[VitalKoshalew]

> These BBSs were part of the FidoNet7 network, a Russian network of BBSs that used software compatible with FidoNet but independent of its political structure. ... In 1997, a “newsgroup” was established at “fido7.su.hardw.support.arvid”

This is technically incorrect. The BBSes were part of the "official" FidoNet [1] network, Zone 2. Fido7 was mostly post-Soviet (and not just "Russian") project to allow migration from PSTN to InterNet as a carrier. Also many "official" FidoNet nodes had additional InterNet channels which could even prevail traffic-wise over PSTN lines, one couldn't have a purely InterNet-connected FidoNet node without any PSTN presence, as that would violate FidoNet Policy (specifically, adherence to Zone Mail Hour (ZMH) [1]). ZMH was considered a core requirement for a FidoNet node (pretty much everything else was optional) and there was no consensus on dropping this "tradition".

Fido7 project was created with a goal of resolving the issue of ZMH by establishing an additional Zone 7 as an overlay to the existing 6 Zones of FidoNet, that would allow for existence of InterNet-only nodes without modifying Policy for the existing Zones. The project was never accepted as part of the "official" FidoNet structure, but for technological reasons it outlived the "official" FidoNet.

The author is referring to Google mirror of "fido7.su.hardw.support.arvid" "newsgroup". In reality, this was a Fido7-provided mirror of the original "SU.HARDW.SUPPORT.ARVID" ("echomail conference-group" names were traditionally capitalized) where "SU" stands for "Soviet Union". In reality, it was a post-soviet conference-group hosted by backbones of FidoNet Regions that belonged to post-soviet countries. Such mirrors were created by Fido7 project in an effort to promote FidoNet beyond "old school" PSTN-bound community. These newsgroups (with double prefix, such as "fido7.su.") did not belong to Fido7 itself but were forwarded from the "official" FidoNet to Fido7 and then presented as UseNet newsgroups and archived by Google which resulted in confusion that led author to think this was Fido7 content.

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FidoNet