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Russian Wikipedia Tampering

From The Interpreter:
Russians Scramble To Edit Wikipedia So The Kremlin’s Claims Make Sense
16:24 (GMT)

As we reported earlier, the Kremlin now says that flight MH17 was “tailed” by a Ukrainian military Su-25 aircraft during much of its flight over Ukraine. As we pointed out, this claim may be physically impossible since Russia says that the Su-25 was consistently between 3 and 5 kilometers away from MH17, but the Su-25 can’t fly high enough to have this claim make any sense.

Well, today the Su-25 has been given some significant upgrades — at least on Wikipedia. Several IP addresses that track back to central Moscow appear to have edited the maximum altitude of the Su-25 from 7 kilometers to 10 kilometers to match the flight path of MH17.

One such IP address that made such a change appears to use the “ROSNIIROS” ISP (Russian Institute for Public Networks) and, according to one IP tracking service, is associated with an organization called “JSK IT. Information Technologies Co.”

Another address that made this change is also from Moscow and was tracked back to the “Closed joint-stock company Telecommunication company.”

We have not translated the full transcript of the Russian press conference yet, but according to an editor for the Russian Kremlin-operated propaganda network RT, the claim is that the Su-25 can briefly climb to 10,000 meters (though there’s no indication of this capability on the manufacturer’s website).

This goes to show that Russia is concerned about public opinion in the West if she goes so far as to change Wikipedia to make tailing of MH-17 by a Su-25 feasible. This is not aimed at convincing governments, this is aimed at convincing keyboard warriors, such as myself.

Except, I don't disbelieve everything I read in the mainstream media. I cross-correlate and match against the historical record. Also, as of yesterday, I've also been listening to an audiobook of the methods of the Russians (this includes the Russian Empire, the Soviet Union and now Russia) in Disinformation :Former Spy Chief Reveals Secret Strategies for Undermining Freedom, Attacking Religion, and Promoting Terrorism. Definitely an eyeopener, and something I'd recommend to everyone. Fr Z is currently reading it and published a bit from it on his blog in this post : Divide et impera: KGB influence on Middle East violence.

What I find incredible and almost difficult to believe is the sheer number of people involved in disinformation to the West during the Soviet era.  Many of those organisations set up by the KGB are still in existence today.  Maybe I'll have to buy the Kindle book as well, so I can more easily quote from it.

Comments

  1. You have a shocking case of Russophobia Lucia.

    You do know your book " Disinformation :Former Spy Chief Reveals Secret Strategies for Undermining Freedom, Attacking Religion, and Promoting Terrorism" was written by a Romanian, who never worked for the KGB but the Romanian Securitate. who defected in 1978 and spent most of his working life working for the CIA.


    What scares me is that immediately this plane went down is that Russia and Putin were tried and convicted before any facts were known.


    And the facts despite the bellicose roaring from the usual suspects do not support this. in fact that is why there is so much bellicose roaring, to drown out the voices of reason.


    The problem is those doing all the shouting are painting themselves into a corner and that is how major wars start.


    Now the bodies are on their way to the Netherlands, the black boxes are going to Malaysia and there are radar tracks, satellite pictures, electronic intelligence and hopefully we will find out what really happened in a cool calm and rational manner.


    On the other hand we may end up with WW3 given the voices of reason are being drowned out by bellicose roaring and there are forces in this world who actually want WW3

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  2. I do have a shocking case of Russiophobia. On that we can agree. I think I caught it when Russia invaded Crimea and it's come on a lot stronger now that Russian backed rebels have shot down a passenger plane and are backpedalling like crazy to make it look like it wasn't them.

    Until then, and even during the recent Olympic Games in Russia, I was willing to put aside my wariness. But it was there all along, and given my family history, I'm sure that's not surprising.

    If WWIII happens, it will be because Russia has overstepped and overprovoked the West. At this point, it's still repairable, but I doubt that Putin will do what is necessary to de-escalate. It's a pity, really, because my recent reading shows me that the bulk of Russians are not behind him - but what can they do in the system in which they live?

    I am surprised that you are on his side and not theirs.

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  3. The Russians didn't "invade" Crimea Lucia - the Crimean's declared independence and asked to join the Russian Federation as a Federal Republic, which is what has happened.

    The peninsula was secured with ex Ukrainian forces who removed their insignia identifying them as such and who then for the most part then joined the Russian Army after Crimea was incorporated into the Russian Federation.

    The land bridges which join Crimea to the mainland were secured by Berkut - the special police of the Ukrainian militsiya within the Ministry of Internal Affairs who had been fired by the Junta when it came to power.



    None of this is a secret.


    Be that as it may the world is actually at war and has been since February 2013 if not before as the trans Atlantic elite who control 70% of the worlds wealth loose their power in the face of the rise of the BRICS nations.


    The USA is bankrupt and borrowing a billion dollars a day, and has an eye watering 18 trillion dollars in debt which it can get away with while the dollar remains the worlds reserve currency because they can print dollars thus forcing the rest of the world to subsidize their profligacy.


    But with the rise of the BRICS, alternative currencies for international trade and alternative banking systems this is under major threat particularly from Russia and China.


    And this Lucia is why the world, not just Ukraine is up in flames and the blood flowing as the center of gravity for commerce moves from Wall Street, London and Brussels to Beijing, Moscow and Delhi.

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