· June, 2010

Stories about Eastern & Central Europe from June, 2010

Ukraine: Hanna Herman's $60K Wrist Watch

  30 June 2010

Foreign Notes writes about a $60K wrist watch of the deputy head of Ukraine's Presidential Administration: “$60K is equivalent to 10 to15 years average salary in Ukraine…”

Russia, U.S.: The “Spy Ring” Story

RuNet Echo  30 June 2010

A selection of posts on the “Russian spy ring” story: Julia Ioffe at The Daily Beast; A Good Treaty; Yelena Osipova at Global Chaos; Mark Adomanis at True/Slant; Vadim Nikitin at FPA's Russia blog; Dina Fainberg at The Dustbin of History; Catherine Fitzpatrick at Minding Russia; Windows to Russia; Eugene...

Russia, US: “Burger Diplomacy”

  28 June 2010

Vadim Nikitin wonders if the Medvedev-Obama meeting is a sign that “[…] the Russian President, for so long considered a mere window dressing to Prime Ministerial rule, might stick around longer than Putin might like?” Robert Amsterdam writes that “burger diplomacy” is “[…] an apt epithet for a relationship that...

Ukraine: Gorbachev and Chernobyl

  28 June 2010

Window on Eurasia writes about Mikhail Gorbachev's order to hold the May Day demonstration in Kyiv shorly after the Chernobyl catastrophe.

Russia: Blogger Finds a Vulnerability in E-Gov Portal

RuNet Echo  28 June 2010

Habrahabr-user Romachev blogs [RUS] about a crucial security hole in the process of the identification of E-government portal gosuslugi.ru [RUS]. According to the blogger, the vulnerability offers a large potential for identity fraud.

Croatia: 9th Annual GLBT Pride Parade

  27 June 2010

The Daily Seyahatname/Blogging Balkanistan writes about Zagreb's ninth annual GLBT Pride Parade and notes that “President Ivo Josipovic became the first Croatian president to publicly support” the event.

Russia: Chechen President Launches Blog

RuNet Echo  27 June 2010

Ramzan Kadyrov [EN], president of the Chechen Republic [EN], launched a blog ya-kadyrov [RUS] at Livejournal. In his first post Kadyrov writes that he is “a sociable and to the limit outspoken person”, and that he “hopes to develop friendship and discuss various events with his readers”. There is no option to...

Russia: Bloggers React to President Medvedev's Silicon Valley Tour

RuNet Echo  26 June 2010

For the first 24 hours, Dmitry Medvedev's @KremlinRussia Twitter account provided a unique opportunity to send unmoderated comments to the Russian president. Then all the comments were removed, and the era of the Russian unmoderated online democracy ended. Gregory Asmolov reviews Russian bloggers' reactions to the president's visit to California.

Russia: Charges Against Alexanyan Dropped

  25 June 2010

Robert Amsterdam reports that “Russian prosecutors have finally dropped their case against Yukos lawyer Vasily Aleksanyan”: “But I don't really see this as a sign of clemency or change, or a sudden recognition of judicial independence. Russia just admitted that it held an innocent individual for two years for no...

Poland: “Still Divided”

  25 June 2010

Raf Uzar summarizes the results of the first round of Poland's presidential election and concludes: “What is really thought-provoking is the fact that after centuries of turmoil and upheaval, Poland is still a country divided.”

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.