Stories from RuNet Echo
Popular TikToker Nekoglai tells of torture by Russian police
The TikToker's example shows that videos with some political and oppositional content may be as popular among young audience as entertainment ones.
Shallow grave: Putin’s dictatorship is slowly killing Russia's main opposition leader Navalny
Putin’s main critic and the Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny, has survived an assassination attempt, but now the regime is slowly killing him by harshening prison conditions.
‘We were born in a situation of hellish urgency’: How the Russian Feminist Anti-War Resistance Movement works
This grassroots, spontaneous movement has become the largest network in Russia for anti-war propaganda and assistance to refugees deported and persecuted by the authorities.
Eight months of ‘fakes’ and ‘discreditation’: How the Kremlin’s new laws against anti-war dissent are applied online
Censorship and political repression are not new to Russia, but, in 2022, they reached new heights. Alongside new digital tools, new legislation allows the state to expedite and industrialise the repression of dissidents.
Activists predict homophobic and transphobic violence in Russia, but most avenues of escape are slammed shut
The law on prohibiting "propaganda" from the LGBTQ+ community might trigger homophobic and transphobic violence. Time is running out, and the plea to help needs to be urgently heard.
‘Call them by their names’: Stories of Russian anti-war political prisoners
In March 2022 the Russian parliament passed amendments to the Russian Criminal Code allowing for real prison terms for an anti-war stance. Some people now face up to 10 years in prison.
Russian social media users now also want to say no to war while not actually saying it
Russians have to revert to language of allusions yet again if they want to continue anti-war resistance.
Ukrainians and Russians turn to Twitter memes about Elon Musk, but this time the tone is no longer humorous
Ukrainians, disappointed in Musk's "peace" proposal, are posting various, sometimes horrific, war scenes with the previously humorous sign "How do you like this, Elon Musk?"
Russians fleeing Putin’s war face long border queues, overpriced flights, fear, and uncertainty
Ticket prices out of Russia are soaring and bordering countries are braced for an influx as an estimated 700,000 young men have left the country since Putin's announcement of mobilization.
The great escape from Russia: Live on Russian Twitter
An estimated 260,000 Russians, mostly men, have left their country since September 21 when President Putin declared a "partial mobilization," Most of the ones fleeing cross land borders to Georgia and Kazakhstan.
Unfreedom Monitor Report: Russia
Advox research into digital authoritarianism in Russia is now in a report. Read an excerpt and download the full pdf.
War in Ukraine is fundamentally changing the relationship between the internet and geopolitics
Russia's invasion of Ukraine confirmed what internet and war scholars have long predicted: the line between civil and military reality is being erased, further fracturing the world along "sovereign internets."
Rethinking the Crimean Tatar national movements through magical realism
Orientalist and writer Renat Bekkin presents his view on the national movement of the Crimean Tatars in his book “Ak Bure”
“Roosyan Klassiks”: An interview with Slovak writer Daniel Majling on Russia's cult authors and the current cancel culture
Slovakian writer Daniel Majling unpacks the notion of cancel culture in regard to Russian literature, and shares his views on the danger of ethnocentrism in this debate in this interview.
Disinformation 2.0: Should we bring the notion of propaganda back into public discourse?
Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, the unintentional spread of disinformation added a burden on health services when the rise of conspiracies was evident beyond the anti-vaccination movement.
The Republic of Buryatia: invasion of Ukraine is an extension of Russia’s domestic dominance over the country's ethnic minorities
Despite constituting a small portion of the Russian population, ethnic Buryats have become scapegoats during the war in Ukraine. Political solidarity is vital, to move past Russian historical abuses.
Central Asia celebrates Victory Day amid Russian pressure
In Putin's Russia, the victory over Nazi Germany became instrumental in legitimizing the regime, suppressing political dissent, and pursuing an aggressive foreign policy, including the war in Ukraine.
In Russia's invasion of Ukraine, cyberwarfare is a decisive element of the battlefield
The information war in Ukraine has only just started but already citizens on both sides are saturated by their government’s propaganda and left without balanced information.
The Ukrainian Marshall Plan: Norman Foster, central banks, and Russian yachts
Much of Ukraine’s vital infrastructure has been destroyed, costing an estimated $500 billion. Plans from using seized Russian assets to relying on international architecture firms like Foster + Partners have been suggested.
Do Russian classics need a new interpretation after Russia's invasion of Ukraine? Interview with scholar Ani Kokobobo
Should Tolstoy and Dostoevsky be approached and read differently in light of Russia's invasion of Ukraine? While some weaponize them, other would like to see them cancelled.
How Russians are protesting the war in Ukraine from a totalitarian state
Russian citizens have drawn graffiti, left objects on the streets, and found creative ways to voice their dissent under the constant threat of punishment.
