Stories from RuNet Echo from November, 2010

Russia: Competing Models of Internet Politics

  30 November 2010

RuNet becomes an arena of the competition of at least two concepts of the usage of the cyberspace: "United Russia"'s formula "Internet instead of democracy" and independent, grass-roots formula "Internet as a free environment for civil society initiatives." Alexey Sidorenko analyzed the recent trends of the role of the Internet in contemporary Russian politics.

Russia: 25% of Registered Cyrillic Domains Suspended

  29 November 2010

Coordination Center for .rf (.рф) domain (ccTLD) has temporarily suspended [RUS] all domains registered by Ru-Center registrar following the scandals with the closed auctions for the most lucrative Cyrillic domains. So far Ru-Center had registered almost every fourth .rf domain. The domains will be suspended until sides will reach an...

Russia: Bashkortostan President Meets Loyal Bloggers

  24 November 2010

JournalUfa comments [RUS] on the recent meeting of Rustem Khamitov, the new president (governor) of Bashkortostan republic, with the bloggers. Only loyal bloggers were allowed to come, plus several controversial moments were cut from local TV-coverage, blogger petroffvalerij claims [RUS]. In general, Bashkortostan-based community expressed confusion [RUS] about this attempt...

Russia: LiveJournal Suspends Another Independent Blogger

  24 November 2010

LiveJournal abuse team has suspended account of Stanislav Sadalsky, an actor and a popular independent blogger. Sadalsky claims he can access his account but can't post new posts at stanis-sadal [RUS]. So far the blogger launched a new account at sadalskij.livejournal.com. It is the third LiveJournal suspension of the political blogger...

Russia: Oleg Kashin is Back Online

  18 November 2010

Oleg Kashin, recently recovered from artificially inducted coma, published the first post [RUS] entitled: “I have nothing to say now but I will thank everyone later.” A post with just a YouTube video for the song played by Russian rock-band Aquarium gathered almost 450 wishes of faster recovery.

Russia: A Selection of Kashin's Blog Posts Translated

  17 November 2010

More on journalist Oleg Kashin's case from the Anglophone Russia blogosphere: on OpenDemocracy.net, Mumin Shakirov translates and analyzes a selection of Kashin's blog posts; Sean's Russia Blog writes that Kashin “has become yet another assault weapon in a much larger political battle.”

Russia: Cartoons and Public Diplomacy

  17 November 2010

Global Chaos writes about the potential impact that the Soviet and Russian cartoons in public diplomacy: “They can even help overcome long-held preconceptions and stereotypes about the other, thus creating the space for further openness to meaningful communication and information processing.”

Russia: Controversy as Cyrillic Domains Hit the Open Market

  17 November 2010

This post is part of our special coverage Languages and the Internet. On November 11, 2010, registration for Internet domains in Cyrillic script, the writing system used by Russian and other Eastern European and Asian languages, went on the open market. Prior to this, Cyrillic domains could be registered only...

Russia: Members of the Anarchist Art Group “Voina” Arrested

  17 November 2010

2 members of the notorious anarchist art group “Voina” (“War”) have been arrested in Moscow due to accusations of  organization of a hooligan group, fontanka.ru reported [RUS]. Turning over a police car during the latest art action could be the reason of the prosecution (photo and video reports from “Voina”‘s...

Russia: Pro-Kremlin Youth Movement's Programm Resembles Nazi

  16 November 2010

Bloggers compare the programme of pro-Kremlin youth movement “Stal” (Steel) with Goebbels‘ “Ten National-Socialist Commandments.” The programme of the local branch of the movement includes such slogans as “Russia's enemies are your enemies” and “Have faith in the future” and looks like a carbon copy of the Nazi document. More...

Russia: Vkontakte Social Network Recognized by RIAA as a Pirate Website

  16 November 2010

Torrentfreak writes about the recent inclusion of Vkontakte, Russia's most popular social network, to RIAA's “Notorious Markets Review.” Site's “functionality is specifically designed to enable members to upload music and video files,” the review says. Recently, Vkontakte won a court case [RUS] against VGTRK, Russian TV-company. The court ruled out the...

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