Stories from RuNet Echo from August, 2011
Russia: Chamber of Accounts’ Leak Exposes Significant Financial Violations
Anti-corruption blogger ipasserby had analyzed [ru] over 100 classified documents of the Russian Chamber of Accounts that had accidentally leaked to the Web in July 2011. According to the blogger, Chamber of Accounts knowingly concealed serious significant violations worth of millions of dollars.
Russia: Why We Are Leaving Our Country Behind
Recent months have seen a new spin on the topic of emigration that seems to be ever-present in the Russian online space. Several powerful blog posts written by people from different social groups have become a platform for expressing one's take on the present and future of the country and people's place in it.
Russia: Bloggers React to the Storming of Tripoli
Compared to April 2011, when Global Voices first analyzed Russian reactions on the conflict, opinions seem to be more polarised now; bloggers had divided into two distinctive groups of supporters and opponents of Colonel Gaddafi. Alexey Sidorenko investigates.
Russia: Content Analysis of Party Manifestos
LJ-user schegloff analyses [ru] party manifestos of the Russian parties using Wordle word clouds. “Opposition can be identified by the word “must,” patriots by the word “Russia,” ruling party by the word “Unity,” concludes the blogger, speaking of the word frequency in each document.
Russia: Shark Attacks in Vladivostok
Russia is not known for sharks attacks, but this summer a number of incidents have occurred. Masha Egupova reports, and examines the blogosphere's response to the recent spate of shark attacks in the Russian Far East.
Russia: HIV Activists Protest Against Medicine Shortages
Vitaliy Ragulin posts pictures [ru] of HIV activists rallying in front of the President's Staff office. The activists accused the Ministry of Health care in poor HIV/AIDS politics, and, more importantly, of shortage of medicines needed for HIV treatment.
Russia: Cigarettes Branded for Young Women Spark Controversy
A recent advertising campaign and carton redesign by one of Russia’s largest tobacco manufacturers has riled Russan bloggers and sparked a debate on responsible marketing and advertising. Ashley Cleek looks into the issue.
Russia: Court Rules Out to Block An Undisclosed LiveJournal Account
Samara city court had ordered a local ISP to block an undisclosed blog at LiveJournal platform that ‘incites hatred towards an ethnic and social (professional) group,’ the website of Samara Prosecutor's Office reports [ru]. The ‘extremist’ website was found ‘during the monitoring of the Internet,’ the report says.
Uzbekistan: Journalist Harassed in Tashkent Airport
Elena Bondar, Young Uzbek journalist, was detained at the arrival to Tashkent airport after attending a course on modern journalism tools, organized by OSCE and Deutsche Welle in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, Fergana News reports [ru]. After thorough examination of her documents and baggage, the customs officials let the journalist go home, but confiscated CDs and USB...
Russia: Memories of 1991
Kim Green of The Greenery shares her memories of living in Russia in 1991 as a student, right after the August Coup 20 years ago.
Russia: Police Refused To Start the Criminal Prosecution Against LiveJournal DDoS Attackers
Russian police acknowledged the DDoS-attacks against LiveJournal blogging platform in April 2011, but refused to start a criminal prosecution against the attackers, gazeta.ru reported [ru]. Police wrote to the source that it was ‘unable to identify attackers.’ Aside from paralyzing the Russian blogosphere, DDoS attacks against LiveJournal led to nearly...
Russia: “Democracy Without Balls”
Oleg Klimov writes [ru] that Mikhail Gorbachev, speaking on the 20th anniversary of the Soviet Union's collapse, said that “Putin is no dictator – he has just castrated democracy by depriving citizens of the democratic right to choose.”
Russia: State News Agency Calls PM Putin “Increasingly Autocratic”
Siberian Light notes that RIA Novosti, a Russian state-owned news agency, has called the Russian PM Vladimir Putin “increasingly autocratic” in an article on the visit of North Korea’s leader Kim Jong-il to Russia.
Russia: Bloggers Remember 20th Anniversary of August Coup
On August 19, Russians commemorate 20 years since the "August Putsch," a failed coup d'etat conducted by a number of KGB officers and military units who were opposed to Gorbachev's reform program and decentralisation of power to the Soviet republics. Citizens took to the streets to defend democracy, and bloggers are remembering their efforts.
Russia: New Legislation to Allow “Creative Commons” License
Russian Communication Ministry submitted to President Medvedev a project for legislation update that would allow using “Creative Commons” (CC) copyright license in Russia, newspaper Vedomosti reports [ru]. The project is a follow-up to a meeting between Medvedev and leaders of Russian Internet community [en] where the president promised to support...
Russia: A Psycho-Neurological Patient's Photo Stories
Pasha Kyshtymov, a lifelong psycho-neurological patient in Siberia, cannot communicate through speech, but had no problems learning to express himself through photography. On his blog, the Russian photographer Oleg Klimov has documented the poignant impromptu experience of teaching Pasha to share his worldview with others.
Russia: Bloggers’ Summer of Civic Actions
Although August is traditionally considered a quiet month in Russia, the country's Internet has been alive with hundreds and thousands of people taking part in a number of social actions. Marina Litvinovich explores this new summer phenomenon.
Russia: President is Critisized for New Open Data Initiative.
Russian expert for open data criticized President Medvedev's initiative [RUS] to put more government data online. The criticism revolves around the lack of transparency, a question of what data should be published and the lack of public discussion around this issue.
Russia: One Million Twitter Accounts in Russian
The number of Twitter accounts in Russian crossed the point of one million, according to recent reseach [ru] by Russian Internet company Yandex. Now, Russian speakers publish around 370,000 tweets a day (comparing to 150,00o a year ago). The percentage of daily active Twitter users (of the total Russian speakers)...
Russia: New Decrees Push for More Government Openness Online
On August 10, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev signed several decrees obliging 19 government agencies (including country's secret services) to put timely information online about their activities, Bloomberg reports.
Russia: Learning Russian Via Social Networks
Tips on learning Russian through social networking sites – at Russian Language Blog.
