relaxed, happy young faces, enjoying the sun [...]. These people waved flags, chatted, and the already familiar black banner of the Other Russia was in the vanguard. I thought - are civilized rallies possible in Russia, withough fights and hysteria? The police were barely visible. They encircled the square loosely and were also present all the way along the street up to the embankment.

But this was nothing compared to the April clashes in Moscow and St. Petersburg. This was victory. The first and last one this evening. The regime decided against using harsh measures [...].

Journalists were slightly less numerous than the young people, mainly photographers - I've counted at least 150 people. Plus the usual old women, sympathetic city residents and the coalition's leaders (those who had not been caught) - all in all, 500 people or so.

[...]

And then the farce began. At the command of the cheerful guy Yura [...] all these folks moved along the street. It bacame clear right away that the people had gotten too relaxed in the sun, as they kept refusing to march, and didn't chant anything, and felt more like taking a merry walk and chat on various topics.

Yura and his assistents were screaming menacingly at them, the column rearranged shoulder to shoulder again, but their slogans subsided after two or three times, and the straight rows were beginning to stray apart once the leaders looked the other way.

Special respect to journalists. There were so many of us! Photo and video cameras literally surrounded the marching protesters. [...]

A crowd of onlookers as large walked along on the sidewalks and small paths - they didn't have it in them to join the march, but they didn't want to walk away either. What if the fighting starts - you gotta watch it from the first rows!

So this is how we walked cheerfully to the embankment [...]. By then, some of the onlookers had decided to join the march. It all looked pretty funny - half-naked girls with guys or mamas, elderly women, men in suits. Democracy! [...] All in all, I'd say there were about a thousand people.

Despite the quantity, the march still failed. The chants were kind of weak, and only the [National Bolsheviks] were yelling them, and the rest were silent. These phrases that we've already heard a million times are boring. "Russia Without Putin" - yes, I agree, but is there some other way to say it!?

[...]

For the next half an hour, there were boring speeches on the same subjects, and in the hellish heat, and without a microphone (the police did not allow to use amplifying equipment). The same slogans were being repeated over and over again. The boredom was diluted only by a woman from Belarus [...]. She was harshly critical of Lukashenko, and it turned out that there were many of his supporters in the crowd. [...]

The great finale of the evening were the handshakes between the rally's leadership and the leadership of the local police [...] - all went great, not a single person has been detained. And really, no one wanted to fight in such heat.

And would they want to? The regime has achieved its goal - it eliminated the backbone before it reached Samara. And the rest turned out to be ineffectual, to tell the truth.

My verdict - a great walk, great company, great acquaintances and smiles, no march, no politics. Simply a great evening.

Russia: Dissenters' March in Moscow (1)

Global Voices Online
Tuesday, April 17, 2007

The volume of blog coverage of the weekend's rallies in Moscow and St. Petersburg is truly overwhelming - as overwhelming, perhaps, as the number of riot police (OMON) deployed from all over Russia to disperse the opposition's Dissenters' March. But nowhere near as shocking.

Below is the first installment of links, accompanied with snippets of text translated from Russian. (Please note that many entries - arranged in no particular order - link to bandwidth-intensive content.)

- LJ user mnog (photos):

Don't feel like writing.

Photos (more than 50 (about 6 MB) )

- LJ user insie (other bloggers' photos, text):

[...] In the backyards near Tverskaya, I was surprised to discover little streams of people, who chose this path as the best, just like I did. In the backyards closer to Pushkinskaya, I saw trucks with OMON, police officers giving threatening orders via walkie-talkies, fire trucks and an ambulance. People walking nearby were on their cell phones, saying something like this: "See you later, unless I get detained." Made me feel uncomfortable. [...]

- LJ user serni (photos, video, text):

Disclaimer: I was present at the Dissenters' March out of curiousity only.

[...] When people moved forward, trying to break through, yelling, "There are more of us," the regime's forces produced sticks right away and started beating everyone who was in their way. It was the first time that I saw the enraged OMON fighters, walking towards me with sticks in front of them, beating everyone left and right. By miracle, I avoided the blows. It felt like a parachute dive. [...]

- LJ user dolboeb (photos, text):

Some OMON fighters, in the Ninja Turtles' outfits, looked appropriately intimidating and photogenic, but the pointlessness of their being there, their walking back and forth, seemed to tire both them and the audience. [...] As background for portrait shooting, the police looked great, I think.

- LJ user plushev (photos, text):

[...] We only got there at the very end of the rally, when they were no longer detaining or beating anyone - all were polite and respectful. The main and, basically, the only impression that I had the time to get was that they send A LOT OF young [police] women to work at rallies. Students of the police school, that is. Many were very beautiful, even in their ugly uniforms. Didn't manage to get a close shot of anyone - [my camera is too slow], and the girls were shy, they were turning away and asking not to photograph them.

- LJ user m_gaidar (text):

When they were taking me away, I called 02 [an equivalent of 911] and told them that I and a group of 20 people have been unlawfully kidnapped by people in uniform. The girl [operator] got very frightened and asked: "Where are you?" In a bus near Pushkinskaya, I replied, and the girl just hung up on me. I called again and asked her to introduce herself and register my call, because people in camouflage were taking us all in an unknown direction. She asked again where we were detained. I said, on Pushkinskaya, and she sign with evident relief and said: "Well... you know... here... We are just having a special operation there! Nothing to be scared of." A special operation against whom - against me?!!!!!! And what do you mean it's nothing to be scared of - for whom nothing scary? For you or for whom?!!! The girl was definitely feeling uncomfortable... said, please call the boss [starshiy]. "What boss?" I asked. "The one in camouflage," she replied. Okay, I see, you are all together in it, I said and hung up on her myself this time.

Anyway, I've now got a phone call from the prosecutor's office and they invited me to come tomorrow at noon to 19 Petrovka, to Boluchevskiy Sergei Anatolyevich and answer questions about my phone call. I said I'd come with journalists and a lawyer. They replied: "Yes, sure! Come with whoever you want..." Anyway, if anyone want to come along - write me. [...]

[A RIA-Novosti photo of m_gaidar's detention is here.]

- LJ user okalman (text):

I'm going to the March tomorrow... For many reasons. I disagree with the Other Russia, too, among other things, but I'm still going. [...] I don't like Kasyanov, nor do I like Kasparov, and even less so do I like Limonov. But if in the 1990s everyone wisely concluded that Yeltsin was a [Communist] party official and why would I go to the White House "for Yeltsin"? - then we'd still be living under Communists. [...]