Stories from RuNet Echo from March, 2010
Russia: High Taxi Fares And Text Messaging Scams After Moscow Bombings
The aftermath of the recent subway bombings in Moscow is widespread. People mourn victims, looks for answers to numerous questions, contemplate the future of Russia and express anger with... taxi drivers and text message scammers who seem to take advantage of the tragedy.
Russia: Witness Shares Her Account of Bombings in Moscow Metro
LJ user Karpusha was at Park Kultury metro station at the moment of explosion. She wrote on her blog about what she had seen, the lack of information after the first explosion, the shock and her attempts to help an injured woman.
Russia: Bombings Victims Commemoration; Analysis of TV-channels
Photos from the commemoration action dedicated to the victims of the recentMoscow bombings published by bloggers can be found here and here. Arina Borodina, Russian TV-expert, analyses the role of TV coverage of the bombings.
Russia: Role of Social Media in Coverage of Recent Metro Bombings in Moscow
Paul Globe writes on his blog “Window on Eurasia” about increasing role of the Internet and social media in the coverage of the recent terrorist attacks in Moscow.
Russia: Wikipedia Used to Cover Recent Metro Bombings
A popular Russian blogger Anton Nosik asks bloggers to contribute their content to the chapter of Wikipedia about terror attacks in Moscow metro.
Russia: Sochi Games and the Circassian Genocide
In 2014, the Russian resort of Sochi will host the Winter Olympic Games, but the 700,000-900,000 of ethnic Circassians living in Russia are trying their best to prevent the country from having its Olympic games in peace.
Russia: 3G Network Turned Off; Blood Donations Needed
Latest developments in Moscow: 3G networks have been turned off due to high traffic, Openspace reported [RUS]; bloggers call for blood donations [RUS].
Russia: Initial Coverage of the Moscow Subway Bombings
Moscow's Monday morning routine was broken today by two subway suicide bombings, which killed at least 38 and wounded at least 70 people. Alexey Sidorenko translates some of the initial reports from the Russian blogosphere.
Russia: Bloggers’ Mockery of Film Poster Upsets Famous Director
The poster for an upcoming movie on World War II by Russian director Nikita Mikhalkov is monumental, tense and grim. But it also became funny, descriptive and nearly offensive after numerous manipulations by several bloggers.
Russia: Blogger-Businessman Killed
Maxim Zuev (aka LJ user kenig), a blogger from Kaliningrad, was killed on March 18, rian.ru reported. Zuev's occupation was business although Kaliningrad bloggers remember him as a moderator of the kenigsberg LJ community. The motives of the murder are still unknown.
Russia: Theatre Play Based on Online Conference
Theatre director Pavel Rudnev proposed to stage a play based on the questions of bloggers to the Russian State Duma's Speaker Boris Gryzlov during an online-press conference. Rudnev admits not only high number but also inexhaustible wit of venomous questions asked by Russian netizens.
Ukraine: Fire Destroys 20% of Hosting.ua Servers
Some 20% of the servers at Odessa-based Hosting.ua data center – one of the biggest in Ukraine – are reported to have been destroyed in a fire on March 27. UkrainianWatcher writes (UKR) that “tens of thousands of Ukrainian and a number of Russian sites are currently offline” and re-posts...
Russia: Degrees and Dimensions of “Scandalous”
Sean Guillory of Sean's Russia Blog comments on the recent bribes/coke/girls video scandal: “Also, catching them bribing cops is hardly scandalous. If they offered the cops bribes and the cops refused now that would be scandalous! Anyway, isn’t the more important issue not Yashin, Oreshkin, and Fishman giving bribes, but...
Russia: Two Video Scandals
In Russia this week it has been hard to miss the two scandals that, at first, appear to have only one thing in common: both are centered around amateur videos published online. Heated discussions in the blogosphere and in other online venues are taking place on quite different orbits - which nevertheless do have one or two overlap points.
Russia: Top Blogger's Account Hacked
Livejournal account of Igor Bigdanov (aka LJ user ibigdan), one of the top RuNet bloggers, has been hacked, Bigdanov reported. The most common version of the motives of the hack – commercial. This one and several similar attacks were allegedly carried out by the so called the “Brigade of Hell”,...
Russia: Website Closed By Police Order
20marta.ru, an opposition website dedicated to the “Day of Anger” held on March 20, was closed by police after just one day of functioning, kasparov.ru reported. According to the source, the police have sent the letter informing that the website is closed due to inciting anti-government sentiment.
Russia: One of the Top Bloggers Dies
Dmitry Gorchev (aka LJ user dimkin), a writer and artist (some of his translations are here), died today in his house leaving about 13,000 readers mourn, openspace.ru reported. Gorchev was one of the first bloggers on RuNet with his Livejournal account registered in 2001.
Russia: “Drugs and Hookers Scandal”
At The Daily Beast, author Michael Idov chronicles “Russia's amazing drugs and hookers scandal,” which involves opposition activist Ilya Yashin, political analyst Dmitry Oreshkin, and the Russian Newsweek‘s editor-in-chief Mikhail Fishman: “‘Let me get this straight,’ wrote Ilya Krasilschik, the editor of Afisha magazine, commenting on a Facebook status update...
Russia-US: Towards a new Start of nuclear disarmament
Nikolas Gvosdev of The (Ex) Washington Realist reflects upon what now seems a clear road ahead for a renewed Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) between Russia and the US, signifying a breakthtrough in nuclear disarmament.
Russia: Theorizing Stalin's deportations
Otto's Random Thoughts draws attention to Robert Blauner's ideas on internal colonialism and how they could be theoretically applied on Stalin's deportations.
Is Russia an Enemy of Internet?
The degree of freedom on the Russian Internet is an issue for debates. Some put Russia on the same list of "Internet enemies" with China and Iran. Others strongly oppose this kind of generalization and claim that Russian Internet is the most liberal and unrestricted public sphere in the country.
