I was listening to this audiobook today (Revolution 1989), and started thinking about what the internet would look like in the Soviet Union. I'm not caring about how it survived, but what if it did survive until today? How would modern technology impact the Soviet Union and the Warsaw Pact?
Would they have their own internet, or be part of the WWW?
Would they have the People's News Network and RedstarSoft?
What about cellphone technology? Would they be allowed, and just how monitored would they be?
Would new computers be used to sort through these phone calls, as well as E-mails, for less-than-pure thoughts?
Would miniturization of electronics result in bugs in everything? Maybe even you own silverware being bugged?
Would certain people be tagged with RFID?
How would the Warsaw Pact react to the dissolution of Yugoslavia and the violence there? (no butterfly nonsense either, just take the question at face value please)
Would terrorism be largely the problem of the Second World? And would the CIA be supplying groups like Al Qaeda in fighting them?
Or if there was a war on terror, how would the Soviets react to the Iraq War (I have the feeling they'd be laughing themselves silly when they heard the US was going into Afganistan: "Ok Comrades, have fun.")?
What about KGB UCAVs?
Well, there is still a valid .su domain for the Soviet Union which is still used for a very few websites, though .ru for Russia is the one used for all sites created in modern times. There must have been some Internet activity for there to be a .su domain.
It is possible that the USSR would have a Minitel-type system for personal use and keep the "real" internet for scientific/military use only like Arpanet was in the USA.
People's News Network and RedStar Soft? Probably.
Cell phones had already been introduced before the fall of the Soviet Union, though only Communist Party members were allowed to have one.
Computer surveillance of e-mail and phone? Maybe targeted at certain people, but not generally. Too much manpower. Just like the telescreen society of 1984 isn't feasible. Same with bugs everywhere.
Yugo wasn't a WP member, maybe the Soviets would just let it go and use the violence as an example of why Soviet Communism is the only right kind.
Terrorism in 2nd World unlikely. They never pissed off the kind of people who would do such a thing.
Soviets were US allies in 1st Iraq war OTL. Probably would be in 2nd as well.
For a look at Internet under Communism, consider Chinese and Cuban approaches. North Korea has exactly one Internet-connected computer, guess where it is? But of course the USSR was no North Korea....