Stories about Russian from December, 2010
Kazakhstan: Echo of the OSCE Summit
Since mid-2000s Kazakhstan was craving to head the Organization for Cooperation and Security in Europe, OSCE, the largest international pro-democracy organization on the continent. The bid was criticized by some...
Russia: Regional Minister Hired Through Internet

A new minister for information technologies of Russia's Ulyanovsk region has been found through Internet [RUS]. Elena Balashova, 35, was one of 2,563 people who submitted their online applications for...
Russia: Author of Wildfires Internet Meme is Prosecuted by Police

A blogget top-lap, an author of a famous blog post [ENG] demanding “rynda” from Vladimir Putin and criticizing the state's response to Russian wildfires closed his blog [ENG] and disappeared....
U.S.A.: Liveblogging in the Middle of New York Storm

A Russian Livejournal blogger Etotam can't reach his home for two days due to snow storm in New York. He is liveblogging and posting pictures [RUS] from his car in...
Russia: How Vladivostok Christmas Tree Craziness Made Me Laugh

People in Vladivostok never lose their sense of humor. Otherwise one would be in the perpetual state of depression. They laugh about everything from nerve-racking traffic jams and alarming snow situations to Christmas tree arrangements and new taxes on the imported Japanese cars.
Russia: Is Internet Guilty of Organizing Nationalistic Riots?

Russian media and blogosphere ponder who is responsible for the nationalists’ riots in Moscow in mid-December. But the authorities found their own scapegoat – the Internet.
Russia: List of Regional Governors’ Online Tools

“Vedomosti” newspaper, published [RUS] a detailed list of online tools of Russian regional governors. The list includes links to personal websites, blogs, Twitter accounts, Facebook profiles, and even YouTube channels.
Russia: Media Coverage of Manezh Riots

A Good Treaty posts a detailed review of the Russian press coverage of the Manezh riots in Moscow.
Belarus: Tweets and Pictures of Another Post-Election Rallies

Despite Twitter has been blocked in Belarus, the Twitter hashtag #electby is updated every second. Lots of photos of the Belarus events available at picfog at the same hashtag.
Belarus: Users Are Redirected to Fake Opposition Websites

Habrahabr-user webdew reports that Belarus users are being redirected to fake opposition websites: gazetaby.in, nnby.in, charter97.in, bchdd.in, belaruspartisan.in, euroradio.in, ucpb.in, svaboda.in. The design of all these websites is the same but the content is completely different...
Belarus: Presidential Election Day Ends in Protests and Crackdown

December 19, the 2010 presidential election day in Belarus, ended in mass protests, arrests and violent clashes with the riot police in Minsk, the capital of Belarus. Below is a small selection of citizen media reports on what happened.
Belarus: Gmail, Twitter, LiveJournal, Facebook and other Sites Blocked

Belarus government blocked all major social media (Gmail, Twitter, LiveJournal, Facebook) as well as opposition media outlets “Charter 97“, “Belarus Partizan“, and “Solidarity“, Lenta.ru reported [RUS]. The government decided to...
Ukraine: Blood in the Parliament
On Dec. 16, a fierce fight broke out in the Ukrainian Parliament, sending at least four lawmakers to the hospital with injuries of various degrees of severity. Tetyana Bohdanova reviews blog and Twitter reactions of the Ukrainian public and politicians.
Russia: Studying Online Mobilization of the Manezh Riots

Recent riots on Manezhnaya Square next to the Kremlin showed that Russian soccer fans have become a powerful community who can mobilize thousands very quickly around an event. Last week,...
Russia: Police Intensifies Surveillance ‘to Prevent Calls to Violence’

Special services are monitoring social networks and track IP-addresses of those who spread calls to violence, rian.ru reports [RUS]. Vkontakte.ru, Russian social network, increased removal of the groups with xenophobia...
Russia: Photos and a Testimony of the Clashes in Moscow

Photo-blogger Ilya Varlamov (@varlamov) and bb-mos tweet and share photos of the current events in the center of Moscow. Tujana-jx reports a story of a skinhead assaulting an older woman in...
Russia: the Blogosphere Boils As Ethnic Clashes Flood Moscow

Interfax.ru, Russian news portal moved to manual update mode due to the overload caused by numerous ethnic clashes (so far 1200 arrested and 30 injured) in different places of Moscow,...
Russia: Google Launches Search of Russian Blogs

Google launches blogsearch.google.ru, Russian-language blog search service. One of it's functions – to display the most discussed news of the Russian blogosphere. Almost a year ago, Yandex.ru, Russia's most popular search...
Russia: A New Initiative to Release of Mikhail Khodorkovsky

Few days before the court will announce its verdict on the second trial of oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky, a new online initiative suggests to promise president Medvedev electoral support in exchange of...
Ukraine: Donbass Coal-Miners’ Miserable Working Conditions
@Matteush comments (UKR) on the Ukrainian segment of an Al Jazeera documentary (YouTube video, in Russian, with English subtitles) about inhumane working conditions all over the world, including the coal-mining...
Russia: More Photos of Nationalist Riot Near Kremlin
LiveJournal-user Zyalt [RUS] and DervishRV [RUS] published more photo reports of riots of soccer fans and nationalists that took place next to the Kremlin's wall in Moscow. After the protest has been...