back to article Putin tells Snowden: Russia conducts no US-style mass surveillance

Vladimir Putin has said that Russia has no mass telephone and internet surveillance programs to compare with those in the United States. The Russian President made the claim in his annual Q&A session on live TV on Thursday, when the topic was raised in a call-in question in English by NSA-leaker Edward Snowden. "Does Russia …

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Too broke

    Not too broke to pay for their armed forces to help out with the insurgency in Ukraine. I suppose bullets and other ordinance do have best before dates - so they doing the russian army a favour, no sense in letting them go to waste

    1. This post has been deleted by its author

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Too broke

      "...according with our law it cannot exist."

      As every American knows, that means it must be true.

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Too broke

      Ordinances are a US weapon, not a Russian one - but usually turned against their own people (e.g. three strikes laws).

      Ordnance - different matter. Wasn't there a US battleship that blew up because the 40 year old charges in the magazine had become unstable? Of course, forgetting about a missile full of RFNA becomes a serious mistake after about 5 years, and nuclear warheads have a best before somewhat shorter than that. Currently, however, you can't buy short shelf life MIRVs round the back of the arms fair.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Too broke

        "Ordnance - different matter. Wasn't there a US battleship that blew up because the 40 year old charges in the magazine had become unstable? "

        The only US Battleship ever lost other than at Pearl Harbour was the USS Maine - the cause of its destruction remains unknown. Are you maybe thinking of the explosion that sank the RN battleship HMS Vanguard in 1917 which out of date cordite might have played a contributing factor?

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    "Who needs Alaska?"

    Ouch! :-)

    1. Havin_it
      Holmes

      Re: "Who needs Alaska?"

      Putin's no fool. He knows they'd make him take Palin too.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: "Who needs Alaska?"

        take Palin as in.... have an intercourse with her? OMG, she's not manly enough! And the bare chest... not enough hairs there either! And has she ever glided with cranes to guide them to their nesting habitat? No? Well, there you go, Alaska goes, Palin stays!

        1. Alan Brown Silver badge

          Re: "Who needs Alaska?"

          "take Palin as in.... have an intercourse with her? OMG, she's not manly enough! And the bare chest... not enough hairs there either! "

          I was wondering who else had noticed that those "manly-man" media exposures seemed to be the thing that a closetbound man might do to hide his sexuality (Thinking about Rock Hudson here)

          1. Vociferous

            Re: "Who needs Alaska?"

            > I was wondering who else had noticed that those "manly-man" media exposures seemed to be the thing that a closetbound man might do

            It's also the kind of things fascist dictators have done since forever to show that they're in good health and real manly men, not dying and/or weak. It is, ironically, a thin line between being a rightwing dictator eager to show how hyper-masculine he is, and being an overcompensating closet gay.

      2. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: "Who needs Alaska?"

        Surely Palin would fit right in to contemporary Russia? Anti-gay, check. Corruption allegations, check, waving guns around, check. And she'd be able to see Russia from the door of her dacha.

        OK Obama, here's a solution. Swap Alaska and Palin for guaranteed non-interference in Ukraine. Let them deal with the melting permafrost so no-one will be asking the Kochs awkward questions. And wait for Palin to run against Putin for President, and have an accident with a Po-210 bottle.

      3. John Brown (no body) Silver badge
        Mushroom

        Re: "Who needs Alaska?"

        "Putin's no fool. He knows they'd make him take Palin too."

        Ras-Putin and Ras-Palin? Together? Now that WOULD be madder than a box of frogs!

        Imagine the children!

  3. Vaidotas Zemlys

    Special services are controlled by society? In Russia? Or for that matter any country? Who is mr Putin trying to fool?

    1. James O'Shea

      "Who is mr Putin trying to fool?"

      His initials are ES.

    2. GitMeMyShootinIrons

      "Who is mr Putin trying to fool?"

      I read that line and Dad's Army sprung to mind.

      "Who do you think you are kidding, Mr. Putin..."

  4. midcapwarrior

    good old ed

    Whenever I believe my view of ed can't get any lower he ups and pulls another surprise.

    Guess he has to suck up to his new overlord.

    Hasn't his 15 minutes of fame ended yet?

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: good old ed

      > Hasn't his 15 minutes of fame ended yet?

      When are yours due to start, Mr....?

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    "Come on in" said the spider to the fly

    > "We don't have a mass system of such interception, and according with our law it cannot exist," Putin said.

    He also claimed that Russian soldiers were not on the ground in Crimea forcing the people to vote to leave Ukraine. He became so good at lying in the KGB that he became tsar

  6. json
    Big Brother

    The difference is in the face..

    Putin can tell a lie with a straight face.. while the Americans.. well they get fidgety...

    1. James O'Shea

      Re: The difference is in the face..

      See further the first image at http://www.geekarmy.com/funny-pictures/806/putin/

      Boy George Bush 'looked into his soul' and liked what he saw. But then he also liked Dick "The French Texan" Cheney and Condi 'Concrete Hairdo' Rice. Could be worse. Boy George may be the stupid Bush brother, but he's the smart Texas governor, if Rick Perry is anything to judge by.

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Under the law?

    Our special services, thank God, are strictly controlled by the society and by the law and are regulated by the law," he claimed.

    ...except for when they're murdering critical journalists.

  8. Mark 85

    No mass surveillance???

    Really? Then all those CCTV bits from the Olympics were done by private folks? Telling all the competitors and families that "secure communications" were non-existant was a lie? We in the States think we have it bad.....

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: No mass surveillance???

      > We in the States think we have it bad

      And you wouldn't be wrong.

    2. Mad Chaz

      Re: No mass surveillance???

