The Iron Curtain - possible farewell
The title says it all, but I'll try to give a recap of the past couple of years and the insight from the POV of anti-wAr civilian of Russia (at least my experience).
And yeah, it's gonna be a really long post so buckle up.
So unfortunately things keep looking more and more sour and unpromising.
But first lemme apologize to everyone: friends, followers, customers - anyone, for keeping you all in the dark. But the things are that I as a common simple citizen cannot do much in a current state of things. Yeah, with you-know-what-kind-of-event is going on a lot of things have taken place.
At first there were limitations (in terms of accessibility to many platforms) that at first could've been dealt with by switching to a different language in your device system (primarily switching to English) did the trick allowing to access the said restricted platforms. Then the initial ban caved in: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter (ahem X), YouTube, WhatsApp, even IbisPaintX and many others were affected, leading up to us, common folk, jumping into the craze of VPN usage.
Now here's the thing. Originally the government folk suggested that VPNs wouldn't be banned unless the said usage of those would lead up to intentional search for restricted extremistic materials, in other wording using VPNs for WhatsApp, YouTube or whatever wouldn't be considered as an illegal act. BUT, yup a huge but, those were the empty reassurings, because at the end of the day (roughly a couple of months before, at the time of making this post) VPNs began to fail or being banned one after another. Now you may be asking - what's the big deal? Don't you have the alternatives? I and my relatives tried some of those: either it's a slop, non functional, also restricted or non avaliable to the 3rd parties.
Speaking of the 3rd parties - our only source of connection were the international messengers that either later became banned in Russia or to the others in the counties where they reside.
With VPNs being banned one after another it became kinda a wild goose chase: downloading new VPN only for it to be banned in a couple of weeks/months. Not only that but also said services couldn't access every single banned platform, network etc.
As of now the situation is getting worse: the threat iron curtain is weighing more and more. And now, at the time of writing this, the government has officially stated that their massive banning measures (both VPNs and various services) along side with localizing the internet in Russia for a period of time (personal note: it's not gonna be temporary but vice versa, I tell you).
And yeah, there was a case of Iron Curtain before back at the times of Soviet Union, but the current one is worse 'cause of the fact that majority of our people have relatives outside Russia (families of mixed nationalities living separately and abroad or refugees from Russia escaping from the b.s. that is taking place in there) and the only means of contacting the are being cut off.
Why don't you leave Russia like some of your kind did? Not everyone can: homesickness, fear of being treated like dirt or worse by others for the horrors that some of us didn't cause, health issues, language barrier (mostly applied to the older generations) - there's plenty.
Why don't you oppose to your leaders? Directly - there were such people, but the stakes of involving your relatives into a far worse hellhole are glaring. Indirectly - we tried, but who would've believe a Russian claiming they didn't vote for P. on keeping being a president? None of you, it was proven.
I know, this post is dragging a lot. As of the remainder of this post here are some of my personal hiccups as of late regarding this whole mess.
At some point, about two-three years ago I nearly ended up being unemployed. Why? Because I wished to have nothing to do with Russian military forces. Due to my work experience some of the job advertisers contacted me with their job listings. And guess what: majority of said listings were one way or another connected to Russian military forces. Heck nah, I still hold the grudge over that fact that Russian bomb landed near Warsaw, threatening my bestie's life, so hell no. At some point one of the workplaces required full transparency regarding relatives, which is a big NO for me for the safety of my refugees relatives.
New laws and more censorship being implemented (or being a high topic of discussion before implementing said ones): most glaring is anti LGBT+, anti child-free movement (a nuance that everyone is being affected, even those who cannot bear children of their own either by being sterile or 'cause of other health issues), an enormous list of blacklisted services or medias for over 50 maybe more pages (some of said censorships and bans being downright absurd: like the Disney's "Inside Out" being banned for propaganda of LGBT+ and depicting the "moira's"/higher intellectual beings manipulating humans as marionettes).
Not even mentioning the bunch of new restrictions regarding the finances, card transactions etc or the infamous Telegram/WhatsApp "killer" known as MAX.
So where does it lead? Simple - in the current state I cannot access anything by any means (it's a miracle that Tumblr is accessible at all), nor I have any international alternatives. Telegram is most likely also will be banned (it's already barely functioning), IbisPaintX - add-required features are inaccessible and the app itself is barely functional or constantly crushing, Cara - the only hope of IG analogy and free Glazing is unavailable at all - pretty much everything sooner or later will be cut off. At this rate we'll be back to the times of texting via e-mails.
And trust me - Russian knock-offs or "analogies" don't worth your time or attempts of using them. Not only of how badly they function, but also for the sheer fact that if you do use them - your data and personal info WILL be leaked, that is 100% fact.
Okay, I know, this is quite a "manifesto", a gibberish of an "enemy of everything and everyone".
Even if this is it, the last time in the near future that I made an appearance in global network I just want to apologize again and extend my gratitude.
It may sounds absurd but truth be told that all those years (probably since 2009, cannot recall exactly) of interaction with people from all over the world has brought me the fondest memories that my locals folks never did at all. So if this is my last post ever I want to thank you all: fellow artists friends, RP buddies, gamer bros etc for the fond memories.
If this whole nightmare will be over I hope to return back to global net, start drawing again etc. But as of now there are high chances that Russia will cut itself off from everyone.
Sorry for dragging this post to an extreme length.
My wording may look like an empty wording, an attempt of twisting others' perspectives of current events, but I needed to get it out of my chest.
Possible farewell and stay safe everyone.
Shizu/Daria is out.
...They keep implementing the white listing of approved internet services (that leads to almost or complete mobile internet shutdown without a chance of a refund).
None of the services worked during 11.12.25-12.12.25 and now white listing tests have returned as of 14.12.25. Only selected few (this few that you can count on fingers) actually functional.
And on top of that the shitheads want to implement the law forbidding usage of foreign wording in Russian language, not limited to English but with any other languages as well.
So apparently even Imo and Tumblr also becoming banned under the iron curtain bs.
Cannot tell for sure if this last reblog will reach it out but I hope it will.
In another words this means goodbye...
Yeah, it's hard to say this but it's truth. I just dunno what else to do: health issues and financial situation (not to mention that our kind ain't welcomed anywhere anymore) won't allow me to live abroad so leaving the country is out of question.
To try to get back to the "origins"? Only to come pack to the viper nest full of toxicity and hostility even for a simpliest absurd things.
