· June, 2010

Stories about Russia from June, 2010

Russia: Novaya Gazeta, An Opposition Newspaper Under Internet Attack

RuNet Echo  18 June 2010

Novaya Gazeta is a liberal opposition newspaper in Russia that is famous beyond Russia's borders. Several of its journalists have been killed, and it continues to attract both online and offline threats. Sergey Sokolov, the deputy executive editor, shares with GV his perspectives on information security and the ongoing investigations into the journalists' murders.

Russia: New Websites to Promote Modernist Islam

RuNet Echo  15 June 2010

Paul Goble writes [EN] about the launch of two websites islam-portal.ru and soyuzmusulmanok.ru, that promote modernist Islam. Two websites, Goble suggests, illustrate both attempts to seek connections with younger Muslim population, while competing with fundamentalist Islamists, and to prove Tatars as “intellectual leaders of the Muslim umma of Russia”.

Russia: Online Media Exempt From Comments Responsibility

RuNet Echo  15 June 2010

Russian Supreme Court finally approved the decision concerning responsibility of online news media for the comments published on their forums, lenta.ru reported [RUS]. The court exempt the news websites from any responsibility for comments left by the users. However, Roskomnadzor [RUS], Internet regulatory body, has the authority to oblige site...

Russia: Authorities Anounce “Social Plan” for Internet Access

RuNet Echo  14 June 2010

Igor Schegolev, Russian minister of Communications, announced [RUS] today that country's largest, state-controlled, access provider “Svyazinvest“ [ENG] will launch a subsidized Internet access plan. Users of the new “Social” plan will be able to access few “socially important” websites for lower price (at reduced speed, though). Few days earlier, “Social Plug“, a parallel...

Russia: Cyrillic Email Accounts?

RuNet Echo  11 June 2010

Svetlana Gladkova of Profy.com writes about the Russian government's plans to provide every citizen with a Cyrillic email account, points out “the problem of the @ character” on the Cyrillic keyboard, and concludes: “But the worst part is that I have no idea why my taxes go into crazy things...

Russia: Apple at Moscow Schools

RuNet Echo  11 June 2010

Svetlana Gladkova of Profy.com reports that “at least a quarter of the new Moscow schools to be opened this fall for school children will be equipped with Mac computers, including MacBook laptops and Mac Mini desktops.”

Russia: Networks of Paid Bloggers Exposed

RuNet Echo  10 June 2010

In Russia, networks of paid bloggers sometimes turn to advocating certain political views or to promoting the official political agenda. A recent investigation by LJ user dobrokhotov sheds some light on this "grey zone" of RuNet.

Russia: Mysterious Death of a Soldier in the Far East

RuNet Echo  10 June 2010

Alexey Navalny, famous anti-corruption blogger, posted a shocking video [RUS], depicting an observation of Roman Suslov's dead body. According to Russian military officials, Suslov committed a suicide during the transfer to Far East military base, though his family and independent journalists suspect [RUS] he was tortured and later murdered by military...

Russia: Street Action to Save Khimki Forest

RuNet Echo  9 June 2010

Bloggers Igor Podgorny [RUS] and bb-mos [RUS] post pictures of the street action to protect a historic oak forest north of Moscow. Legally protected Khimki Forest Park is endangered to be completely replaced due to the construction of the new Moscow-St.Petersburg highway [EN].

Russia: Prosecutor's Office Forces Provider to Close Website

RuNet Echo  9 June 2010

Prosecutor's office of Zabaikalsky region [EN] demanded to block [RUS] the website of newspaper “Russkoye Zabaikalie” (previously available at www.srn.megalink.ru), whose content has been officially recognized as “extremist.” Earlier, the newspaper's editor was given a 1-year suspended sentence [RUS] for xenophobic and anti-Semitic articles.

Russia: Famous Blogger Speaks About the Future of Social Networks

RuNet Echo  7 June 2010

Sergey Kuznetsov, one of the first RuNet activists, discusses how social networks will look like in five years. In his interview to Lenta.ru [RUS] he argues that analysts should focus on functions but not platforms, describes the new ways of virtual connections between people, and suggests that the social networks and electronic devices...

Russia: Terror in times of tranquility

  5 June 2010

LJ user nature nature writes about [RUS] three terror bombings shaking Moscow back in 1977 – an unprecedented phenomenon in Brezhnevite Soviet Union.