Kublaicant

Your assessment may be true for Iran, but I don't think they can be applied to Russia:

1. Russia has very high education -- it's ranked 3rd in the world in terms of people who attend college/university.

2. Russia is a 2nd-world country, so they don't suffer from extreme poverty.

3. Russians aren't very religious.

If Google leaves there wouldn't be much difference in terms of people accessing information on the web because most Russians already use Yandex for web search anyway.

But more importantly, the Russian government is already pushing to replaced foreign tech with Russian alternatives. They're pressuring Russian companies to switch to using local internet services, software, and they've supposedly developed the ability to "disconnect" Russian internet from the rest of open internet. So, if/when they're ready, they will do so. So, I think the point I'm trying to make is that the internet as a platform for information isn't some sort of catalyst for democracy. Russian people are smart and educated, but the authoritarian regime is as strong as it has ever been.