Free Speech in Russia?

From Brianna Howell

Russia is currently experiencing a time of rapid growth in internet usage. The Russian government is starting to use the internet to allow a form of free speech that has been oppressed within the country for decades. Dmitry Mendvedev, Russia’s current president, has been using video blogs to communicate with Russian citizens. The citizens are able to respond to the messages and create discussions on policy issues in an open forum although the government website officials have said the messages will be monitored for vulgarity, hate speech and badly written reports. It is debatable how much the government will comply with these claims but it is still a big step. Although this seems to be a minor political milestone, I believe this step toward free speech shows promising signs of government growth in the value of civil liberties. This makes the government seem more legitimate to its citizens and the global community.