[GarySpFc]

It exists. The infrastructure is there. Is it invoked? Perhaps not (or prehaps, only selectively). But it exists.

And what solid evidence do you have that the Russian Internet has a firewall? The only evidence you have is in your vivid and wild imagination. The FSU fell before the Internet was up and going.

[jb6]

Considering the amount of hackers in Russia, just how long would you give the firewall of Russia? I'd say within a month it would look like swiss cheese.

[GOP_1900AD]

RE: The FSU fell before the Internet was up and going.

100% wrong. The internet was well underway by 1990. Where do you think email and web addresses of the type "somedude@someplace.co.su" and "www.someplace.co.su" came from?

Oh and one other thing. I actually worked for several years at a tech company that was one of the earliest ones into the USSR, back during the Gorby period. We were dealing specifically with the internet there. Oh, but I know, I am just imagining things ...