evidence the world has changed in the last 35 years

for the current generation of web savvy folks, finding news of different countries, including russia, is second nature. so natural that they don't think anything of it. it's just the way it is.
consider geezer's of my generation, those of us that were in the military during the cold war. we were connected in ways that the average citizen didn't even know existed. we heard things. usually back channel, often distorted. but we heard things. it gave us the feeling we knew more than our civilian contemporaries. we needed to know for our jobs.
contrast that to today. eric, over at The Sub Report has posted a couple of articles about a fire onboard a nuke submarine in a russian port. depending on who is talking, it's either a welding fire, or a training evolution with smoke generators.
i'm having a real hard time wrapping my head around this. we are hearing about an upkeep casualty? crap, when i was in the navy, we MIGHT hear about a russian sub sinking, if it did so right in front of the world's press. or if the swedes or norwegians caught a russian playing in their front yard.
but to hear about a refit problem? that was the sort of things the government hired spies for, and then only those in the loop ever heard about it.
yup, the world has changed