From my days of travelling to the Russian #Caucasus, I’ve got quite a few friends there – one of them is a highlander and he’s fine, whilst the other used to work for RIA (Russian state news agency).
I messaged the first one on Telegram, but the message isn’t getting through and I don’t know if he’s up in the mountains or if the Roskomnadzor is already blocking it. So I ask the other one, who spends most of his time in the lowlands, whether Telegram works there without a VPN. And here I get this reply that sounded like read from an official government statement 😂
It depends – sometimes it’s needed, and sometimes it isn’t. On the other hand, the number of cybercrimes and scams on social media has plummeted since communication restrictions were introduced. Everything has its pros and cons.
I gather he’s probably still working at RIA 😂 Let me emphasise – it was the sort of question that calls for a yes or no answer.
If they cut off the internet for them altogether, he’ll probably send me a letter by post giving a detailed explanation of why life without the Internet has “certain disadvantages, but also advantages”.