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Russia bans the word "dollar"

blog.foreignpolicy.com — Russia's defense minister called the dollar "that thing you are not allowed to say" while discussing sales of military equipment to Venezuela. Today, the economy minister almost used the word dollar, corrected himself by announcing a statistic as "700 million rubles," and then added "30 million not rubles" instead of 30 million dollars

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  • Anubis2051, on 10/12/2007, -15/+39Russia is slowly transforming back into the USSR.
    • Artifez, on 10/12/2007, -20/+9Putin wants ascendency, the easiest way is dictatorship, he's on his way.
    • snypa, on 10/12/2007, -20/+4Such petty little comments really piss me off. I agree, it never really transformed much either.
    • pilot3033, on 10/12/2007, -7/+45Reported as innacurate.
      Russia banned state officals from refering to ANY currency by anything other than "ruble".
      Stupid law, but at least it's equal (banning the 'euro' and any other currency as well).
    • tanxadillo, on 10/12/2007, -12/+4One can only hope...
    • Noah0504, on 10/12/2007, -10/+3Well, I think Paul McCartney would have an opportunity for a tour...
    • jaken, on 10/12/2007, -24/+398 diggs and on the front page?????

      This is proof that Digg, I mean slashdot, I mean diggscape is NOT what it claims.
      I call B.S.!

      Fix it -
      or.....
      Don't make false claims!
    • scott1, on 10/12/2007, -11/+5You might want to read the article. Russia banned govment officales form using forigen words to describe currency(ex:dollar,euro). They just limited freedom of speach on themseleves.

      But yeah they are slowing turning back into coummism.
    • doctabu, on 10/12/2007, -2/+22In Soviet Russia, dollars ban you!
    • Software2, on 10/12/2007, -1/+13"The Soviet Union? I thought you broke up!"
      "That's what we wanted you to think! HA HA HA HA HA!"
    • szelij, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6What Pilot said. Its a stupid law..but shrug its Russia. And what can you expect when your president is a former KGB man? Sweets and roses? Democratic rallies in red square?

      Russians don't care if Putin is turning them back to the USSR, as long as the economy prospers they'd be happy.
    • dagonweb, on 10/12/2007, -4/+1Hmmm sweet, they are weaning themselves away from the dollar *happydance* soon the $$ is gonna go crash and flush. Love it.

      And all these murrcans going on obliviously, ranting in their moral superiority, they are all clueless *laughs* ohhw what sweet reckoning when the US will be bankrupt.. I will be sitting front row with popcorn as the riots scourge US main street. Televised on BBC. Rhaaah lovely.
    • AlbertV, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2> Russia is slowly transforming back into the USSR.

      At least they are slowly moving away from democracy. But USSR was undemocratic (communist) left and current Russia is instead moving to the right, in a bit worrying and undemocratic way.
    • Narrator, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2Well, A high ranking defector in the early 80s predicted that the end of the Soviet Union was just a strategic retreat and they'd be back in business after they'd caught up economically and technologically with the west. Everybody thought he was a lunatic.

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anatoliy_Golitsyn

      "As history has now proven, about 94% of his predictions from his 1984 book "New Lies For Old", have happened; putting Golitsyn in a class of his own in this area of the intelligence community."
    • TeraByteTyrant, on 10/12/2007, -6/+1This is the came kinda ***** that made apple employees not call the ipod an "mp3 player" or Nokia's gang not call their phones "phones".

      This is also inaccurate.

      I live in Russia, and im here right now, and its alot better then america
    • vanillafudge, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3If people would read the article and follow the links provided by the article they would see that the government was against this proposal, Putin in particular. Seems to me like Russia is just attempting to protect it's culture and language. This happens in many European countries. With the widespread use of English in the world and the Anglicization of the media, many countries are afraid that their language will one day disappear, so laws are created to protect the language from being diluted. France in particular have laws that any new word must be translated into French (Internet, email) and in Germany (mostly) all new films are dubbed in German before they are shown.
    • diggduggjoe, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2It is so disappointing. They never made a perfect break from communism, but had the chance to keep going forward. However, they put a fascist in power and down they go.
    • tidu, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1LOL "Diggscape"... nice try.

