Stories from RuNet Echo from April, 2011
Russia: FSB Representative Urges to Ban Skype, Gmail, and Hotmail
Alexander Andreyechkin, head of Information and Special Communications Protection Center of Federal Security Service (FSB), said that uncontrollable use of Skype, Gmail, and Hotmail ‘can lead to a massive threat to Russia's security” and urged to ban these services, RIA Novosti reported [ru]. On the same day, anonymous Kremlin representative...
Russia: Distributed Denial of LiveJournal
Russian online space is getting more violent. The last series of attacks on LiveJournal blogging platform has proved this once again. Whatever are the reasons, the attack on LiveJournal is the attack on online speech in Russia. The bloggers, however, share responsibility for the situation.
Russia: Communist campaign against tandemocracy
Vadim Nikitin of Foreign Policy‘s Russia Blog discusses a campaign video [RU] for the 2012 presidential elections, allegedly first posted on the Communist Party website, which portrays the Putin-Medvedev tandemocracy as an apocalypse in the making.
Russia: RuNet Celebrates 17 Years Today
Habrahabr-user kremlin reminds [ru] the world that on April 7, 1994 “.ru” domain had been included to IANA, root zone database. This means, today is the 17th birthday of the Russian Internet! Congratulations!
Russia: Compromising Photos of Saint-Petersburg Judge Leaked
Blogger Yanvarlamov publishes private (and quite compromising) pictures [ru] of Alexey Kuznetsov, Saint-Petersburg judge famous for sentencing opposition activists. On the pictures, Kuznetsov is depicted as a heavy drinker and a person that can hardly be called a source of a reasonable judgement. Besides, on one of the pictures his colleague...
Russia: Majority of Russians Are Unaware of the Blogosphere
Levada-center has published [ru] a survey poll results on how Russians use the Internet. 39 percent of users use it for entertainment, 27 percent use it to search information, 18 percent – to communicate. Answering the question which bloggers they trust most, respondents have pointed out president Medvedev… and prime-minister...
Russia: Anti-Government Slogans Published On a Hacked Soccer Club Website
Blogger pilgrim67 publishes [ru] a screenshot of the “Zenit” soccer club website that has been hacked this morning (now restored). A hacker had defaced the website and posted pictures of Valentina Matvienko (mayor of Saint-Petersburg) and Vadim Tyulpanov (speaker of the city assembly), both members of “United Russia” party, and...
Russia: DDoS Attack On LiveJournal Has Russians Debating Internet Politics
On March 30, 2011, the blogging platform LiveJournal experienced serious functionality problems for over 12 hours due to a powerful Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) attack. It has triggered a debate on the origins of the attack and the future of the stability of the Russian political blogosphere.
Russia: Tandem under the carpet
Streetwise Professor discusses various scenarios on relations between Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Premier Vladimir Putin against the backdrop of the most recent white paper [RU] of opposition politician Boris Nemtsov.
Russia: LiveJournal under attack
Putin Watcher reports on how a cyberattack by DDOS and hacking against top blogs on LiveJournal, Russia's most popular blogging platform. This attack follows earlier incidents this year, aiming to knock out LiveJournal.
Russia: Online Fundraising Changes Transparency Standards in Politics
Oleg Kozyrev, popular Russian blogger, writes [ru] about the effects of online fundraising (this year online opposition activists had fundraised nearly $230,000): 1. it improves transparency standards of opposition politicians, thus making them resistant to corruption allegations and criminal cases, 2. it brings activists closer to their supporters, 3. it makes...
Russia: Anti-Corruption iPad Application Beats “Angry Birds”
iPad application for Rospil.info, Russian crowdsourcing anti-corruption service created by Alexey Navalny, has taken over [ru] “Angry Birds Rio HD Free” application in the Apple App market. The application has been created voluntarily (and free of charge) by Russian iPad app developers.
Russia: Starting the Moscow Metro
Metro Dream by Russos writes about [RUS] the initial construction work on the Moscow Metro and posts pictures from the period.
Russia: Another Bolshoi scandal
Two-Zero of Moscow Blog draws attention to another scandal at the Moscow Bolshoi theatre – this time due to hacker intrusion – only adding to its disrepute due to extravagant renovation costs.
Russia-Estonia: Renaming the Bronze Soldier
LJ user jurialhaz comments on [RUS] how Estonia has renamed the Tallinn Bronze Soldier monument – the object of the 2007 bilateral dispute with Russia – into “Monument to the soldiers of the Soviet army, who occupied Tallinn on 22 September 1944.”
Russia: Author of The Three Big Pigs Gains International Fame
Yegor Zhgun [ru], Russian designer, who skillfully combined Disney's tune and “Angry Birds” game in a Libya-related satirical cartoon, has been spotted by AFP. See GV post on another Zhgun's work here.
Russia: New Government Initiative Questions the Nature of Online Monitoring
Russian authorities declared that they are interested in developing new system for monitoring of online content. The document of the tender for the new system not only provides information about what Russian government is interested to monitor, but also exposes its attitude towards information technologies.
Russia: More on Navalny
More on Alexey Navalny's anti-corruption activities – at A Good Treaty and RussiaWatchers. Also, the newyorker.com transcript of Julia Ioffe's Q&A on Navalny is here; “I think Navalny is Russia’s best hope,” she responds to one reader.
Russia: Tatarstan People's Message to Japan
Russian photographer Oleg Klimov re-posts (RUS) a YouTube video (RUS, JPN) by a Tatarstan-based Japanese photographer Sohei Yasui, in which residents of Tatarstan's capital Kazan share their opinions on the situation in Japan and send kind wishes to the Japanese people.
