· November, 2010

Stories about Russia from November, 2010

Russia: Competing Models of Internet Politics

RuNet Echo  30 November 2010

RuNet becomes an arena of the competition of at least two concepts of the usage of the cyberspace: "United Russia"'s formula "Internet instead of democracy" and independent, grass-roots formula "Internet as a free environment for civil society initiatives." Alexey Sidorenko analyzed the recent trends of the role of the Internet in contemporary Russian politics.

Russia: Online Cartoon Against Corruption in Road Construction

RuNet Echo  29 November 2010

Antimult studio published [RUS] an informative and entertaining cartoon on corruption in road construction in Russia. Together with usage of the old technologies, corruption causes 4 times higher price of roads than in Europe. Bad roads cost Russians 6-8 percent of GDP and 20 thousand deaths in car accidents every...

Russia: 25% of Registered Cyrillic Domains Suspended

RuNet Echo  29 November 2010

Coordination Center for .rf (.рф) domain (ccTLD) has temporarily suspended [RUS] all domains registered by Ru-Center registrar following the scandals with the closed auctions for the most lucrative Cyrillic domains. So far Ru-Center had registered almost every fourth .rf domain. The domains will be suspended until sides will reach an...

China: Time for a new conversation about privacy invasion

  28 November 2010

With a broader and perhaps global view of more pervasive privacy issues, poet and professor Rui Shen asks: "Some people disagree with airport security measures that display people's bodies, feeling those to be an invasion of their privacy. Watching the debate on the news, though, I wonder: are these people confused or just stupid?"

Russia: Mikhail Khodorkovsky's Facebook Account Banned and Un-Banned

RuNet Echo  24 November 2010

On November 20, 2010 Facebook has suspended Mikhail Khodorkovsky‘s private account allegedly due to usage violations. It took four days to convince the social network to un-ban it. Anton Nossik once again noticed [RUS] how anonymous reporting and suspension of the opposition accounts becomes a new censorship technique, even more...

Russia: Bashkortostan President Meets Loyal Bloggers

RuNet Echo  24 November 2010

JournalUfa comments [RUS] on the recent meeting of Rustem Khamitov, the new president (governor) of Bashkortostan republic, with the bloggers. Only loyal bloggers were allowed to come, plus several controversial moments were cut from local TV-coverage, blogger petroffvalerij claims [RUS]. In general, Bashkortostan-based community expressed confusion [RUS] about this attempt...

Russia: LiveJournal Suspends Another Independent Blogger

RuNet Echo  24 November 2010

LiveJournal abuse team has suspended account of Stanislav Sadalsky, an actor and a popular independent blogger. Sadalsky claims he can access his account but can't post new posts at stanis-sadal [RUS]. So far the blogger launched a new account at sadalskij.livejournal.com. It is the third LiveJournal suspension of the political blogger...

Russia: Oleg Kashin is Back Online

RuNet Echo  18 November 2010

Oleg Kashin, recently recovered from artificially inducted coma, published the first post [RUS] entitled: “I have nothing to say now but I will thank everyone later.” A post with just a YouTube video for the song played by Russian rock-band Aquarium gathered almost 450 wishes of faster recovery.

Russia: One-Year Anniversary of Magnitsky's Death

  17 November 2010

On the one-year anniversary of lawyer Sergei Magnitsky's death, Robert Amsterdam writes: “No one has ever been held accountable for Magnitsky's death: no charges, no arrests, no trials, and no justice, despite the mountains of evidence and even the names of the ‘untouchables’ made public. Instead, with a familiar Russian...

Russia: A Selection of Kashin's Blog Posts Translated

RuNet Echo  17 November 2010

More on journalist Oleg Kashin's case from the Anglophone Russia blogosphere: on OpenDemocracy.net, Mumin Shakirov translates and analyzes a selection of Kashin's blog posts; Sean's Russia Blog writes that Kashin “has become yet another assault weapon in a much larger political battle.”

Russia: Cartoons and Public Diplomacy

RuNet Echo  17 November 2010

Global Chaos writes about the potential impact that the Soviet and Russian cartoons in public diplomacy: “They can even help overcome long-held preconceptions and stereotypes about the other, thus creating the space for further openness to meaningful communication and information processing.”

Russia-France: Antifascists Rally for Khimki Forest in Louvre

RuNet Echo  17 November 2010

French antifascists shot a video [FR/EN] of a protest action in Louvre, France. Activists demanded cancellation of the highway that would cross Khimki forest park as well as stopping prosecution against Alexey Gaskarov and Maxim Solopov, two activists who are incriminated in assaulting Khimki City administration.