Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg visited Russia last week and met with Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev.
The event had a lot of coverage in American media. Here is the New York Times report on the event.
Another report even contains a video of Zukerberg’s meeting with Russia’s Prime Minister Dimitry Medvedev.
Some materials appeared in connection with Zuckerberg’s visit in Russian media which were not mentioned in American publications.
Several days ago research by former Kremlin official Constantine Kostin was published. It claimed that 5 of the 20 most popular websites in Russia, including Facebook, had U.S. owners and the share was growing. In Kostin’s opinion, this situation poses a national security threat to Russia.
Most of Russian papers and sites considered Zuckerberg’s visit part of a big American campaign aimed on stealing from Russia it’s “brains”. Zuckerberg arrived after Russian Roman Andreyev won Facebook’s recent Hacker Cup. Andreyev completed the given problem at hand in one hour and four minutes, winning $5,000. Russians believe that Zuckerberg plans to lure Roman Andreyev and other Russian computer geniuses to America.
The most typical and symbolic Russian publication in this connection is the Internet post of orthodox priest and writer Alexander Shumsky, copied by many Russian Internet sources. Below is my translation of the article. In the parentheses you’ll find my comments, explaining a couple of details that outside of Russia may be difficult to understand.
Unbearable Pain
“The other day we were favored by a visit to Russia of a young American billionaire with a name and surname which speak for themself – Mark Zuckerberg (author means that Zuckerberg is Jewish) creator of Facebook. There came Zuckerberg the master, who is not too respectful of us aboriginal people. This disregard for the local population was stressed even its appearance. And dressed in a gray t-shirt, Zuckerberg was roughly the same shirt I put on after a bath under the shirt.
This disregard for the local population was stressed even by his appearance. He was dressed in a gray t-shirt, roughly the same underwear shirt that I put on under my shirt after visiting bathhouse. The American Zuckerberg was sporting this underwear, meeting with top representatives of our scientific and political establishment.
“And the purpose of his visit was a thief’s purpose. It turns out that Mark Zuckerberg came for our light heads. He needs good programmers, and other specialists. Naturally, it is, above all, young people. Someone will say: ‘ Oh, he did not forcibly takes it as their buys. Why do you call him a thief? ‘ of course, formally, Zuckerberg is not a thief, he always does, otherwise he would not have beenIt turns out that Mark Zuckerberg came for our bright heads. He needs good programmers, and other computer specialists. Naturally, they are mostly young people. Someone will say: “Oh, he did not forcibly take them, he buys them. Why do you call him a thief?” Of course, formally, Zuckerberg is not a thief, he always obeys the law, otherwise he would not have been called Zuckerberg. (Here is again the reference to Zuckerberg’s Jewishness.) But as Lenin used to say: ‘It is formally correct, in reality it is mockery’.
I think a law that permits Zuckerberg to come to us at any moment and buy all he wants is an obviose mockery. In Soviet times, this was not possible. So we’ve created a great science, flown in space first, and have produced the world’s best weapons.
“How sad it was to look at Mark Zuckerberg’s meeting with the Rector of Moscow State University, Viktor Antonovich Sadovnichy in the library of the University. Zuckerberg, of course, was adorned in his underwear and Sadovnichy was working hard to show joy on his academic face.
But then suddenly something not expected had happened. Zuckerberg produced a black sweatshirt with a hood and with the inscription “Facebook”. Sadovnichy, with a strained smile, put on this hoodie. It looked extremely stupid and demeaning. Some whippersnapper billionaire makes the eminent Russian scientist, the vice-president of the Russian Academy of Science, and a highly esteemed and venerable man, to wear a black hoodie with a non-Russian inscription!
“That was a symbolic put down of Russian science. This show caused me unbearable pain.
Alexandr Shumsky, Priest and Writer. Moscow”
Below is a diagram indicating the results of a poll measuring the desire of Russians to emigrate:
