Stories from RuNet Echo from September, 2012
Russia: Ridiculing the Winter Olympics Slogan
The just-announced slogan of the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics (“Hot. Cool. Yours.”) has spurred a brief episode of merrymaking on the RuNet. At first that may seem surprising, while the...
Russia: The Kostin Report & the Trojan Horse of American ICT
Earlier this week, the media got a sneak peek at a new report on the foreign penetration of the RuNet and the potential manipulation of the country's future elections. The...
Russia: Ominous Predictions of Conflict in Dagestan
Dagestan is among Russia’s most impoverished and ethnically diverse republics. Recent tension between Sunni Sufi and Salafi communities suggest more conflict may not be far to come.
Russia: Writers Put Down Pens to Stand Atop Soap Boxes
Now, nine people who self-identify as writers are running in the elections for the so-called "Coordinating Council of the Russian Opposition," and a tenth strongly considered registering as a candidate...
Russia: Activist Journalists or Bolshevik Bloggers?
Anyone following the Russian protest movement cannot help but notice the degree to which many Russian journalists are involved with the opposition. In the age of Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram,...
Russia: After the APEC Summit
The 2012 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Vladivostok has come and gone. What remains is discussion of what APEC means to Russia’s Far East and the country as a whole....
Russia: SocialCamp, Crowdsourcing and Open Data
A SocialCamp Russia 'unconference' took place in Moscow from 7th to 9th of September. Over the course of three days social activists spoke about projects aimed at raising awareness, improving...
Russia: Ksenia Sobchak's Civil Platform Candidacy
Earlier today, the Central Elections Committee officially registered a bevy of candidates for the coming elections of the first Coordinating Council of the Russian Opposition. Among today's new entries to...
Russia: Reading Genius into Putin's Blunders
One of the more striking things about Vladimir Putin, aside from his affinity for displays of machismo, is the degree of nuanced multidimensional-chess-like strategic planning attributed to him and his...
Russia: Forecasts for the Protest Movement's Elections
On October 20, the new "Central Elections Committee" will hold elections to select 45 individuals to form the first "Coordinating Council of the Russian Opposition." When this process is complete,...
Russia: Protest Movement Struggles with Keeping Itself Democratic
Maksim Martsinkevich, who goes by the nickname Tesak (Machete), gained notoriety on the RuNet between 2005 and 2007. A white-supremacist who later spent several years in prison for inciting ethnic...
Russia: Religiosity & the Murdered U.S. Ambassador
Responding to the attack on U.S. embassies across the Muslim world (specifically the murder of Ambassador Christopher Stevens in Libya), Russian bloggers have addressed the perceived growth of religiosity in...
Russia: Online Poetry's Vehement, Apolitical Politics
It's no surprise that a result of Russians' widespread interest in poetry is that there are plenty of online communities dedicated to its production and consumption. Stihi.ru, with a user...
Russia: Top Opposition Blogger Investigated for Ethnic Extremism
According to documents published online, police in Volgograd are investigating one of blogger Aleksei Navalny's newest crowdsourcing projects, the "Good Machine of Truth," for possible ethnic extremism in its propaganda...
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Maxim Edwards is the RuNet Echo editor. Email him story ideas or volunteer to write.
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