Stories about Russian from October, 2010
“United Russia” Ideologist Calls to Forbid Official Blogs
Alexey Chadaev, a leading ideologist of “United Russia,” calls [RUS] to ban blogs and microblogs of senior Russian officials. Chadaev explains that blogging threatens the authority of the Russian political leadership...
Russia: Blogger Navalny Tries to Prove That Fighting Regime is Fun
One of the most prominent Russian bloggers that use the Internet for fighting corruption in Russia, Alexey Navalny, gives interview to "RuNet Echo" He contemplates if the blogosphere can have a real political impact in Russia and share his further plans for using information technologies in the struggle against injustice.
Russia: Online Activism Success Stories
While Internet analysts across the Atlantic are busy arguing whether technology brings about social and political change or not, bloggers in Russia add their humble contributions to the debate, probably unaware that the debate is taking place at all. Their victories are small and not numerous; their impact can easily be attributed to statistical error - but they certainly are out there.
Armenia-Azerbaijan: Online campaigns for the return of casualties of war
A campaign represented as being organized by ‘Armenian bloggers’ has been established to demand the return of the body of Manvel Sarinbekyan, an Armenian who reportedly hung himself while in...
Armenia: Prolific blogger suspended on LiveJournal
Kornelij Glas [RU] details the case of Pigh, an Armenian blogger prolific in the mutual tit-for-tat online information war with Azerbaijan and Turkey. Speaking to Global Voices, Pigh says that...
Russia: Post-Emergency Sustainability of Crowdsourcing Projects
Gregory Asmolov analyzes the fate of the Ushahidi-based Help Map project after the wildfires have ended. What is the future of emergency projects and how can we make them more sustainable?
Kazakhstan: Governance matters
Kazakh bloggers keep on discussing their favorite topic – the quality of public administration. Megakhuimyak raises the issue of professionalism of the higher officials and says that often it appears...
Russia: Photos of Kurdish Refugees and Homeless People
At PhotoPolygon, photos of ethnic Kurdish refugees from Uzbekistan living in the woods outside Novosibirsk (by user Bender13, via English Russia), and of the homeless people in Blagoveshchensk (by user...
Russia: New Video from Primorsky Krai Guerrillas
The story of the cop-killing gang in Russia's Far East continues, and Masha Egupova analyzes the new content.
Russian Newsweek Closes
Closure of Russian Newsweek provoked a lively reaction [RUS] among bloggers. One of the reasons for it is that the majority of Russian Newsweek's staff had blogs. Photomans posts [RUS]...
Russia: Photos of Children's Camp Decorated as a Social Network
Habrahabr user goodsprite posts pictures of the children's summer camp. Author, who worked at the camp, claimed that children had to register in Russian social network Vkontakte.ru. Photos depict camp's...
Caucasus: Armenian, Azerbaijani, Georgian opposition parties in cooperation agreement
The Armenian Observer features a guest post from Uzogh [RU] on news that opposition parties in Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia have signed a declaration on cooperation. The local blogger, however,...
Russia: Videos of Election Fraud in Rostov Region
LJ user serg757 posts several videos that show various fraud cases at the recent regional elections in Rostov region.
Russia: Blogger Calls for Help to Expose Corruption in Public Procurement
Blogger Navalny calls [RUS] IT-specialists for help in exposing corruption in online projects of different government structures. The last case led by Navalny helped prevent stealing over $1,8M from the...
Russia: The Twitter Craze. This Time, It's a Worm…
Russian officials in a tweet-o-drama over... a worm.
Russia: Review of Online Record Labels
Habrahabr-user frony posts [RUS] a review of Russian indie netlabels, online record labels that publish songs with Creative Commons license. Genres include hip-hop, alternative, as well as classical music.
Russia: Music Battle Over the Khimki Forest
Masha Egupova writes about the Khimki Forest dispute and the role that some popular Russian musicians play in it.
Russia: Moscow Mayor's Dismissal and Some “Kremlinology”
The dismissal of Moscow mayor Yuri Luzhkov on Sept. 28 inspired Anglophone Russia bloggers to write about Putin, Medvedev, Sechin, the 2012 presidential election, Luzhkov's wife and her business, and even Chicago mayor Richard Daley.
Kyrgyzstan: Cast your votes!
The October 10 parliamentary elections in Kyrgyzstan are likely to be the freest and fairest in the country's young history. As such, they offer a perfect opportunity to test the...
Russia: Another Calendar – and Questions – for PM Putin
The Moscow Diaries writes about another calendar for Vladimir Putin, which was created in response to the “boobies-for-Puties calendar” by a different group of female students of MGU's journalism department...
Russia: Bloggers Meet With Iranian Ambassador, Avoid Sensitive Topics
The meeting of Russia's top-bloggers with the Iranian Ambassador in Moscow three days after Hossein Derakhshan had been sentenced to 19.5 years of imprisonment for "anti-government propaganda" highlighted the clumsy attempts of the Iranian online diplomacy in Russia. It also showed commercialization and excessive cynicism of some of the popular Russian bloggers.
