Stories from RuNet Echo from February, 2011

Russia: Bloggers Deconstruct Isolationist Propaganda

  26 February 2011

As Russia is approaching another election cycle (in 2011 Russians are supposed to elect the Parliament and in 2012 – the president) the voices of state propagandists get louder. The upcoming election process, tamed and controlled by the President's office and the ruling party "United Russia," will be happening in the context of the Arabian "Spring of Nations 2.0." This fact inspires pro-Democracy activists, as well as regime advocates.

Russia: One-Person Rallies by the Embassy of Libya

  23 February 2011

LJ user notavailablenow reports (RUS) on an hour-long series of one-person pickets held across the street from the Embassy of Libya in Moscow on Tuesday by two citizen activists, who took turns holding up a poster that read “Stop state terrorism.” First, however, the activists had to educate and argue...

Russia: Ulyanovsk News Portal Under Attack for Exposing Politician

  21 February 2011

73online.ru had been DDOS-ed for publishing compromising materials on Igor Bulanov, deputy speaker of Ulyanovsk legislative assembly. The portal published details on police detaining Bulanov and finding drugs in his car's glove compartment. After Bulanov was refused to remove the compromising publication, journalists started to receive threats while their website...

Russia: Blog Mapping Project Launches

  21 February 2011

Creators of crowdsourcing mapping service blog-map.ru ambitiously aim to “unite all bloggers on one map.” Despite many incorrectly mapped blogs, the service offers quite unusual experience of finding Russian bloggers even in the most distant places [RUS].

Russia: New .РФ Domains Could Be Sold Illegaly

  17 February 2011

The Prosecutor General's Office in Russia expressed its interest in the fact that the biggest domain registration company in Russia “RU-Center” reserved 60,000 domain names within first hours after open registration and later sold 25,000 of those in closed auctions, newspapers Kommersant.ru reported.

Russia: Recreating a Traditional Village Hospital

  16 February 2011

Mikhail Shlyapnikov (LJ user michael-077) writes in detail (RUS) about plans to set up a communal village hospital – old-style, but functional – in Kolionovo, Moscow region: “This, perhaps, is a rare case in contemporary history of rural Russia when, contrary to the general tendency, a village hospital is not...

Russia: “Danilkingate” – or “Parfyonov/Volochkova Syndrome”

  16 February 2011

Power Vertical reports on Natalya Vasilyeva, “Russia's latest whistleblower” – who “[revealed] that the judge in Mikhail Khodorkovsky's recent fraud trial was pressured from on high […].” LJ user stas-kucher calls (RUS) the scandal “Danilkingate” (after Viktor Danilkin, the judge). Journalist Andrey Loshak notes (RUS) on the “Parfyonov/Volochkova syndrome,” referring...

Russia: 2011 State Budget Funding for Media Companies

  15 February 2011

LJ user sart posts info (RUS) from the Russian Federation's 2011 budget (RUS, .zip, 322MB) on the state funding allotted to media companies: e.g., VGTRK gets nearly 19 billion rubles (approx. $628 million), and TV-Novosti, a company that owns RT (Russia Today), gets over 11 billion rubles (nearly $380 million).

Russia: Reactions to the “Safe Internet League”

  15 February 2011

Radio Free Europe writes about the “Safe Internet League”, a new initiative that would use volunteer cyber squads to monitor and report ‘dangerous content.’ Reacting to the news, Jeffrey Carr at Forbes notes that “security services have masked a variety of oppressive actions under the more acceptable umbrella of cleaning...

Russia: Old and New Media Censorship Tactics

  15 February 2011

In its yearly report Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) analyzes situation with Post-Soviet online expression, noting that online censorship in the region has become more subtle without losing efficiency. “Accidents befall Web servers, just as mysterious, unsolved crimes of violence silence the region's online journalists.”

About our RuNet Echo coverage

Subscribe to RuNet Echo!


RuNet Echo on LiveJournal