· October, 2008

Stories about Russia from October, 2008

Russia: Chinese Laborers

  31 October 2008

Window on Eurasia writes that “ethnic Chinese working and living in the Russian Far East find their surrounding social and political scene far more congenial than do their co-ethnics living in Moscow or other cities in European Russia but are far less interested in remaining there permanently than the latter...

Russia: “Help Svetlana Bakhmina” Petition

  29 October 2008

As of now, 71,250 people have signed an online petition appealing to the Russian president to pardon Svetlana Bakhmina, a former senior lawyer for Mikhail Khodorkovsky's oil company Yukos, who was arrested in December 2004 and sentenced to 6 1/2 years in prison for embezzlement and tax evasion in April 2006.

BOBs: Global Videobloggers Compete for Award Part 1

  28 October 2008

The BOBs, Deutsche Welle's yearly contest for online products: blogs, podcasts and videoblogs has already chosen 176 nominees for the 16 different categories. In the video blogging category, participants from different parts of the world compete for the honor to be considered the best in their group, and voters will have until November 26th to choose their favorite.

Russia: Dozens of LJ Blogs Suspended, Then Restored

  23 October 2008

Several dozen Russian LJ blogs – including quite a few top-ranking ones – got suspended for no obvious reason tonight, causing a massive LJ outcry. LJ user tarlith-history compiled a list of suspended blogs (RUS), calling the incident a “Blogocaust Night.” LJ user oleg-kozyrev called (RUS) what happened a “blogocide.”...

Russia, U.S.: LJ User Drugoi in NYC

  22 October 2008

LJ user drugoi, one of the most popular and prolific Russian bloggers, shares his wonderful photos of New York City - and his thoughts on some of the issues discussed on Oct. 17 at the Russian-language blogosphere conference at Columbia University School of Journalism - "Russia Online: Mapping the Russian-Language Blogosphere and Participatory Internet."

Russia, Ukraine: Financial Crisis

  21 October 2008

IZO cites a post by LJ.Rossia.org user mrparker (RUS) about a somewhat panicky mistranslation of a Reuters news item on the financial situation by a Russian news agency. Also, a few notes on the banks, real estate and contemporary art in Ukraine.

Russia: Firing Grad Rockets at Tskhinvali on Aug. 8?

  19 October 2008

War correspondent Vadim Rechkalov (LJ user voinodel) has posted an Aug. 9 interview with a Russian soldier (RUS) who said they had fired at least 20 Grad “packages” (each “package” has 40 rockets, which makes it around 800 rockets) at Tskhinvali on Aug. 8 – because they “had to seize...

The Balkans: Macedonia and Montenegro Recognize Kosovo

  15 October 2008

On Oct. 9, Montenegro and Macedonia recognized Kosovo's independence. One blogger noted that "coincidentally, this raises the number of countries recognizing to exactly 50." Below are a few more responses from the English-language blogosphere.