· January, 2010

Stories about Eastern & Central Europe from January, 2010

Ukraine: Salo

  31 January 2010

The Pickle Project writes about salo, “the adored raw pork fat enjoyed on its own and in many of timeless Ukrainian dishes.”

Serbia, Russia: Author Awarded for Book on Ratko Mladić

  31 January 2010

A Slice Of Serbian Politics reports on the award given by the Union of Russian Writers to Ljiljana Bulatović for her book “Report to the General”: “Ljiljana was awarded in the ‘Slav Fraternity’ category with the ‘Imperial Culture’ award for, as it is stated, ‘her courage, commitment, and unswerving dedication...

Belarus: LGBT Issues

  31 January 2010

BelarusDigest quotes from a chapter on Belarus that was included in the Greenwood Encyclopedia of LGBT Issues Worldwide earlier this year.

Ukraine: “Bring Your Skates”

  30 January 2010

Greetings from Kyiv posts an update on the situation on Kyiv's sidewalks: “This year, Kyiv City Services decided not to clean up the snow so the snow on the sidewalks turns into a very slippery ice rink. The fact that cars use the sidewalks as parking lots adds to the...

Serbia: “No” to NATO

  30 January 2010

Belgraded believes that “Serbia does not need to have a military at all, and therefore does not need to join NATO.”

Russia: Consumerism

  30 January 2010

St Petersblurb sees “the whole EU exactly through the eyes of a Russian” ex-girlfriend: “It’s just a retail chain with branches in different languages.”

Russia: CJR Piece on the Media

  29 January 2010

Robert Amsterdam recommends Adam Federman's article on the Russian media, published in Columbia Journalism Review: “[…] Federman focuses on the remaining mechanisms and political dynamics for freedom of press and the conditions in which genuinely good investigative journalism can still occur in today's harshly repressive media environment in Russia.”

Russia: Potential iPad Pricing and Sales

RuNet Echo  29 January 2010

Svetlana Gladkova of Profy writes that “representatives of one of the local retailers that is now negotiating iPad sales in Russia expect to be able to sell iPad at the price that will be twice as high as it is in the US”: “Now can anyone explain me why Apple...

Russia: Opposition Blogger Finally Gets Permission To Leave Country

RuNet Echo  29 January 2010

An opposition blogger Oleg Kozlovsky tells his story [EN] on how his blog helped his to finally receive a passport allowing him to leave Russia. The country's Federal Security Service (FSB) refused to issue a new passport to Kozlovsky but quickly changed its decision after he published a blog post...

Russia: Book Written Using Collective Efforts Online

RuNet Echo  29 January 2010

Russian writer Evgeny Popov decided to create his new book using online input from readers of his blog. The author publishes every chapter of the book [RUS] online with several questions at the end. The readers’ answers and feedback shape the next chapter. Popov plans to publish the book along...

Russia: Political Dossier Web Site Shut Down

RuNet Echo  28 January 2010

Compromat.ru, a notorious Web site that publishes controversial dossiers on various Russian politicians and businessmen, has been allegedly closed following a court order, Elena Tokareva (a.k.a. LJ user elena-tokareva2) reported [RUS]. There are no further details on the issue but a mirror site kompromat.ru has been launched with some of...

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.