Stories from RuNet Echo from November, 2010
Russia: Pictures of Eid al-Adha Holiday in Moscow
Bloggers Drugoi [RUS] and Ottenki_serogo [RUS] share photos from the Qurban Bayram (Eid al-Adha) religious holiday. After Moscow accepted tens of thousands of guest workers from Central Asia, Muslim holidays are gathering more and more people. Aleshru contributes an interesting example [RUS] of “mixture of religions.”
Russia: Anti-Corruption Blogger Claims Officials Stole 4 Billion Dollars
Alexey Navalny‘s website navalny.ru is down after publishing materials on Transneft, Russian oil pipeline operator. The compromising materials claiming that top officials were involved in stealing over 4 billion dollars from the government budget, however, are available at his LiveJournal account [RUS] and several mirror websites (here and here).
Russia: Changing Time Zone in Primorsky Krai
Masha Egupova analyzed bloggers' reactions to Primorsky Krai officials' executive decision to change the time zone in order to be closer to Central Russia.
Russia: Commentary on Oleg Kashin Beating
A roundup of the English-language reports and commentary on the beating of journalist Oleg Kashin (as well as the cases of Mikhail Beketov, Konstantin Fetisov and Anatoly Adamchuk): Julia Ioffe at Foreign Policy and The Moscow Diaries (here and here); Miriam Elder at GlobalPost; Natalia Antonova at GlobalComment; Poemless; Sean's...
Russia: Bloggers and Watchers
A Good Treaty translates a “friends and enemies” Russian LJ blogger list allegedly posted by a pro-Kremlin activist. The Kremlin Stooge rates the Russia watchers Anglophone blogging “pack.” Siberian Light posts the latest Weekly Russia Blog Roundup.
Russia: Interview With @KermlinRussia
A Good Treaty does a short interview with @KermlinRussia (RUS), who “regularly posts acerbic, ironic tweets mocking news stories about Russia’s leaders”: “For instance, hours after news emerged that journalist Oleg Kashin was savagely beaten and put into a medically-induced coma, Kermlin tweeted the following: ‘Today’s beating of oppositionist journalist...
Russia: Soccer Hooligans Might Be Involved in Assault on Oleg Kashin
Investigative blogger Anticompromat re-posts [RUS] a new version of attack on Oleg Kashin. He quotes LJ-user cleric_r saying that the assault might be connected with soccer fan groups. Kashin knew way too much about the relations between soccer fan groups, pro-Kremlin youth movements, and President's Staff. LJ-user semen_f19 adds [RUS]...
Kazakhstan: LiveJournal Suspends Oppositioner's Account
LiveJournal has suspended account of Rakhat Aliev, Kazakh opposition politician and a former president Nazarbaev‘s son-in-law, LJ-user Dolboeb reports. Previously Kazakhstan blocked entire LiveJournal in order to silence Aliev. At the same time, it is the second suspicious suspension in LiveJournal – on November 3, 2010 Russian opposition blogger pilgrim_67...
Russia: More Assaults on Journalists
Igor Podgorny reports on the attack on Sergey Mikhailov, Saratov journalist, that took place on November 5th, 2010. Kommersant writes about another attack on Anatoliy Adamchuk, journalist from Zhukovskiy city (Moscow region). Adamchuk was assaulted on November 7th, 2010.
Russia: Bloggers Discuss Attack on Journalist Oleg Kashin
The brutal attack on Oleg Kashin, a prominent Russian blogger and journalist, became topic #1 in RuNet several hours after it had occurred. Kashin is still in a medically induced coma; his legs, jaws and fingers are broken, one of the fingers on his hand has been amputated. The main questions that the bloggers are asking now are, "Who did this?" and "Will the attackers and their patrons be punished?" While there are at least three possible answers to the first question, there's no answer for the second one.
Russia: Demanding Adequate Investigation of Attack on Kashin
A dozen people or so have gathered in front of the Moscow Criminal Police building (Petrovka, 38), demanding an adequate investigation of last night's attack on journalist Oleg Kashin, who is now in a medically induced coma. Some photos and Twitter reports (RUS; hashtag #KSHN) – by @plushev, @berillii, @adagamov,...
Russia: Journalist Oleg Kashin Severely Beaten in Moscow
Journalist Oleg Kashin (LJ user kashin/@KSHN) was severely beaten in Moscow Friday night and is now in intensive care. LJ users p0grebizhskaya and navalny host some of the initial Russophone discussions on the attack; Twitter reactions (RUS) are here. One of Kashin's recent texts for the Russian daily Kommersant dealt...
Russia: Saving Samara's Buildings
At OpenDemocracy.net, Clementine Cecil writes about the campaign to save Samara’s buildings from “corrupt developers.”
Russia: Rebranding of the Police
Masha Egupova analyzes online reactions to the police reform. Skeptics say it's meaningless, while officials argue this is an important law that will improve the security system in Russia.
Russia: Mapping North-Caucasian Blogosphere
LJ-user timag82 together with a_sult_h and pcnariman analyzed [RUS] North Caucasian blogs. Thorough research of 528 blogs is divided into regional blogospheres. Discussion of the research is here [RUS]. Daghestani bloggers lead the North-Caucasian blogosphere, notes Paul Goble, which can be explained by the higher level of freedom in the republic compared...
Russia: Opposition Blogger Has to Leave LiveJournal
Opposition blogger pilgrim_67 (GV covered one of his investigations) has been suspended in LiveJournal (After posting a link to the video against child pornography – full story here) and had to move to Blogspot and lj.rossia.org. The case indicated insecurity of LiveJournal as platform for opposition bloggers. LJ currently hosts...
Russia: Peaceful and Violent Protest Trends
Oleg Kozlovski, an opposition activist and a prominent blogger, posts theses of the presentation “Peaceful and Violent Protest Trends in Russia.” Kozlovski writes that success stories of non-violent protests are seldom while “there is a significant chance of more violent outbreaks in the near future”. There are more and more...
Russia: Photos of a Drug Addict's Regress
LJ-user Roizman, Yekaterinburg political and anti-drug activist, posts pictures of Vika Zavalina, a drug addict. The series of pictures taken from 2004 to 2010 shows a shocking regress in the young woman's appearance. The post, which ends with Roizman's conclusion that compulsory drug treatment should be legally introduced, has gathered...
Russia: Photos and Video From “Strategy 31″ Opposition Rally
Several bloggers post photo reports from Moscow opposition meeting here, here, here, here, and here. LJ-user drugoi posts HD-video of the event. Marina Litvinovich sums up: despite the conflict between opposition leaders, the “Strategy 31″ movement didn't fail.
Russia: Photos of Halloween
Users metkere and zyalt post pictures from Halloween parties here and here. LJ-user sokhovich posts picture of a person in a mask of Frankenstein-like Medvedev and other halloween'ized politics.
