Last April, Vladimir Putin visited the campus of Bauman Moscow state technical university, set on the banks of the Yauza River in the east of the city and home to some of the country’s brightest scientific minds.

He toured the campus, met undergraduates and boasted about Moscow’s ambitious plans for space missions to the moon and Mars. “You have everything it takes to be competitive,” Putin told the students.

What the Kremlin readout of Putin’s visit did not mention was a secret faculty inside the university, known simply as Department 4, or “Special Training”.

      • Matty Roses@lemmy.todayEnglish
        64·
        17 days ago

        Hey, you want to argue the world should be treating the US as a pariah state as well, I have no objection.

        The UK doesn’t quite do that, though, do they? How’s that war in Iran going?

        • Zorque@lemmy.worldEnglish
          44·
          17 days ago

          And how much is the Russian interference having on US action? Ignoring that for the obvious baddy is exactly what this interference is meant to do. You’re essentially helping them do their job.

        • Zorque@lemmy.worldEnglish
          73·
          17 days ago

          If youre a communist and youre backing Russia, youre doing it wrong.

          Now if you’re a soviet apologist on the other hand…

          There is also the evidence that this Russian interference is directly impacting how US is being run. Does that not factor into your value judgment?

          No one can, in good conscience, say that the US isnt having a significant negative impact on world stability… but obviously it’s not happening in a vacuum.

            • Zorque@lemmy.worldEnglish
              22·
              17 days ago

              Where in my comment did I back Russia?

              You’re right, you didn’t explicitly back them.

              It doesn’t have to be run by the Russian government to be affected by it. This article is about election meddling, not deep state conspiracy stuff. Do you deny that meddling? That it has had a serious impact on the US and a wide array of other countries?

              Intentional destabilization while not mucking about with actually controlling it is often times even worse, especially when it comes to as influential country as the US.

              That doesn’t mean they have no culpability… but as I said, it’s not a vacuum. There’s always more than one factor, and ignoring any in favor of only one is intentional ignorance of the worst kind.