[lucker]

The only retaliation I can think of that would be both proportionate and ethical would be to hack secret data of the Russian leadership and release at least part of it to the world public. The Russian government is accused of two things: hacking and creating fake news. Assuming that the allegations are correct, a perfectly mirrored response would include hacking and fake news. However, it would be unethical for America to create anti-Russian government fake news of its own. So the only part of a mirrored response that would be appropriate is hacking followed by an at least partial public release of the hacked data.

[walrus1066]

No need to create fake news, the corruption in Russia is insane, it goes straight to the top, involving vast amounts of public money. Putin's net worth may even be in the 100's of billions (http://cnnpressroom.blogs.cnn.com/2015/02/15/putins-net-wort...).

Life is tough for the man on the street in Russia, they wouldn't be happy knowing the entire government is profiteering at their expense.

All the US would need to do is flood vkontakte, news comment boards etc, with repeated facts of corruption, as Russia has been doing many years now in the West.

[SonicSoul]

it's pretty insane. Ths is supposedly Putins new castle

http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/putins-palace-this-russian-presiden...

[conanbatt]

The poorman does not need someone to teach him he is getting screwed

[walrus1066]

Russians are aware of corruption at the local level, but not that of the highest level, nor its scale.

They might tolerate it if they themselves were getting better off, a social contract of sorts. But if people are worse off, and they know it's at least partly due to oligarchs and Putin enriching themselves, at their expense, Putin may find his grip over the people isn't as ironclad as he may think.

[tr1ck5t3r]

You only cite one source of propaganda. Perhaps you have not realised that propaganda works both ways, a bit like being forced to play for the school sports team because you cant go to another school to play for them instead.

Why do Russian oligarchs move their money outside of Russia?

Have you considered all sides of the argument?

[walrus1066]

Could you elaborate? Are you implying Putin is clean, or that the western govts are as corrupt as his?

[tr1ck5t3r]

The US cant launch a cyber attack from known US IP addresses because this would be too obvious and easy for Russia to block. So the US would need to hack computer systems in other countries to cover their tracks. Ergo the US Govt is dragging innocent entities (members of the public/businesses/Govts) from other parts of the world into a cyber war which could escalate into a real war considering the Cold War2.0 rhetoric thats being put about by the media who also happen to like to play both sides and fuel people's bias and cognitive dissonance.

I'm not suggesting Russia is any better or worse than the US or any other country but scientific data and other known facts can lead others to conclude differently.

The fundamental flaw for humanity is the belief that hierarchical forms of governance are best, when all the science shows that people in power become corrupted especially when they set the laws that allow the deniable op's and other coverups.

Perhaps the best metric to consider for a balanced least corrupted society is the difference between the richest and poorest in that society. In other words, the less social cohesion you have the greater the corruption. Considering the US has the richest people in the world, the data suggests the US is the most corrupt nation on the planet.

And with the US now hacking the world whilst it tries to hack Russia whilst blaming Russia, I refer back to my analogy about being forced to play for the school sports team whether you like it or not. Its the same problem migrants face, no one asked to be born and no one asked to be born in a repressive country or a country where the psychopaths rule the roost.

So does the above now make you think these sociopaths who like winning popularity contests (what else is an election) enjoying tricking and misdirecting people who dont think through the consequences?

Perhaps its high time to start Questioning More as the Russia Today tag line suggests. In other words dont be so easily led or to put it even more bluntly stop behaving like a dog fetching the stick your master keeps throwing you.

[pentae]

Pretty sure the US already tried to do that with the Panama Papers.