      netdigg is more like it.
    • Insolent, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Actually it's moving towards being like the US, South American governments, and African governments. Corruption, corruption, corruption. You can buy anything in Russia, including fake police plates that they hardly check for that let you drive down the middle of the freeway as if an emergency vehicle. They also let you speed heavily on freeways. Judges generally accept bribes so lawyers never know until a few minutes before if they win or lose. At least, this is the case in Moscow.
  • johndi, on 10/12/2007, -2/+43Would you like some Freedom Fries with your Coke? The whole things is silly, but we have done some things that are similar.
    • pwill, on 10/12/2007, -1/+21From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_fries

      "Politically-motivated euphemism like this is reminiscent of anti-German sentiment during the First World War, when sauerkraut was renamed liberty cabbage, and hamburgers, liberty steaks. Even the German measles were instead called liberty measles."
    • steve693, on 10/12/2007, -15/+4hamburgers are german? Weird.
    • kalisphoenix, on 10/12/2007, -1/+13Liberty measles. *****, I'd forgotten about that.

      Sounds like a folk song.
    • Agraek, on 10/12/2007, -2/+10That's almost like Bush Ketchup.
    • Sukino, on 10/12/2007, -0/+22@steve693
      There is this city (quite a big one) called Hamburg, but nevermind ...
    • mcduarte2000, on 10/12/2007, -12/+2Hamburg is a city in Germany! Hamburger was born there.
    • ImTheDarkcyde, on 10/12/2007, -2/+8high five for freedom fries actually having a wikipedia entry O_O
    • mrASSMAN, on 10/12/2007, -0/+9not a surprise at all.. everything has a wikipedia entry.
    • blackjack75, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4"There is this city (quite a big one) called Hamburg, but nevermind ..."

      They probably changed the name when the first McDonald opened there!
    • nofxjunkee, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1And he means everything!
      SFW (no photos) -- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_penis_size

      You crazy yanks down south and your freedom fries. I forgot about that. Does anyone actually use the term though? I hope not. Isn't it funny how french fries are not french, and hamburgers are not from hamburg? We have language issues in English... draught beer anyone? no? too cold? it is a bit drafty.
    • idonthack, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1@mrASSMAN
      Seven, in fact. Two still need writing.
      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Everything
  • friend18, on 10/12/2007, -11/+24Putin is a badass. Didn't he say something like "We don't want the Democracy Iraq has." OWNED!
    • geekee, on 10/12/2007, -14/+6Yeah, he's more of the Saddam school of leadership. Less dead people in the streets, that people know of.
    • dagonweb, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Hah, Saddam was a good CIA apprentice.

      There's no thing as superpowers blaming each other for being part of some axis of evil, it's so 1984 retro.
  • DeathStrawberry, on 10/12/2007, -13/+3So they'll use our currency, but not call it by the right name?
    • pwill, on 10/12/2007, -1/+11The Ruble is not the same as the US Dollar. The current Ruble (The Seventh Ruble) was created in 1998, and is still in use today. Please use Wikipedia next time :)
      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_ruble
    • nofxjunkee, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1iamcitizen: surely they use US dollars if they're talking about them. could it be that a country uses more than one currency? what a novel idea.
    • DeathStrawberry, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I'm aware of the difference, but come on... 30 million "not rubles"? Why talk about dollars at all? Just say "rubles" and let everyone else do the conversion, if you hate dollars so much.
  • goat77, on 10/12/2007, -9/+3uhh... down with the reds?
    ...
    oh.
    I guess not...
  • golhra, on 10/12/2007, -12/+2I wonder what kind of punishment entails for a civilian to say "dollar" if he/she is caught.