      CCTV is not hiden and it's cheaper then trying to listen to everything everywhere. You can learn a lot more about where people do by looking at where they go.

      Plus, having a chance to take a jab at the US on human right abuse? That's like the ugly girl being called the most beautiful star at the ball.

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    like a spy to a spy

    I can tell you, with the utmost honesty, we don't. Have money. Means. Will. Or interest. In fact, we abhor spying on our (ex)friends. We would never, ever, nevereverneverever EVER do such a thing, nosir! Trust me, I'm a fucking ex-KGB and hey, just look at how honest I've been recently! Next question!

  10. Hit Snooze
    Gimp

    Meet Society and Law

    Our special services, thank God, are strictly controlled by the society and by the law and are regulated by the law," he claimed.

    Unbeknownst to most people, Putin has named his hands. The left is known as Society while the right is named Law.

  11. Graham Marsden
    Big Brother

    "Russia has no mass telephone and internet surveillance programs...

    "....to compare with those in the United States."

    Said Putin, who then muttered under his breath: "More's the pity".

    1. P. Lee
      Facepalm

      Re: "Russia has no mass telephone and internet surveillance programs...

      > Said Putin, who then muttered under his breath: "More's the pity".

      "If we still had Alaska, we could have paid for it..."

  12. Slawek

    ...and this fool Snowden is playing his part in this comedy.

    KGB colonel talks about laws governing surveillance :-)

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      > KGB colonel talks about

      Why is being a middle rank in the no-longer existing KGB somehow worse than being the Director of the fucking CIA? (George Bush)

    2. P. Lee
      Black Helicopters

      > ...and this fool Snowden is playing his part in this comedy.

      If I had that few places where I could live and be out of reach of the American "justice", I'd play the fool too.

  13. Scroticus Canis
    Big Brother

    Why would Russia need their own mass surveillance ....

    .....when they can buy/take the data from NSA/GCHQ?

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Why would Russia need their own mass surveillance ....

      you mean the Canadian 5EYE Delisle data that Russia paid many thousands of dollars a month for..

      ...meanwhile Russia's national PHORM (& PHORM2 upgrade) isn't(*) used for mass interception as it is using the FBI (actually NSA....shhh!) designed International User Requirements & Interfaces for purely Lawful Interception... just following international standards.much more at www.issworldtraining.com

      (*) actually it probably *is*, *has-been* and *will be* used for mass interception

  14. Nehmo
    Meh

    Considering Snowden's previous access privileges, he already knew the answer. And considering how he worded his question, "millions of people" , Snowden seems to have set it up for an honest (that's right) denial. Snowden was trying to show that *even Russia*, a country with an unrivaled totalitarian history, is not as bad as the current US gov (combined with the UK et el, I should say).

    Russia isn't quite the dictatorship cold-war-aficionados would have you believe. Maybe something on the scale of PRISM isn't doable in the Russian system.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      > Russia isn't quite the dictatorship cold-war-aficionados would have you believe.

      You do realize that Putin has consolidated government control under his command, Russian parliament are appointed by Putin and controlled by him. The same with generals, what the media reports, heads of big business, He rigs "elections" so he will always win (I think he studied the Norks), etc.

      How is all of this not a dictatorship?

    2. Levente Szileszky

      "Russia isn't quite the dictatorship cold-war-aficionados would have you believe. "

      Actually Russia is CLEARLY an autocratic regime, with no working democratic institutions, with a one-man leadership, oppressing dissent - many ways it's far worse than the former Soviet-style dictatorship as far as Cold War-style politics go: eg when it came to foreign policy the West was able to calculate or at least approximate Brezsnev's or Andropov's next step, even talk to them and make deals (if necessary) but Putin is a lying PoS, a typical oily, disgusting KGB rezidentura operator, his words are worthless (clearly he didn't manage to pick up the value of "Ein mann ein wort" during his German spy years...)

  15. Version 1.0 Silver badge

    Mandy Rice-Davies

    "Well, he would say that, wouldn't he?"

  16. Vociferous

    He doesn't say that at all.

    If you read what he says, he doesn't answer Snowden's question. He states that the FSB may not target INDIVIDUALS without some sort of warrant, and it's actually exactly the same in the USA. Mass surveillance is a very different beast.

  17. saif

    Even Russian hackers need inside info...

    ..and with no access to the back doors in American software, provided by the platform (windows, IE etc), or physical access to the networks of websites which mostly hosted in US (google etc) they have a tough time doing any effective cyber spying. Money is not the limiting factor, knowing the weaknesses (deliberate or discovered) is more important.

  18. Levente Szileszky

    Hah...

    ...seriously: just who is this KGB guy trying to fool with this laughable propaganda BS...? His own people? I doubt they would be so clueless - and outside of Russia nobody believes a word he says, for sure.

    It's sad to see though that Snowden is now forced to participate in this theater.

    1. Mad Chaz

      Re: Hah...

      Well, here is something to think about from outside the US. No one believes what your politicians say outside the US either.

      Before you make fun of others, look home. You will find fixing that needs to be done.

      1. Levente Szileszky

        Re: Hah...

        Except we don't get arrested or, worse, murdered if we dare to speak up, unlike your ilks do to your opposition, Comrades.

        (Please, STFU, I grew up in a Commie regime, I know your scumbag Comrades very well, there's a reason why people like don't try to emigrate to broken-ass Russia instead of the US.)

  19. Herby

    In other news...

    Sun rises in the west, and moon determined to be Swiss Cheese.

    etc..

  20. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Sure

    You'd have to be braindead or a damn fool to believe Snowden or Putin. They are both trained professional liars.

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