· August, 2011

Stories about Eastern & Central Europe from August, 2011

Russia: Why We Are Leaving Our Country Behind

RuNet Echo  31 August 2011

Recent months have seen a new spin on the topic of emigration that seems to be ever-present in the Russian online space. Several powerful blog posts written by people from different social groups have become a platform for expressing one's take on the present and future of the country and people's place in it.

Russia: Content Analysis of Party Manifestos

RuNet Echo  30 August 2011

LJ-user schegloff analyses [ru] party manifestos of the Russian parties using Wordle word clouds. “Opposition can be identified by the word “must,” patriots by the word “Russia,” ruling party by the word “Unity,” concludes the blogger, speaking of the word frequency in each document.

Russia: Shark Attacks in Vladivostok

RuNet Echo  29 August 2011

Russia is not known for sharks attacks, but this summer a number of incidents have occurred. Masha Egupova reports, and examines the blogosphere's response to the recent spate of shark attacks in the Russian Far East.

Russia: HIV Activists Protest Against Medicine Shortages

RuNet Echo  29 August 2011

Vitaliy Ragulin posts pictures [ru] of HIV activists rallying in front of the President's Staff office. The activists accused the Ministry of Health care in poor HIV/AIDS politics, and, more importantly, of shortage of medicines needed for HIV treatment.

Russia: Court Rules Out to Block An Undisclosed LiveJournal Account

RuNet Echo  25 August 2011

Samara city court had ordered a local ISP to block an undisclosed blog at LiveJournal platform that ‘incites hatred towards an ethnic and social (professional) group,’ the website of Samara Prosecutor's Office reports [ru]. The ‘extremist’ website was found ‘during the monitoring of the Internet,’ the report says.

Ukraine: “Independence Day #20″

  25 August 2011

Odessablog wishes a happy Independence Day to Ukrainian readers: “Be assured that despite the wandering path taken thus far and all the mis-steps, Ukraine is doing OK. It is not Utopia but then, I have never lived anywhere that was. There are hurdles ahead but Ukraine will get to where...

Croatia: Top 5 Holiday Islands (+5 More)

  24 August 2011

Croatia Travel Blog links to an article about “Croatia's top five holiday islands,” which appeared in The Guardian earlier this week, and adds five more islands to this list.

Ukraine: “Proper” vs “Improper” Journalism

  24 August 2011

At OpenDemocracy.net, Aleksey Matsuka, a Donetsk-based journalist, explains what “proper” journalism means in this Eastern Ukrainian region – and what awaits those who are deemed “improper” journalists.

Croatia, Serbia: A Flag of Friendship

  24 August 2011

Two young adults from Croatia and Serbia have created a mixed Serbo-Croatian flag, as a gesture of reconciliation between the two countries. Some netizens have condemned the initiative, others seem to approve of it.

Russia: Intoxicating Economics

  24 August 2011

Streetwise Professor argues against the bad economics of promoting Russian wine production to turn consumption patterns from stronger to weaker alcoholic beverages in order to fight the country's rampant alcoholism.

Latvia: Electoral Expectations

  24 August 2011

Veiko Spolitis of Baltic blog spans the pollster field in the runup to the 17 September parliamentary elections in Latvia and finds that a great but decreasing proportion of voters are still undecided.

Russia: Memories of 1991

RuNet Echo  22 August 2011

Kim Green of The Greenery shares her memories of living in Russia in 1991 as a student, right after the August Coup 20 years ago.

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.