· October, 2009

Stories about Eastern & Central Europe from October, 2009

Ukraine: Swine Flu (and Some Election Politics)

  31 October 2009

On Oct. 30, after a few days of alarming reports on an outbreak of respiratory illness in western Ukraine, the first swine flu-related death was confirmed, and PM Tymoshenko ordered Ukraine's schools closed and public gatherings banned for at least three weeks.

Russia: “Twitter Against Tyrants”

  30 October 2009

Oleg Kozlovsky links to and quotes from the text of a briefing held by US Helsinki Commission/Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe, which included “a few recent examples of how we utilized Web 2.0 to spread information about electoral fraud” in Russia.

Russia: Riot Police vs “Senior Citizens”

  30 October 2009

Oleg Kozlovsky reports on a scandal that broke out after riot police used – during a drill – “water cannons, shock grenades, and tear gas” to disperse “a group of senior citizens that protested social injustice and blocked a federal highway.”

Russia: Nokia In and Out of LJ

  30 October 2009

Profy reports on the demise of Nokia's LiveJournal community: “But unfortunately for everyone (Nokia, the editorial team, and the overall corporate usage of social media) the community only existed for 25 days and was closed last week with the PR representative citing the fact that many bloggers used the community...

Ukraine: Charity

  29 October 2009

Scenes From the Sidewalk writes about an encounter with one of Kyiv's many homeless children – and posts photos from actress Olga Kurilenko's visit to a CrossRoads Foundation/ChildRescue's rehabilitation center. Wild World of Sean's Blog reports on a charity visit to a Kyiv hospital for children affected by the Chernobyl...

Bulgaria, Romania, Serbia: “Dumping Grounds for People”

  29 October 2009

Dumping Grounds for People is a blog devoted to the results “of a four-months long journalistic investigation, conducted mostly undercover in ten institutions for adults with intellectual disabilities or mental illnesses in Bulgaria, Romania and Serbia.” A Flickr photo set, by Yana Buhrer Tavanier, is here, along with this note:...

Ukraine: Interview With A Drug Addict

  29 October 2009

David Sasaki shares thoughts on “engaging, not exoticizing human rights” and posts a video interview with Pavel Kutsev, a self-described “average drug addict” and “the co-founder of Drop-In Center, a Ukrainian organization which advocates for the rights of the injection drug user communication and for better national policy related to...

Hungary: Budapest

  29 October 2009

Marietta Le of Remainder of Budapest comments on Budapest Business Region's campaign video and on the discussion raging on YouTube and elsewhere – here and here. She also links to a site that lists seven tour routes for those interested in Budapest's contemporary architecture, and posts pictures from a walk...

Hungary: 1956

  29 October 2009

Hungarian Spectrum writes about an online collection of testimony (HUN) on the events of 1956, which “helped the western powers understand the Hungarian situation, not just events that occurred during the revolution but more importantly the reasons for the outbreak of the uprising.” Remainder of Budapest wrote this on the...

Hungary, Serbia: Tragedy At The Border

  28 October 2009

A group of 19 Kosovo Albanians tried to cross the Hungarian-Serbian river border illegally on Oct. 15; fifteen of them are now reported missing; three bodies have been found by divers. Marietta Le reports on some of the reactions in the Hungarian blogosphere.

About our Eastern & Central Europe coverage

Filip Stojanovski
Filip Stojanovski is the Central Europe editor. Email him story ideas or volunteer to write.

Daria Dergacheva
Daria Dergacheva is the Eastern Europe editor. Email her story ideas or volunteer to write.