· August, 2010

Stories about Eastern & Central Europe from August, 2010

Hungary: St. Stephen

  26 August 2010

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.

Russia: Porsche Cayenne and Firefighting

RuNet Echo  26 August 2010

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: It's not the Kremlin

  26 August 2010

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.

Hungary: Skateboarding priest gets adepts

  25 August 2010

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

RuNet Echo  25 August 2010

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...

Russian Internet Surveillance Allegedly Hacked

RuNet Echo  24 August 2010

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]...

Russia: More Bloggers Join Discussion on Russian Nationalism

RuNet Echo  23 August 2010

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

RuNet Echo  23 August 2010

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”

  22 August 2010

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

RuNet Echo  22 August 2010

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.

Russia: Bloggers Expose Death Rate Increase

RuNet Echo  20 August 2010

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

RuNet Echo  20 August 2010

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.

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.