September 22, 2021

What's Worse: Unsympathetic Aliens or Interfering AI?


What's Worse: Unsympathetic Aliens or Interfering AI?

“The App Store portal: who regulates it? Artificial intelligence, people from Mars?”

– Andrei Klimov, Russian representative of the executive authority of the Perm territory

In a bid to protect Russia’s sovereignty during this week’s State Duma elections, Senator Andrei Klimov questioned Apple representative Daria Yermolina about the App Store’s regulations. The Russian government summoned both Apple and Google to the Temporary Commission of the Federation Council for the protection of state sovereignty. The government claimed that Apple and Google’s refusal to remove the “Navalny” and “Smart Voting” applications from the App Store and the Google Play digital store amounted to interference in Russia’s elections. The “Smart Voting” application listed State Duma candidates likely to win against state-backed contenders.

Following the committee hearing, both Apple and Google removed the applications from their stores.

 

 

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Some of our Books

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Faith & Humor

A book that dares to explore the humanity of priests and pilgrims, saints and sinners, Faith & Humor has been both a runaway bestseller in Russia and the focus of heated controversy – as often happens when a thoughtful writer takes on sacred cows. The stories, aphorisms, anecdotes, dialogues and adventures in this volume comprise an encyclopedia of modern Russian Orthodoxy, and thereby of Russian life.

The Little Humpbacked Horse
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The Little Humpbacked Horse

A beloved Russian classic about a resourceful Russian peasant, Vanya, and his miracle-working horse, who together undergo various trials, exploits and adventures at the whim of a laughable tsar, told in rich, narrative poetry.

93 Untranslatable Russian Words
December 01, 2008

93 Untranslatable Russian Words

Every language has concepts, ideas, words and idioms that are nearly impossible to translate into another language. This book looks at nearly 100 such Russian words and offers paths to their understanding and translation by way of examples from literature and everyday life. Difficult to translate words and concepts are introduced with dictionary definitions, then elucidated with citations from literature, speech and prose, helping the student of Russian comprehend the word/concept in context.

Murder and the Muse
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Murder and the Muse

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Little Golden Calf
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Little Golden Calf

Our edition of The Little Golden Calf, one of the greatest Russian satires ever, is the first new translation of this classic novel in nearly fifty years. It is also the first unabridged, uncensored English translation ever, and is 100% true to the original 1931 serial publication in the Russian journal 30 Dnei. Anne O. Fisher’s translation is copiously annotated, and includes an introduction by Alexandra Ilf, the daughter of one of the book’s two co-authors.

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Survival Russian

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The Moscow Eccentric
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