Stories about Eastern & Central Europe from July, 2010
Georgia: Frozen conflicts, frozen happiness
With a little over a week to go before the second anniversary of the short war fought between Russia and Georgia over the breakaway territory of South Ossetia, Evolutsia turns its attention to another one of the country's two frozen conflicts, Abkhazia.
Russia: The First Case of YouTube Ban
Alexey Sidorenko writes about the Russian authorities' first attempt to ban YouTube.
Latvia: Concerns Over the Future of the Largest Daily, Free Press
With the ownership of the largest daily newspaper, Diena, in question, many journalists in Latvia fear business interests and political influence would rule the news coverage ahead of the October parliamentary elections.
Bulgaria: Government's Pressure on the Media
Veni Markovski writes about the Bulgarian government's most recent attack on the independent media: “This latest pressure on the free media comes after a number of worrisome cases, involving journalists in the last years. […] Every government in the last 20 years has come to power at the promise of...
Russia Tops Aggressive Internet Traffic Rating
Habrahabr users discuss [RUS] the latest Akamai‘s “State of the Internet” report. According to the research, 12 percent of all the Internet-attacks in the first quarter of 2010 were carried out from the territory of Russia, while the U.S. hackers took the “second prize” for 10 percent of the world's...
Russia: Prosecutor That Banned Youtube Gives Interview
Marker.ru publishes an interview with Vladimir Pakhomov, city prosecutor that obliged the local Internet provider to block Youtube, Web.archive.org and other websites [EN]. Pakhomov expressed Chinese-government-style philosophy on Internet-filtering: “Provider is obliged to filter the information that goes through its channels to the Worldwide Web”, and didn't exclude probable filtering...
Latvia: ‘The Harmony Center’ Political Bloc
All About Latvia writes about Saskaņas Centrs (“The Harmony Center”), Lativa's “most popular” political bloc.
Hungary: Poet Endre Ady
Hungarian Spectrum writes about Endre Ady (1877-1919), “one of the most famous Hungarian poets.”
Russia: Interview With ‘A Good Treaty’ Russia Blogger
Sublime Oblivion interviews the author of A Good Treaty blog, continuing the Watching the Russia Watchers interview series that was launched by Andy Young of Siberian Light.
Poland: “Rydzykisation”
Raf Uzar writes about the outcome of the Polish presidential election and the “rydzykisation” of the country.
Poland: Coats of Arms
Polish cities’ coats of arms competition – at Polandian.
Ukraine: Photos From Kherson, Berdychiv, etc.
Danil Nikitin's photos from Kherson, Berdychiv and a number of other Ukrainian locations (UKR).
Belarus: A Conscientious Objector Released From Jail
BelarusDigest reports on the release from prison of conscientious objector Yevgeny Yakovenko.
Ukraine: Simferopol Graffiti
At Russia! blog, Tatyana Bokova-Foley re-posts photos of the graffiti in the Crimean capital of Simferopol and writes about the possible identity of the artist who created them.
Serbia, Kosovo: Another View on ICJ's Ruling
The Greater Surbiton writes that “the ICJ’s ruling on Kosovo sets a precedent that is dangerous only for tyrants and ethnic cleansers.” (More views are here and here.)
Serbia: “Punishing ‘Bad Culture'”
Belgraded writes about a 1980s Serbian pop star's idea to introduce “extra taxes for authors of those works of media that fall under the category of ‘kitsch‘.”
The Balkans: Regional Lottery vs Nationalism
Belgraded writes about the planned revival of “the one big regional lottery” in the former Yugoslavia and does not “miss the opportunity to point out just how stupid nationalism is.”
Russia: Merging SVR and FSB; “Another Sexy Spy”
RFE/RL's The Power Vertical reports on the alleged plans to merge Russia's Foreign Intelligence Service with the Federal Security Service. Scraps of Moscow writes about the newest “sexy Russian spy” scandal.
Russia: Online Cartoon Character – Mr. Freeman – Deconstructs Reality, Mocks Netizens
Gregory Asmolov writes about Mr. Freeman, a sarcastic, gloomy and enigmatic online cartoon character, who has made millions of young Russians think about the way they live their lives.
Russia: LiveJournal Under Fire Of Criticism for “Innovations”
LiveJournal, Russia's still most popular blog platform, recently fell under severe criticism for several “innovations”: purging suspended and “inactive” accounts [EN] and closing OpenID registration [RUS] (allowed LJ-users to comment in other blog-platforms). Blogger sviridenkov observes [RUS] more and more bloggers switching to stand-alone blogs, while Artur Welf says [RUS] disappointed users...
Russia: Forest Park Defenders Attack Khimki City Administration
User berillii posts [RUS] a footage of the storming of the Khimki city administration [EN] by anarchists and antifascists that took side of the Khimki forest park defenders. LJ-user mmet supplies photos of the event. A peaceful meeting grew to a chaotic demonstration, after authorities once again detained [RUS] the...
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