Stories from RuNet Echo from July, 2014
Vanity Military Selfies Are Spoiling Russia's Attack in Ukraine
"We shelled Ukraine all night long." These are the words a young Russian soldier wrote online last week, where he published a photograph of military equipment in an open field.
The Angriest Man in Odessa is on the Front Lines of Ukraine's Information War
Odessa's vigorously anti-Moscow LiveJournal star, Zloy_Odessit, has his work cut out for him. Indeed, open dialogue with pro-Russian bloggers is still a long way off.
Camera Phones vs. Kalashnikovs in Ukraine's Separtist-held Luhansk
How "streamer" journalism both empowers and endangers civic reporters in eastern Ukraine.
The Mouthpiece of Totalitarian Propaganda — Crimea's Colonel Cassad
Colonel Cassad has little love for Vladimir Putin. Despite this his blog has become massively popular among Putin's supporters. It has also earned him the ire of Ukraine's intelligence services.
Russian Government IP Address Caught Editing German Wikipedia MH17 Article
IP addresses inside the Russian government continue to be active on Wikipedia, where a computer at the Russian Secret Service, the FSO, revised the German entry for Malaysia Airlines Flight 17, changing the word “separatists” into “rebels.” The Twitter bot @RuGovEdits, which automatically logs all Wikipedia edits made from Russian government IP...
Spinning the MH17 Tragedy, Moscow's Victory Isn't What You Think
Kyiv and Moscow trade evidence and conspiracy theories about whose BUK surface-to-air missiles downed Malaysia Airlines Flight 17. What game is the Kremlin playing online?
Twitter “Blocks” Access to Russia's Most Infamous Hackers
Russia's Twitter users no longer have access to @b0ltai, an account belonging to a hacker collective that has leaked several Kremlin documents to the Internet over the past 7 months.
Russia's 4-Million-Ruble Procurement Order to Crack Tor Is Suddenly Revised
The Russian Interior Ministry has revised the language in a procurement order offering almost USD $100,000 for developing a way to decipher user data on the Tor anonymity network.
Russia Is About to Lose “Fake News,” But the Internet Freedoms Going with It Are Real
The owner of an independent TV channel has staged a curious "intellectual provocation" to shock people into understanding the peril of Internet freedom in Russia.
Russia Offers 4 Million Rubles to Crack the Tor Network
Although unlikely, should Russia’s decryption project succeed, it could endanger millions of Internet users whose interest in online anonymity is far from nefarious.
The Death and Gloom of Donetsk and Gaza
How did RuNet users react to the twin events of July 17, the downing of Malaysian Flight MH17, and the beginning of Israel’s ground assault into the Gaza Strip?
The Russian Government's 7,000 Wikipedia Edits
Over the past ten years, IP addresses belonging to various Russian state agencies are responsible for almost 7,000 anonymous edits to articles on Wikipedia’s Russian-language website.
Russian State TV Edits Wikipedia to Blame Ukraine for MH17 Crash
Someone at VGTRK, a state-run Russian broadcasting company, has edited a Wikipedia entry about the Malaysian Flight MH17 crash to blame the government in Kyiv.
The 5 Most Insensitive Reactions to the MH17 Crash in Ukraine
With emotions running high following the plane crash in Ukraine, a handful of particularly calloused statements by figures in Moscow and Donetsk have attracted the RuNet's attention.
First Russian Reactions to the Downed Plane in Eastern Ukraine
An airplane has crashed in Ukraine. With nothing but a few pixelated YouTube videos and a fast-growing mountain of accusations, RuNet users are in the midst of a full-blown hysteria.
Ex-Pussy Riot Lawyer to Defend Ukrainian Pilot in Russian Court
After the infamous Pussy Riot trial, Mark Feygin will now try to save Nadezhda Savchenko, the Ukrainian air-force pilot captured by separatists in Ukraine and now detained in Russia.
Putin Tells Rabbis that Goebbels Was “Talented”
Vladimir Putin recently called Joseph Goebbels, the Nazi Minister of Propaganda, as a “talented man” in the meeting with an international delegation of rabbis.
Russian Web Animation at Its Best
Foreigners are likely to think of Russia's ballet or literature before considering its Web animation, but it’s in this latter field that the RuNet has achieved something brilliant.
Russia's Armchair Warrior Turns on Ukraine's Rebel Leader
Russians are finding the humor in one intellectual's rant against the rebel militia commander in eastern Ukraine.
Everything You Need to Know About Russia's Internet Crackdown
To help people keep track of what’s what in Russian cyberspace, we've compiled a list of the most important laws to hit the RuNet in the past two years.
Kiev Kowtows to Washington … on Twitter
Ukraine's new foreign minister, Pavlo Klimkin, is in hot water on the Russian Internet today, where bloggers are drawing attention to his first subscriptions on Twitter. RuNet users have noticed that some of the first accounts Klimkin chose to follow are US politicians John McCain and Mitt Romney, the neoconservative American think...
