Russia becoming like Britain?

Is it irritating when somebody is watching you all the time? Can you stand somebody’s supervision especially when you are working? It is high time you got used to it. More than every second Russian employee is under surveillance of “the glassy eye”. Video cameras obtrusively rush in office life, break customs and set new rules. Stay on alert!

A step to the right or a step to the left may be regarded as an escape, while Birthdays and various parties that used to be boisterous office merrymaking turned into mere tea-parties. There is no rumour-mongering in the smoking room any more, but there is more distrust and intimidation for directors. Employees miss the times when they could move around the office without leaving their chairs and play with crumpled paper balls in their free time. Colleagues became humble and hardworking; they come to work as per schedule, spend minimum time for dinner and fully devote themselves to work.

Does that sound familiar to you? Most of you work in companies equipped with video surveillance systems. As it turns out, video surveillance affects employee’s work more significantly than other control methods (wiretapping, looking through emails and reading the most frequently visited websites). p – as an attempt to fly away.

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Russia is now reporting that soon all offices will have video surveillance watching every move a person makes. The hope in this is to insure efficiency at the big corporations and offices. No hanging out behing the counter or slacking because your always being watched. Hopefully this will cut down on the slack and bring up productivity. But the plan could back fire if the people dont accept this change well.

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Free Speech is Disappearing in Russia

The murders of outspoken journalists go unsolved, independent media outlets have been shut and police have attacked opposition protesters, said the report.

It also said "arbitrary" laws were curbing the right to express opinion and silencing NGOs deemed to be a threat by the authorities. The report comes ahead of Russian's presidential elections on 2 March.


The director of Amnesty International UK, Kate Allen, said: "The space for freedom of speech is shrinking alarmingly in Russia and it's now imperative that the Russian authorities reverse this trend."

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Supposedly the restriction of free speech has been going on behind the scenes recently and the government is now saying that wish to stop it. Journalists and protesters are being silenced, and anyone who speaks out even slightly against the government pays consequences. It seems to me that the same things regarding free speech rights in authoritarian regimes are showing up in Russia. The reappearance of these actions by the government lead me to believe that the government is now fearing change, and a more democratic state. They have found themselves in the middle of their old ways and it is becoming time for them to either listen to the people and more towards democracy or keep silencing the people and trying to tend to old habits. Medvedev will be the one that will have the most influence on the direction of the country. We will have to wait and see what he will do with his new found position as president.

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