Our father is the Internet and our mother is the phone camera

[MicroBalrog]

http://en.novayagazeta.ru/data/2011/063/01.html

It seemed like such a small, insignificant function. A camera. Here it is. What am I supposed to do with it? You can’t take any valuable pictures with it since the quality isn’t good enough. And if you’re not going to take pictures, why do you need it?

The cellphone camera is not a mere toy. It is a weapon of liberation.

[AZRedhawk44]

http://en.novayagazeta.ru/data/2011/063/01.html

The cellphone camera is not a mere toy. It is a weapon of liberation.

The pen is mightier than the sword, and the cell phone camera (sometimes) trumps the pistol of a jackboot.

[roo_ster]

The pen is mightier than the sword, and the cell phone camera (sometimes) trumps the pistol of a jackboot.

Depends on the game being played and against whom.

Iran, Syria, and the Norks don;t seem much effected by bad press.

[MicroBalrog]

Syria seems to be pretty affected by bad press these days. Just not in the Western sense of 'foreigners will think badly of us'.

Anyway, this is an important story. The automobile and the modern smartphone are important social markers.

In Russia, owning an automobile makes you reconsider entirely your relationship with the state. 'Corruption' transits from a hypothetical to the practical - you need to deal with corrupt highway cops and mismanaged road repair, and privileged officials too.  A Russia where 20-40% people own cars and cellphones and 50% have Internet access appears not to be manageable by the old Putinist mechanism, not in the long term at least.