No, Russia is not tapping into Syria's undersea internet

[Robert]

Rumours abound on odder corners of the internet that a Russian signals intelligence ship has tapped into one of the main internet cables serving Syria. Sadly for the conspiraloons, it's almost certainly not true.

Various tinfoil hat nutters on Twitter – and, rather embarrassingly, Vice Media's tech offshoot Motherboard – are claiming that the Russian naval vessel Yantar is tapping into the UGARIT undersea cable, which runs between the Syrian port city of Tartus and the island of Cyprus.

 

[redrumloa]

I hadn't heard that. It certainly doesn't pass the smell test. Tapping into fiber optics in the deep? Yeah, no.

 

[redrumloa]

It is amazing that the Russians are suddenly the new Boogeyman, and even more amazing I am here defending Russia and Putin!

How did the world get so completely and totally fucked up? How did the script get almost completely flipped from 30 years go?

Today we don't have a "Red menace", we have a "Red White & Blue menace"
Today the US is a state sponsor of terrorism, and Russia is leading the fight against terrorism!!
Today the US is one of the worst offenders regarding freedom of speech, and (by optics) Russia is a champion of free speech by comparison (we'll not go nuts here).
The US is now fairly openly either prosecuting or outright assassinating whistleblowers and/or political opponents. Russia may or may not still be doing this, but used to be notorious.

Thanks Obama/Hillary! :roll eyes:

 

[Robert]

It is amazing that the Russians are suddenly the new Boogeyman, and even more amazing I am here defending Russia and Putin!

How did the world get so completely and totally fucked up? How did the script get almost completely flipped from 30 years go?

Today we don't have a "Red menace", we have a "Red White & Blue menace"
Today the US is a state sponsor of terrorism, and Russia is leading the fight against terrorism!!
Today the US is one of the worst offenders regarding freedom of speech, and (by optics) Russia is a champion of free speech by comparison (we'll not go nuts here).
The US is now fairly openly either prosecuting or outright assassinating whistleblowers and/or political opponents. Russia may or may not still be doing this, but used to be notorious.

Thanks Obama/Hillary! :roll eyes:

Whooaahh there!
Let's not get carried away.

Russia has never been the bad guy it was presented as.
OTOH, it's not entirely the good guy either.
And your own country's problems go MUCH further back than Obama.

-EDIT-
I'd add, just because I'm happy to point out absurd, anti-Russian propaganda whenever I can, that doesn't mean I'm a huge fan of Russia, just that I don't like bullshit.
Especially when that bullshit can lead to war.