Stories about Eastern & Central Europe from July, 2010
Russia: Reginal Court Blocks YouTube for Extremist Content
Komsomolosk-on-Amur [ENG] city court, at the Russian Far East, ordered local Internet provider “Rosnet” to block access to Youtube and four other websites (including web.archive.org), Cnews reported [RUS]. The decision was made due to a request by the city prosecutor's office. YouTube had been blocked because of the nationalist movie...
Ukraine: “Food Nostalgia”
The Pickle Project writes about the post-Soviet ““nostalgia cuisine” and the Ukrainian Puzata Khata chain restaurant.
Serbia: Belgrade's “Many Patches”
NikiBGD of Life in Retro(bel)grade lists things she loves and dislikes about Belgrade: “I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again – Belgrade is at least 16 cities in one.”
Estonia: Folk Culture
Itching for Eestimaa writes about the Viljandi Folk Music Festival and the Estonian “folk culture.”
Poland: Nowy Sacz Logo Controversy
the POLSKI blog reports that the pastoral ministry of the southern Polish city of Nowy Sacz thinks that the city's new logo “promotes Satanism and homosexuality.”
Russia: “Putin's Pee Joke”
At The Huffington Post, Simon Shuster explains Vladimir Putin's “manner of winning the public's support”: “Find an issue that annoys a lot of people, find somebody to blame for it, and lace into him, publicly and with some classic village wit. Show on state television how the problem gets fixed.”
Russia: “Putin-Jugend”
Simon Shuster writes for The Huffington Post about a summer camp for Russia's “group-think generation.”
Belarus: Election 2011
Notes and updates on the upcoming 2011 presidential election in Belarus – at BelarusDigest (here, here, and here).
Serbia: More on the Beating of a Journalist in Belgrade
Anegdote comments on the recent beating of journalist Teofil Pančić in Belgrade: “The government needs thugs, and thugs need the government. The cycle goes on.” (A GV translation on the attack is here.)
Serbia, Kosovo: More on ICJ's Ruling
More commentary on the ICJ's opinion on Kosovo's independence – at A Fistful of Euros, Belgraded, Gray Falcon, and Jamestown Foundation Blog (a GV translation on the subject is here).
Russia: Blackout of the Social Network Triggers Twitter Panic
The word “vkontakte“, standing for the name of the Russian social network, found itself among top Twitter trends. It happened after millions of Russian users were not able to access [RUS] the social network because of a failure [RUS] of a local power station. Some bloggers started the online panic...
Serbia: A Journalist Is Attacked on a Public Bus
Teofil Pancic, a well-known Serbian journalist, was beaten up on a public bus on Saturday. Sinisa Boljanovic translates some of the initial reactions by Serbian netizens.
Russia: Privatization revisited
The Pipeline discusses the announcement of Russia's biggest privatization drive since the 1990s, departing from an article [RUS] in Vedomosti.
Russia-Ukraine: Putin the biker
Siberian Light sums up some reactions to Russian Premier Vladimir Putin's participation in a biker meetup in Ukrainian city of Sevastopol.
Russia: Interpreting the FSB-law
A Good Treaty discusses the new Russian FSB-law, extending the powers of the country's security service.
Moldova: Solving the Transnistria problem
Morning in Moldova comments on German Chancellor Angela Merkel's proposal to solve Moldova's Transnistria problem.
Hungary: Constitutionalism under threat?
Eva Balogh of Hungarian Spectrum draws attention to a number of laws that may threaten Hungarian constitutionalism.
Serbia: ICJ Rules Kosovo’s Independence Legal
On July 22, the International Court of Justice ruled that the declaration of independence of Kosovo did not violate international law. Sinisa Boljanovic reviews Serbian bloggers' reactions to the ruling.
Russia: Ask a Search Engine About the Weather
“When the heat will pass away?” is this week's most popular search enquiry in the Russian Google. Another most popular search requests include: “How to survive heat wave?”, “How to cool down the room without an air conditioner?” and “Where people swim in the Moscow region?”, RIA Novosti reports [RUS].
Russia: First Cyrillic Word Tops Twitter Trends
Russian heatwave makes history not only in the streets of Moscow but also in the virtual space. The Russian word “дождь” (rain) turned to be the first Cyrillic word in Twitter's worldwide trending topics, RIA Novosti [RUS] reports. It happened after Moscow bloggers witnessed a minor rain, that followed several weeks of unusually...
Russia: Unknown People in Masks and Police Attack Environmentalists
From 20 to 40 young people in white masks attacked the camp of the defenders of the Khimki forest park [RUS], Igor Podgorny [RUS] and Novaya Gazeta [RUS] reported. The police intervention didn't help – instead several environmentalists and journalists were detained.
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