Андрей Солдатов - The Red Web - The Struggle Between Russia's Digital Dictators and the New Online Revolutionaries

Steve Gutterman, “Russia’s Putin Brings ‘Gray Cardinal’ Surkov Back to Kremlin,” Reuters, September 20, 2013, www.reuters.com/article/2013/09/20/us-russia-surkov-idUSBRE98J0VK20130920.

Surkov first used the term “sovereign democracy” on February 22, 2006, in a speech before the Russian political party United Russia. According to Surkov, sovereign democracy is “a society’s political life where the political powers, their authorities, and decisions are decided and controlled by a diverse Russian nation for the purpose of reaching material welfare, freedom, and fairness by all citizens, social groups, and nationalities by the people that formed it.” See also Masha Lipman, “Putin’s ‘Sovereign Democracy,’” Washington Post , July 15, 2006, www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/14/AR2006071401534.html.

Andrei Soldatov and Irina Borogan, “A Face in the Crowd: The FSB Is Watching You!” OpenDemocracy, November 15, 2011, www.opendemocracy.net/od-russia/andrei-soldatov-irina-borogan/face-in-crowd-fsb-is-watching-you.

In spring 2007 Estonia had angered the Kremlin with its decision to move a Soviet war memorial out of the center of the capital. After a massive nationalistic campaign against Estonia in the Russian press, on April 27 Russian hackers launched a series of cyber attacks on the websites of the Estonian government, parliament, banks, ministries, newspapers, and broadcasters. Most of the attacks were the distributed-denial-of-service type. Estonian foreign minister Urmas Paet accused the Kremlin of direct involvement, and Estonia requested and received NATO assistance in responding to this new form of aggression. But Estonia failed to present proof of the Russian government’s involvement, and in September 2007 the country’s defense minister admitted he had no evidence linking cyber attacks to the Russian authorities. Two years later, in May 2009, Konstantin Goloskokov, one of the “commissars” of the pro-Kremlin Nashi movement, admitted to the Financial Times that he and some of his associates had launched the DDOS attacks on Estonia in 2007. See Charles Clover, “Kremlin-Backed Group Behind Estonia Cyber Blitz,” Financial Times , March 11, 2009, www.ft.com/cms/s/0/57536d5a-0ddc-11de-8ea3–0000779fd2ac.html#axzz3QDihM3bC. In September 2013, Novaya Gazeta journalists infiltrated the “trolls factory” and published the investigation. The “factory” was based in a mansion near the rail station Olgino, outside of St. Petersburg, and was led by Alexey Soskovets, once involved in Nashi and Molodaya Gvardiya. See also Alexandra Garmazhalova, “Gde zhivut trolli. I kto ih kormit” [Where the Trolls Live. And Who Feeds Them], Novaya Gazeta , September 9, 2013, www.novayagazeta.ru/politics/59889.html.

Nathan Hodge, “Kremlin Launches ‘School of Bloggers,’” Wired.com, May 27, 2009.

These two cable operators were Akado and Stream, owned by Victor Vekselberg and Vladimir Evtushenkov, respectively.

Mikhail Zygar, interview with authors, August 2014.

Julia Ioffe, “Net Impact,” New Yorker , April 4, 2011, www.newyorker.com/magazine/2011/04/04/net-impact.

Navalny blog, “Kak pilyat v Transnefti” [How They Are Sawing at Transneft], November 16, 2010, http://navalny.livejournal.com/526563.html.

“Pravila zhisni, Alexey Navalny” [Rules of Life, Alexey Navalny], Esquire , December 2011, http://esquire.ru/wil/alexey-navalny.

Kremlin.ru, transcripts, Speech at Meeting with Russian and Singaporean Business Communities, November 16, 2009, http://eng.kremlin.ru/transcripts/10449.

“Pravila zhisni.”

Transcript of the meeting of the National Antiterrorism Committee, February 22, 2011, http://eng.kremlin.ru/transcripts/1804.

Video of Putin’s remarks in Votkinsk, YouTube, www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tr-jIPUZPOk. Also see “Russia’s Putin Sees No ‘Logic or Conscience’ in US Air Strikes on Libya,” Interfax , March 21, 2001, and “Putin Likens UN Libya Resolution to Crusade Call,” RIA Novosti , March 21, 2011.

Josh Halliday, “Hillary Clinton Adviser Compares Internet to Che Guevara,” Guardian , June 22, 2011, www.theguardian.com/media/2011/jun/22/hillary-clinton-adviser-alec-ross.

Andrei Soldatov and Irina Borogan, “The Russian State and Surveillance Technology,” OpenDemocracy , October 25, 2011, www.opendemocracy.net/od-russia/andrei-soldatov-irina-borogan/russian-state-and-surveillance-technology.

Yuri Sinodov, interview with authors, April 2011.

On June 2, 2010, the service invited tenders for contract No.147/I/1–133, worth up to 450,000 rubles, for the procurement of software. The contract called for an information-analysis system called “Semantic Archive,” produced by the company Analytic Business Solutions.

Denis Shatrov, interview with authors, September 2011.

Natalia Sindeeva, interview with authors, August 2014.

Medvedev’s appearance on TV Dozhd, YouTube, www.youtube.com/watch?v=SwmvvjyhXmY.

Mikhail Zygar, interview with authors, August 2014.

Komsomolskaya Pravda radio broadcast, August 1, 2011.

Zygar, interview with authors, August 2014.

Alexander Podrabinek, “Boris Nemtsov on the Rokirovka in the Tandem: It’s the Worst Scenario for Russia,” RFI, September 24, 2011, http://ru.rfi.fr/rossiya/20110924-boris-nemtsov-o-rokirovke-v-rossiiskom-vlastnom-tandeme-eto-khudshii-stsenarii-dlya.

Nemtsov visited the United States on September 15–16, 2011, to take part in a panel at the Harriman Institute on the Russian elections. The video is available at YouTube, www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZemHhZcpKsQ.

Grigory Melkonyants, interview with authors, June 2013.

Ilya Azar, “Karusel slomalas” [Carousel Is Broken], Lenta.ru, December 4, 2011.

Lev Gershenzon, interview with authors, January 2015.

Grigory Okhotin, interview with authors, June 2014.

Ilya Klishin, interview with authors, October 2014.

This account is based on authors’ interview with Parkhomenko, Klishin, and Saprykin, January 2015.

Stanislav Sedov, interview with authors, July 2012. See also Andrei Soldatov and Irina Borogan, “Big Brother, Little Drones—Protestors Beware,” OpenDemocracy, July 23, 2012, www.opendemocracy.net/od-russia/andrei-soldatov-irina-borogan/big-brother-little-drones-protestors-beware.

Nossik’s post, https://dolboeb.livejournal.com/2242130.html.

Andrei Soldatov and Irina Borogan, “The Kremlin and the Hackers: Partners in Crime?” OpenDemocracy, April 25, 2012, www.opendemocracy.net/od-russia/irina-borogan-andrei-soldatov/kremlin-and-hackers-partners-in-crime.