Stories from RuNet Echo from August, 2012

Russia: Moscow's Peculiar Illegal Parking Problem

  31 August 2012

Russian adventures and misadventures in parking could be a movie plot. But Russia’s parking problems are anything but comedy. It remains to be seen how vigorously the country will deal with illegal parking. If it succeeds, its methods could show what kind of transportation system and cities Russia will have, and even what kind of country it will be.

Russia: “The Sissy Conspiracy”

  30 August 2012

On his Tumblr blog, Michael Idov, editor-in-chief of GQ Russia, writes that “pop conspirology, a favorite Russian pastime, is a projection of discomfort with slackened gender roles.” He explains: “It’s not just about the ‘Jews’ or the ‘world government’ any more. It’s about weird semiotic clusters organized around degrees of...

Russia: Chainsaws to the Cross

  29 August 2012

On August 25, unknown parties sawed down three wooden crosses in the city of Chelyabinsk, in the Urals. The same night, another cross came down in Arkhangelsk, in the north. Was it a copycat political statement, or a dire plot by the Kremlin to sow discord?

Russia: Censorship Law Threatens Children's Classics

  29 August 2012

After news that Russian television will soon be forced to curtail showings of a classic children’s cartoon “Nu, Pogodi!” [wiki] (the Soviet version of Tom & Jerry but with wolf and bunny instead of cat and mouse) because it is too violent for a new law protecting children from the...

Russia: Police Claim Top Blogger Was Hacked from Germany

  29 August 2012

The Moscow police department has determined [ru] that Aleksei Navalny's email and Twitter accounts were hacked in late June from a German IP address. Fellow liberal blogger Andrey Malgin criticized [ru] the announcement, accusing the authorities of disguising their own responsibility for supposedly stealing [ru] Navalny's passwords in a June 11 search [ru] of...

Russia: Foreign Ministry Looks to Germany to Justify Pussy Riot Verdict

  28 August 2012

Russia's Foreign Ministry has made a series of comments that further enraging Pussy Riot's supporters. Spokesperson Aleksandr Lukashevich defended the recent verdict and lashed out at the West for ignorance about the band members' pasts and highlighted perceived double standards regarding interferences into religious services and criminal penalties, citing laws in Germany and Austria.

Russia: Protesters Aim for Elected Office

  28 August 2012

In the lead up to Russia's next large protests planned for mid-September, activists and politicians of the anti-Kremlin opposition are increasingly showing an interest in running for local offices. If successful at the ballot box, could this trend bestow valuable "real world" political experience on Russia's protesters?

Russia's War Games Make Georgia Nervous

  27 August 2012

This September, Russia is planning to hold 'Caucasus-2012' with forces from the breakaway Georgian provinces of Abkhazia and South Ossetia. With 8,000 troops, as well as heavy machinery, artillery, navy, and air force, this will be Russia’s largest exercise this year. Is this too close for comfort for Georgians?

Russia: Senator Wants 15 Years in Prison for Hackers

  26 August 2012

In the aftermath of a hacker attack on the court that convicted Pussy Riot's 3 members, Kremlin youth group organizer and Senator Ruslan Gattarov [ru] has proposed [ru] making criminal penalties stricter for those who target government websites. Gattarov suggests equating hacks with illegal physical occupations of government buildings, which carry a...

Russia: State-Owned TV Caught in Anti-Semitism?

  25 August 2012

Writing on Openspace.Ru, Oleg Kashin discusses [ru] a short-lived but disconcerting report [ru] from state-owned Vesti.Ru about Patriarch Kirill's recent trip to Białystok, Poland, where he visited the Nikolsky Cathedral — home to the relics of Gavriil Belostoksky, the patron saint of children in the Russian Orthodox Church. Vesti.Ru temporarily featured language endorsing the...

Russia: Pussy Riot's Courthouse Is Hacked By Anonymous

  25 August 2012

On August 21, just days after Moscow's Khamovnicheskii Court sentenced the 3 members of Pussy Riot to 2 years in prison, hackers attacked and vandalized [ru] the court's official website [ru]. Hackivist groups self-identifying as “Anonymous” claimed responsibility and also leaked [ru] some internal (though largely uncontroversial) emails. Popular blogger Anton Nosik condemned [ru] the attack,...

Russia: Government Bans Serbian Film for Underage Sex and Drugs

  24 August 2012

On August 17, Sam Klebanov announced that Russia's Ministry of Culture has banned the release of a Serbian film called "Clip." Klebanov's company owns the Russian distribution rights to the movie, which was honored with a Hivos Tiger Award at the forty-first International Film Festival Rotterdam in the Netherlands earlier this year.

Russia: Drug Drugu, Wish Fulfillment via Social Networks

  23 August 2012

Drug Drugu ("To One Another") is a service that works with the wishes of users. Community members can not only request some kind of help, but also offer their own. The resource's operating principle is very simple: a user leaves a message in the appropriate category, assigns it a category, location, and image, and waits for another community member to response.

Russia: Taxi Drivers Versus Dagestanis in Ryazan

  23 August 2012

A possible fight between Russians and Dagestani migrants perhaps led to dozens, possibly hundreds, of taxi drivers organizing a pogrom-like attack. Events like this raise questions about Russia's capacity to effectively cope with its multiculturalism, especially now, when the situation on the ground in the North Caucasus is so troubling.

Russia: Zombies Versus the State in Omsk

  20 August 2012

Early last Sunday morning in the city of Omsk, a few hundred youths gathered together for a flashmob. Police were on hand to warn everyone that they represented an illegal assembly, and could be charged with breaking the law. Why had roughly 300 people come together? The answer to that question is the "Zombie Parade": the city's first attempted 'walk of the living dead.'

Russia: Pussy Riot's Guilty Verdict

  17 August 2012

'The judge said one of the reasons for a “real sentence” was to “caution others”. ' - Russian and anglophone Twitter users respond to the guilty verdict and two-year prison sentence handed down to Pussy Riot members.

Russia: Ugly Side of Olympic Nationalism

  15 August 2012

"As a pureblooded Russian, and Russian patriot, it is distasteful to look at this disgrace. It’s better to have no medals, than to have Champions like this, ones who hardly speak Russian .." - Gold medal wins by Russian ethnic minorities anger some Russian nationalists.

Russia: Yekaterinburg University Begins Masters Program in Blogging & Political Journalism

  14 August 2012

Yekaterinburg's Ural Federal University is for the first time offering a Masters Degree [ru] in “political journalism” with specific training in blogging and “image-making.” In February 2011, UFU hosted [ru] journalist and blogger Oleg Kashin for a discussion with students, where Kashin emphasized the growing importance of blogging. The new program [ru] lasts two...

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