Washington Launches Twitter in Russian

The U.S. will support opposition in Russia virtually.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said that the Twitter feed from the State Department will now support Russian, Chinese and Hindi. The aim is that opposition movements can organize protest marches and fight against Internet oppression with the help of social networks, like in Egypt.

Hillary Clinton gave a speech at George Washington University on Tuesday. She said that the State Department has decided to become more engaged in web communication in Russian, Chinese and Hindi. Previously, Washington could send messages and connect non-governmental organizations and opposition movements via Twitter in French, Spanish, Arabic and Farsi, the language spoken in Iran, and in a number of other South and Central Asian countries.

With the help of the Internet, America intends to support freedom around the world. Mrs. Clinton referred to the recent events in Egypt as an example. During four days at the end of January, hundreds of thousands of Egyptians participated in demonstrations, coordinating their moves via social networks. The government tried to cut off the mobile connection and shut down the Internet but, eventually, had to relent.

With this experience, the U.S. has the intention to spread it into Russian territory. As it follows from Mrs. Clinton’s speech, State Department officials will be able to connect directly with Russian advocates and representatives of NGOs to find out whether they are under any pressure and what sort of support they need to rise against freedom of speech and peaceful assembly violations.

The U.S. will monitor threats to Internet freedom with the help of their diplomats and experts employed by the Russian Embassy and embassies in other countries. For this purpose, Washington has created a new Office of the Coordinator for Cyber Issues. Christopher Painter, formerly a senior director for cyber security at the U.S. National Security Council, will head this new office.

In total, the initiative announced by the Secretary of State largely coincides with futile attempts of well-known members of the Republican Party. Remember that the former candidate for the U.S. presidency, Sen. John McCain, warned the prime minister of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Putin, that it is possible that Russia may have the same changes as in Egypt.

During the interview with “NG,” a deputy director of the Institute of USA and Canada, Viktor Kremenyuk, gave a rather skeptic evaluation of Clinton’s initiative. “It can influence some of the youth, the Internet users. But it will not have a big impact on Russia. This initiative shows the true attitude of the U.S. toward Russia. Today, there is an anti-Russian campaign, related to the Mikhail Khodorkovsky process, gaining strength abroad. U.S. President Barack Obama would like to continue the politics of reloading and building up the partnership with Russia. But he has to be insured by means of such initiatives. Otherwise, he could be misunderstood.”*

It is thought that it would be wrong to consider that Mrs. Clinton has placed Russia in line along with all the repressive regimes. The U.S. State Department will set the communication in Hindi, but the media in India enjoys almost unlimited freedom. In addition, at least our Internet is not censored.

In the midst of revolution in Egypt, the Chinese government attempted to block the word “Egypt” in search engines. Probably, they dreaded that “the Arabian storm” could spread over to Podnebesnaya (Tianxia, literally “under Heaven”**).

Washington has actually challenged Beijing in cyberspace as well. According to the Fox News TV channel, the Broadcasting Board of Governors in the U.S. has already designed technology that successfully allows for bypassing through Chinese censorship filters.


*Editor’s Note: This quote, though accurately translated, could not be verified.
**Editor’s Note: Tianxia is a phrase in the Chinese language that denotes the entire geographical world and is associated with political sovereignty.