SixApart Sells LiveJournal to Russian Media Company 172
molrak writes "SixApart tonight announced the sale of journal/blogging service Livejournal to Russia-based SUP. Original LJ founder Brad Fitzpatrick has chimed in on the situation: 'This is pretty cool because - They're ridiculously excited about LiveJournal, and have been for awhile (they previous purchased advertising rights in Russia, but ended up doing a bunch of Russia-specific LJ development as well). They want to throw a lot of resources at LiveJournal in terms of product development and engineers. "LiveJournal.com, Inc." now stands alone again, focusing on nothing but LJ. Sounds like I'll have more LJ influence (via new role as advisory board member) than I've had recently.'"
Forcibly Expanding International Interaction. Yay? (Score:1, Interesting)
This also may sharpen questions as to whether a person writing in one country is subject to the laws of the country in which the content is stored. When it affects us, then we wake up.
Meanwhile....cue the 144-page GAWDDAMMIT, KEEP THEM COMMIE RED BASTARDS' HANDS OFFN MAH LAHVJURNL followups to the official LJ announcement in 3...2...1...
Re:Im wondering... (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Putinist Russia (Score:5, Interesting)
I live there. It's cold.
Yes, there are problems with the limited Russian media. However, your definition of Russia as a harsh Big-brother nation run by the local mafia is overly simple and in most cases just flat out wrong.
The mafia don't run Russia any more. Russia is controlled and run by a few very rich corporations and individuals. The number of very rich corporations and individuals is growing on a daily basis.
Dissenting voices do get heard. The problem is that most Russians don't care to listen. Most Russians don't give a shit about politics.
Putin is doing wonders for the economy. Russia is one of the fastest developing countries on the planet, and will continue to grow that way for at least the next 5-10 years. The reason Russia is controlled by one party is because that one party is doing wonderful things for the average living standards of people across the country.
In another 4-8 years, Putin's power in the Russian government will have declined, and Russia will start to move towards a true, multi-party system as all those wealthy companies and individuals step in to fill the ex-Putin void. However, in the mean time there's no reason for Russia to change, and the vast majority of Russians will be much better off if the status quo is maintained for a couple years longer.
P.S. In Russia, Gary Kasparov is a joke. And 95% of what the New York Times writes about Russia is pure tripe.
Pure Coincidence or Kremlin Shenanigan? (Score:5, Interesting)
Golos and its supporters have been maintaining a blog page at LiveJournal [guardian.co.uk]. You can read either the actual blog page in Russian [livejournal.com] or the English translation of the blog page [google.com]. It contained plenty of damning evidence showing that the Kremlin had manipulated the election.
Then, after the election concluded, a Moscow-based company acquired LiveJournal. Is the timing merely coincidence or is the Kremlin somehow connected to this business deal?
Re:ZheZhe, Russian media rules (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Putinist Russia (Score:0, Interesting)
What place of Russia do you do field work in?
Do you mean Arap or you know any other opposition figure sent to psychiatric hospital? What evidence do you have that Arap is in hospital because she is with opposition, not because she is ill?
Re:Big News! The Rest Of the World Has Money Now (Score:1, Interesting)
Soviet Union = Russia + Ukraine + Belarus + Lithuania + Latvia + Estonia + Kazakhstan + Uzbekistan + Tajikistan + Turkmenistan + Kyrgyzstan + Azerbaijan + Armenia + Georgia + Moldova
Re:Putinist Russia (Score:3, Interesting)
I'm a Putin fan because he's doing an incredible job of not wasting or misspending all those riches. The vast majority of Russia's petrodollars have gone into funding the federal budget and anything left over is invested into a massive Stabilization Fund. The government is actively promoting diversification of the economy and development of additional sectors, and most importantly, they're being VERY CONSERVATIVE with what they do with that money.
The average Russian's salary is around USD 600 per month, and that's heavily skewed by the ungodly (by Russian standards) salaries seen in a few large cities like Moscow, St. Petersburg, Ekaterinburg, etc. A teacher, doctor, etc. in any provincial town is going to be making around USD 100 a month. Maybe a bit more, maybe less.
And yet the government is sitting on top of a stabilization fund in excess of USD 150 bn. The kneejerk reaction would be to increase spending and raise the salaries of all those doctors, lawyers, teachers, etc. who get paid so little.
And that's exactly the worst thing the government could do. An influx of cash like that would seriously hamper the country's economic development and drive inflation through the roof. Rather, the government is saving those assets for a rainy day (Russia has the third-largest international reserves in the world, behind China and Japan, and is a major creditor to its G8 peers, including the USA).
The government is nurturing development of additional industries, including metals & mining (Russia's a huge steel producer, and China next door is a HUGE consumer), its utilities sector (China's also set to become a huge electricity consumer), agriculture, industrial, chemicals, technology, retail, etc. Corporate taxes are low. Personal taxes are almost nonexistent (13% flat tax across the board! Hell Yeah!!!)
While at the moment the country is still threatened by Dutch Disease [wikipedia.org], as these other industries develop further, the chance that Russia's economy could be ruined by a downward spiral in oil prices will decrease. As it stands, the Russian budget will still be balanced even with oil at USD 40 per bbl (and it's currently just shy of USD 100 per bbl). In 2006, oil & gas represented just 6% of GDP, and the government hopes to have that number down to less than 4% by 2011.
So where's all this growth coming from? It's largely domestic, and it's NOT A RESULT OF HIGH OIL PRICES. In 2006, the vast majority of Russia's GDP growth came from non-tradable services and goods for the domestic market. We're talking about telecommunications services (cell phones), transportation (airlines), banking, etc. etc. etc. And the most promising thing, is that the entirety of the non-raw-materials economy is only just now getting started. Moscow itself is really approaching the same level of living as any major metropolis (note I say approaching - there's a lot in Moscow that's in need of a major overhaul. The streets are dirty, water and electric utilities will take 30 years to overhaul, etc.). Yet one-third of Russia's GDP is produced in Moscow and Moscow region, which are home to ONLY ONE-TENTH of Russia's population.
Personal incomes are rising quickly (18% per year), inflation is high but under control (9% in 2006, 11.5% in 2007), and the ruble is slowly but steadily appreciating (which is exactly what the government should try to do). In short, the economy is growing at a healthy rate, and business is developing on its own as fast as it can, but not because of some huge cash injection from the government that would be squandered.
Russia's got its problems. There are far t
Re:Putinist Russia (Score:3, Interesting)
The answers are "Probably Not" and "Probably Nothing."
But, more on point...
I detest President Bush, but I would still take a call from the President of the United States if he were to call me. I mean, you wouldn't? And why not? Like it or not (and, in my case, it's NOT), Bush is the President. And I'm a patriot. And I'm not going to turn down any reasonable request made by our President.
Furthermore, there are LOADS of successful Democratic businessmen. LOADS. Millions of them. You're being ignorant if you think that's not the case. An obvious example that I just read about this morning is Mark Warner, former governor of Virginia and a speculative Presidential Candidate.
Besides, as heavy-handed as the Bush Administration has been, this is nothing, NOTHING like what Putin has done in Russia. To say that it is, undermines the seriousness of what Putin has done to Russia.