Stories from 15 December 2010
Russia: Commentary on Dec. 11 Moscow Rioting
Reactions to the Dec. 11 xenophobic riots in downtown Moscow – by Vadim Nikitin, Miriam Elder, Natalia Antonova, Robert Amsterdam's blog, and The Power Vertical.
Russia: Too Warm in the World's Coldest Place
eYakutia reports on the abnormally “warm weather” in Oymyakon, “the world’s coldest inhabited place”: just -20 ºC/-4 ºF, “the heat record of the Siberian winter.”
Russia: Kashin on Spartak Fans and Nov. 6 Beating, in English
Russian journalist Oleg Kashin writes for OpenDemocracy.net about the authorities’ inadequate response to a rally by Spartak football fans, and, for the New York Times, about the Nov. 6 attack on him in Moscow (both texts are in English).
Ukraine: Chernobyl Tourism
Chernobyl and Eastern Europe posts a list of errors in the AP story on Chernobyl tourism, supplied by Michael Forster Rothbart, and quotes “a friend in Kyiv who operates one of the companies that offer Chernobyl tours”: “He stated that it looks like the new government has decided to ‘monopolize...
Slovenia: Referendum Results
Sleeping With Pengovsky writes about the “disastrous” results and the implications of the referendum on Slovenia's public TV law: “The law was nixed with 72.64 percent votes against and only 27.36 percent in favour, with a criminally low voter turnout.”
@MedvedevRussia, Are You Listening? A Story of 6 Months on Twitter
Since first appearing on Twitter in June 2010, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has become one of the most prominent tweeters on Russian Tweet-o-sphere. Yelena Osipova looks back at some of the highlights and key moments of the past six months.