    To the Gulag! Hell, hope not.
    • kalisphoenix, on 10/12/2007, -9/+3It can't be any worse than life in general for the average Russian for the past, oh, two hundred years.
    • rolosworld, on 10/12/2007, -7/+5probably Zangief will give them a couple of Final Atomic Buster's
    • JW00000, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2"When speaking in public, including to the media, members of the government must not use foreign currency terms [...]"
      Obviously, this law doesn't prohibit people from using the word "dollar", it can simply not be used by state officials. It's a bit the same as the "courrier electronique" used by the French government insted of e-mail.
      Below, Rince said: "Russian people had lost faith in the ruble up to an extent that companies were even paying out salaries in dollars. The Government has decided to revive faith in the ruble by strengthening it and it seems to be working. To us outsiders it may look a little bit ridiculous, but if you imagine how the people would react if the US deficit would be counted in Euros."
      Normal people can still use it, but in the government rubles have to be used. It's the same as if the US government would start calculating in euros, as if they wouldn't trust the dollar. Now there's a law to reinforce the trust in the ruble.
  • themckay, on 10/12/2007, -9/+2What do you expect from an ex-KGB operative? http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/415124.stm if you didn't know he was KGB.
  • Kericr, on 10/12/2007, -3/+20You know what sucks about the edit button? You can't delete your posts.
  • JohnBoySligo, on 10/12/2007, -4/+3putin was elected after being up for election more times them is legal
  • andrebrown, on 10/12/2007, -11/+6Let's all have another big round of applause for communism.
    • kalisphoenix, on 10/12/2007, -4/+8They're capitalists now, which is working about as well as Stalinism was.
    • tanxadillo, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4I resent that.
  • eatdontsendspam, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2If you read the article it says nothing of a "ban". It's just some official saying, ohh i can't use the word dollar. I highly doubt he is being serious, that he is not allowed to use the word, and if he slips well than, oh crap he's commit ed a crime.
    • andrebrown, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1@kallispheonix
      I guess you missed the joke.
  • trakais, on 10/12/2007, -1/+9inaccurate and all wrong. they simply said that the government must use rubles to make statements about amounts of money. the word dollar is not banned
  • lived666, on 10/12/2007, -3/+6Don't the French do this all the time? They require the government to use "courrier electronique" instead of email to stop people from using english
  • Laibcoms, on 10/12/2007, -5/+2Lol I agree, Russia is slowly taking the USSR path. This time not as a communist country and not as a union, but as a "democratic dictatorship country".

    Though I understand why not to use 'dollar', since many countries nowadays want to compete head-on with the USDollar, there's EURO, and there's the 10-30 years from now - the Asian Money for the ASEAN+3+3.

  • icefrakker, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1what a load of *****. i thought calling french fries freedom fries was a load of *****, and now the same kind of retardedness is a law in russia

    and why are most of the comments bashing on putin? i mean hes not a best guy but the issue isnt really about him.
  • GutshotJimmy, on 10/12/2007, -5/+1It makes you wonder if the people in some of those eastern countries just don't WANT to live free. Try forcing people to use "rubles" or banning the internet in the west and see how fast the "***** that"s roll in.
    • Laibcoms, on 10/12/2007, -2/+3Wait, Russia isn't part of the Eastern world ;) It is officially part of Europe ;) Thus Western world.

    • SimonGray, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4@ Laibcoms

      *cough* Eastern Europe *cough*
  • icepick314, on 10/12/2007, -3/+0how much is that in Peso or Lira?

    LOL
  • Rince, on 10/12/2007, -1/+13The origin of this is quite simple.
    Russian people had lost faith in the ruble up to an extent that companies were even paying out salaries in dollars. The Government has decided to revive faith in the ruble by strengthening it and it seems to be working. To us outsiders it may look a little bit ridiculous, but if you imagine how the people would react if the US deficit would be counted in Euros.

    BTW. the French have a traditional high regard for language as one of the instruments of culture. The philosophy behind it is that it if there is a word in your own language that is good enough to describe a concept then you use it. A similar policy is used by the Flemish on Dutch words.
    • Laibcoms, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7Very well true. It is the same here in the Philippines. Back in the 90s, the Filipino word "Dwende" was adopted into English to refer to the Filipino mythology of people who are as tall as a regular adult's palm, who are usually related to "ghost stories".

      We have Filipino words (Tagalog, Bisaya, Davaoeno, etc.) that specifically refer to something which has no English translation, we use those words, and more often than not, those words are one-by-one being adopted as part of the English language by the English linguists association.
  • Pushkin, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2In 2004, the prices in Moscow restaurants were in euro, only the total on the bill was in rubles. Very confusing...
  • paulzov, on 10/12/2007, -5/+0Russia hates the dollar?! Well the dollar hates Russia back!

    Stupid law, obviously its taking one step forward, and 2 steps back, at this rate, it's gonna be back to USSR times in not time at all!
  • Epimetheus, on 10/12/2007, -3/+0Russia: what future?
  • stuartr, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2"30 million not rubles"

    Double plus ungood for plain speaking.
  • SmeRndmGy, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Not to put too fine a point on this, but that's ***** stupid.
  • atmicrat, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1They should ban the word "sober"
  • Breakdown05, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1msaleem don report stories inaccurately! No Digg4U
  • jo42, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I call my money "pesos" because that is what it feels like my dollars are worth sometimes...
  •  

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