Russia: Seeking Justice by Linking and Re-Posting · Global Voices
Vadim Isakov

The Russian blogosphere became a place of public outcry against the  lack of adequate punishment for corrupt government officials and their  relatives violating the law. A simple blog search reveals numerous posts  criticizing Russian police, senators and governors who disregard any  notion of the law and easily avoid any consequences for taking bribes,  pursuing illegal business deals or even killing people.
But the public frustration online doesn't always lead to real-life changes. The recent story of a car crash in one of the Siberian cities and online reaction to the incident illustrate how an improvised online campaign attempts to affect gloomy reality.
On the  surface, the story of Anna Shavenkova who ran over two women  while driving her Toyota on December 2, 2009 in Irkutsk is nothing new in Russia.  Thousands of people are killed in road accidents every month. But the story  took a slightly different spin when people found out that Anna is a  daughter of Lyudmila Shavenkova, a chairwoman of the election committee  in Irkutsk region, who apparently has a lot of influence on the way  things are done in that part of the country.
The disturbing video [ENG] of  the crash, which keeps being deleted from YouTube, has been shown by some media outlets and, at first, did  not originally cause any significant discussion online. Some bloggers  pointed out the indifference of people who continued walking as if  nothing happened. Some were upset that Anna, the driver, got out of the  car and started immediately calling someone (not the ambulance) instead  of checking the condition of the victims (one of them died in a hospital  several days later).
What really led to the outrage on the  blogs is a result of a formal investigation of the crash by the road  police in Irkutsk. Anna is allegedly being treated as a  witness of the crash although she was the one who drove the car into the  sidewalk and hit the by-passers.
The well-known blogger and member  of “The Other Russia” oppositional  coalition [EN] Marina Litvinovich (aka LJ user abstract2001)  commented on it in her blog post [RUS] that quickly attracted thousands of  visitors and hundreds of comments:
Многие, наверное, помнят ролик из Иркутска, где камера видеонаблюдения  зафиксировала ДТП. Его виновница, Анна Шавенкова, на полной скорости сбившая двух девушек в  самом центре Иркутска, вдруг оказалась не виновницей происшествия, а  его свидетельницей. Кто  является виновником ДТП, суд пока не установил. Вполне вероятно, что  виновником окажется автомобиль. А Анна Шавенкова просто так, случайно,  оказалась на водительском сидении. Чисто как свидетель.
Litvinovich urged other bloggers to re-post this information online hoping  that it would eventually catch the attention of media. Following the advice from a fellow blogger, she even created a “re-post” button at the end of the post making it easier for everyone to spread the information.
Many bloggers responded to this by enthusiastically linking to Litvinovich's blog (the most popular reply to the post was “I re-posted”) and expressing their deepest concerns with how the local authorities handled the incident.
A good portion of online readers admitted the impotence of law in Russia against people with power and called for concrete actions. Blogger tvn1, for example, wrote [RUS] that one cannot blame a mother who tried to shield her daughter from the punishment. Instead, the blogger drew attention to the people who made it possible for a person to be above the law:
А вот судью и ментов надо мочить жёстко и показательно. Из-за них,  взяточников, и стал возможным мажорский беспредел.
Нужно уже брать  пример с той-же Греции, Франции т.п. Так за такие дела люди выходят на  улицы и пускают в ход силу ломов, коктейлей молотова и прочих подручных  средств, этим самым напоминая, что власть – слуга народа а не народ на  службе у власти.
Proposals to “whack” authorities and “take it to the streets” were not uncommon among the bloggers.
Some suggested that the “lawlessness” is the fault of people who elected those authorities. LJ user toytronic wrote [RUS]:
В этой стране власть всегда имела граждан, почитайте историю! Радуйтесь, что в ЖЖ вам пока любезно позволяют чувствовать себя свободными! Вы сами проголосовали за вертикаль власти и парламентское большинство, а получили тотальную коррупцию, полное разложение МВД, цензуру СМИ и парламент состоящий из коррупционных чиновников, на все это мерзко смотреть! У вас была возможность избрать демократическое гражданское общество в конце 90х! Если народ не поумнеет, его ждет новый 37 год!
Another blogger called for active participation in local and regional elections to prevent corrupt politicians from taking power.
Litvinovich's post is currently among the most popular ones on the Russian blogosphere leading in every rating of the top online entries. It seems that the author achieved the goal to attract attention of many netizens to the issue.
But it is still unclear if the improvised virtual campaign will amount to any results in real life. Litvinovich seems to be convinced that it will change things for the better. Replying to a comment doubting the effectiveness of re-posting, Litvinovich optimistically noted:
Опыт показывает, что простым привлечением внимания  моно много добиться – например того, что следствие и суд к проблеме  отнесутся по-другому, а не так как сейчас. Если не помоет, будем  думать, что еще можно сделать.