The circumstances in Russia are more complicated and by far not as good of an example of a 1984 situation as China is.

Agreed but could be a precursor to what could become of China if a revolution like the Berlin Wall episode were to happen.

Wouldn't the "Berlin Wall episode" pertain more to the former East Germany, whose GDP per capita today is several times that of Russia's?

All in all, reunification and the fall of Communism has been very good for East Germans:

http://www.dw.com/en/germanys-second-economic-miracle/a-1797...

Please. Russia does not have a great firewall, and it's not interested in one. Pravda.ru, or the other rags it publishes isn't that much worse then CNN or Fox news. They all push hypocritical, logically unsound, nationalistic content.

Nobody's being brainwashed there - instead, unsurprisingly, people prefer to read news that paints their country in a good light, and it's antagonists in a poor one. It's the exact same thing in the US.

As long as you don't cause problems for the thieves and oligarchs in charge, nobody really cares what books you read, what news you watch.

Actually seems like they do: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_censorship_in_Russia

The US maintains no such "list" mentioned in this article.

Also, not to spin your words.... but couldn't help it here: "as long as you don't cause problems for oligarchs in charge" kind of seems like the definition of authoritarianism. "Citizens will okay as long as they don't cause problems for those with power/ in control."

The US maintains no such list, but the UK does.

Authoritarianism is always a question of degree. The degree of it in Russia is high for political activity, but much lower then it is in China for information access. You can read whatever news you want, including foreign news critical of Russia, you can use Facebook, etc.

The population is about as brainwashed as it is here.

Sry genuinely confused which pop is brainwashed? China or did you mean the US? Also I don't think the UK should have that list. The fact that the US doesn't is a major not minor detail. I'm not trying to compare and contrast the UK and Russia, I was comparing the US and Russia.

It's already in the works. Google translate this:

https://geektimes.ru/post/291709/

... Which is no different from what the UK is doing. By default, your internet use is restricted, and you have to ask your ISP to see filtered content.

Pot, kettle, etc.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_censorship_in_the_Uni...