Stories about Eastern & Central Europe from February, 2011
Russia: Blog Mapping Project Launches
Creators of crowdsourcing mapping service blog-map.ru ambitiously aim to “unite all bloggers on one map.” Despite many incorrectly mapped blogs, the service offers quite unusual experience of finding Russian bloggers even in the most distant places [RUS].
Russia: Photos of “Putin's Palace” Published by Bloggers
Krasnodar environmentalist group “Open Shore” published a photo report that illustrates how a number of huge villas have been built on a place of a relict forest on the shore of the Black sea. One of the villas shot by activists is the so-called “Putin's Palace,” a 3-storey luxurious manor...
Ukraine: Dear Polish Delegation, We’re in Shock, Too
Earlier this week, a Ukrainian TV station broadcasted a report about the visit of the Polish parliamentary delegation to Ukraine's parliament. According to the report, the Polish visitors were shocked by the Ukrainian MPs’ illegal practice of voting on behalf of fellow party members. Tetyana Bohdanova reports on Ukrainian netizens' reactions.
Tunisia: Who’s to Blame for the Murder of the Polish Priest?
News of the murder of a Polish priest near the capital Tunis on February 18 was received with shock and grief by Tunisians. In Tunisian blogs and social media, many theories prevail of who could be responsible and what the motive would be.
Ukraine: Kiev architecture in decay
Sistemny deriban writes about [RUS] the decay of prominent architectural sites in Kiev and how Ukrainian politicians ignore the issue.
Russia-Kyrgyzstan: Mount Putin on the map
Windows to Russia reports that Kyrgyzstan on 17 February decided to name a mountain peak after Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.
Balkans: Ceca and Other “Unwelcome” Singers
Belgraded posts a list of Serbian, Croatian and Bosnian singers who are “unwelcome in former enemy countries.”
Serbia: Modern Architecture
Block 23 in New Belgrade and other examples of modern Serbian architecture – at Nothing Against Serbia.
Russia: Popular Social Network Opens Its Profiles to Everybody
Russian popular social network Vkontakte.ru prohibited its users from limiting access to their online profiles. Now everybody is able to view personal information of other users. People started protesting against the decision and threatened Vkontakte.ru to take it to court, Gazeta.ru reported.
Russia: New .РФ Domains Could Be Sold Illegaly
The Prosecutor General's Office in Russia expressed its interest in the fact that the biggest domain registration company in Russia “RU-Center” reserved 60,000 domain names within first hours after open registration and later sold 25,000 of those in closed auctions, newspapers Kommersant.ru reported.
Russia: Famous AI Specialist Says Election 2018 Will be Won Online
Famous Russian AI specialist and programmer Igor Ashmanov gave an interview to Banki.ru where he stresses the importance of the Internet in Russia and said that Russian presidential election 2018 would be won on the Net.
Ukraine: New Blog on “Politics, and Everything in Between”
GV Author Tetyana Bohdanova has launched an English-language blog “on Ukraine, politics, and everything in between” – Good Girl Gone Ukrainian.
Serbia: Government Website Broken Into Due to 12345 Password
Belgraded.com writes about the most recent awkward situation that the costly website of Serbia's Ministry of Ecology and Urban Planning has found itself in: “The site was the target of public ridicule once again couple of hours ago when someone noticed that the username/password combination for logging on to the...
Serbia: The Semlin Nazi Concentration Camp
Bill's Blog writes about Semlin Judenlager, a Nazi concentration camp in Belgrade.
Russia: Yakutia's Drinking Water; World's Deepest Ice Shaft
Among many other things, Bolot of AskYakutia.com writes about “the world’s deepest shaft in the permafrost zone” and about drinking water in Yakutsk.
Russia: Photos From Coal Miners’ Towns in Perm Region
Alexander Belenkiy (LJ user macos) posts photos (RUS) taken in the neglected – but not yet fully deserted – coal miners’ towns in Perm region, where the first mine appeared in 1797 and the last one closed in 2000: “All this resembles today's Abkhazia or wartime Grozny.”
Russia: Recreating a Traditional Village Hospital
Mikhail Shlyapnikov (LJ user michael-077) writes in detail (RUS) about plans to set up a communal village hospital – old-style, but functional – in Kolionovo, Moscow region: “This, perhaps, is a rare case in contemporary history of rural Russia when, contrary to the general tendency, a village hospital is not...
Croatia: Google Flees Red Tape
Viktor Markovic/@Belgrade reports: “Google fled Croatia because of red tape http://www.croatiantimes.com/index.php?id=17021.”
Macedonia: Reactions to Kale Incident and Hate Speech
After Sunday's mass fighting between ethnic Macedonian and ethnic Albanian groups on Skopje Fortress - Kale, social media frequented by inhabitants of Macedonia buzzed with hate speech and reactions to it.
Russia: Blogger Pays for Badmouthing Putin Online
Rapid development of RuNet in recent years has only stared testing the limits of what one can say online. But the army of bloggers and their enthusiastic efforts to defend the online freedom paint an optimistic picture of the blogosphere's future.
Hungary: A New Blog on EU Council Presidency
Via Kosmopolito, a link to Kovács and Kováts – a new blog that's “supposed to denote [the two authors’] weekly adventures while working for the Hungarian [EU Council] Presidency.”
About our Eastern & Central Europe coverage
Filip Stojanovski is the Central Europe editor. Email him story ideas or volunteer to write.
Daria Dergacheva is the Eastern Europe editor. Email her story ideas or volunteer to write.
