Stories about Eastern & Central Europe from August, 2010
Hungary: St. Stephen
Hungarian Spectrum writes about the history of the cult of St. Stephen, the first king of the Hungarians, who was canonized on Aug. 20, 1083.
Hungary: Foreign Media on Orbán's Government
Hungarian Spectrum reviews foreign media coverage of Viktor Orbán's government – here, here, and here.
Russia: Porsche Cayenne and Firefighting
The Moscow Diaries re-posts LJ user fichetto‘s photos (RUS) of a 2007 Porsche Cayenne of Yevgeny Chernyshev, head of Moscow's firefighting service – “retrofitted to…fight fires?”
Russia: Soviet History and Tetris
Siberian Light shares “A Complete History of the Soviet Union, Arranged to the Melody of Tetris” video, found via Global Dashboard.
Poland: Open-Air Market in Krakow
A walk through Krakow's Hala Targowa market – at Polandian.
Ukraine: Blueberries and Early Harvest
Blueberries and this year's early harvesting in the Ukrainian countryside – at The Pickle Project.
Russia: Kaliningrad Politics
RFE/RL's The Power Vertical and A Good Treaty (here and here) cover the Kaliningrad governor situation.
Russia: It's not the Kremlin
THIS summer Russians faced several state attempts to "filter" (selectively block) websites. And as in many other things, Russia has gone its own way with a slightly more complicated technique: regional filtering.
Russia: Blog Posts on Hospital in Russian Town Lead to Debates on Russian Healthcare
A blogger from Israel with Russian roots was unfortunate enough to get sick while visiting her relatives in Russia. Her recollections and pictures of a hospital in the city of Voronezh [ENG] provoked heated debates on the state of Russian health care.
Hungary: Skateboarding priest gets adepts
Videos of Catholic priests doing good don't usually go viral, but this one featuring a Hungarian priest has made it's way around the world. What is he doing different? He's skateboarding! Via neatorama.
Russia: Bloggers Accuse Pro-Kremlin Youth Leader in Minor Abuse
Vasiliy Yakemenko [RUS], a leader of “Nashi” and director of the Federal Youth Agency, has been accused [RUS] by bloggers of having sex with a 17-year-old female activist of the movement, Noviy Region reports [RUS]. The main evidence is a screenshot [RUS] of the LiveJournal conversation, where Yakemenko acknowledges the...
Russia: LiveJournal Communities as a Transparency Tool
Alexey Sidorenko explores how LiveJournal communities are being used to promote transparency and accountability in Russia.
Russian Internet Surveillance Allegedly Hacked
Bloggers discuss alleged hack-attack [RUS] on the government surveillance system (SORM [EN]) that traces government e-mails. The Russian Federal Security Service acknowledged the attack but denied any rumors that sensitive data had been stolen although some Internet users published [RUS] screenshots of the hacked system. LJ user leicacit suggested [RUS]...
Caucasus: Armenia, Azerbaijan risky countries to surf the Net
Writing on the AVG blog, the anti-virus company's chief research officer says that Armenia and Azerbaijan are the third and fourth most risky places to surf the web. Although the full list of 144 countries hasn't been released, The two most risky, Turkey and Russia, also border the Caucasus region...
Russia: More Bloggers Join Discussion on Russian Nationalism
Paul Goble mentions [EN] the article of Valery Solovey on nazdem.info that predicts [RUS] the rise of new type of Russian nationalism tied to democratic ideas. LJ user ammosov says [RUS] that “Russians should re-invent themselves,” which will result in forming several Russian nations in different parts of the country.
Russia: Bloggers Defend Opposition Artist from Discreditation
LJ users _o_tets [RUS] and crazymozart [RUS] disprove the series of discrediting materials against famous opposition musician Yuri Shevchuk [EN]. After Shevchuk got engaged in the political debates at the beginning of 2010, a number of online publications [RUS] accused the musician of alcoholism and mental sickness.
France: Discrimination Against Roma People, Labeled as “Thieves”
While the expulsions of Roma people are in full throttle with the silent approbation of the majority of the public opinion, some doubts start to creep in about the fairness of the measures. Some bloggers express their outrage at the measures that target the most vulnerable and the libel of an entire community as "thieves".
Russia: Mass Manifestations In Defense of the Khimki Forest Park
Photobloggers nl [RUS], bb-mos [RUS], zyalt [RUS] share pictures of today's concert in defense of the Khimki Forest Park. The concert, that gathered from 1,000 to 5,000 people in the center of Moscow, transformed into a political rally of people protesting against the government.
Bulgaria: Discovery of John the Baptist's Relics Causes Political Scandal
The discovery of what's believed to be St. John the Baptist's remains last month caused a political scandal and gave rise to a passionate debate in the Bulgarian community. Ruslan Trad translates a selection of bloggers' views.
Russia: Bloggers Expose Death Rate Increase
Until the emergence of Web 2.0, the Russian government had enjoyed a monopoly on death rate information and could manipulate it. Gregory Asmolov investigates how the Russian bloggers have changed the situation.
Russia: Shocking Pictures of Russian Neo-Nazis
Bigpicture.ru posts Guillaume Herbaut‘s [FR] photos of the “Slavic Union” [RUS], a neo-Nazi group aimed to establish National-socialist reign in Russia. In April 2010, the group's activity had been prohibited.