Latest posts by Alexey Sidorenko from February, 2010
Russia and US to Broaden Collaboration Online
Vesti.ru wrote [RUS] about the visit of the U.S. “innovation delegation” [EN] led by America's Chief Technology Officer Aneesh Chopra [EN]. The plans of the Russian-U.S. cooperation include launching e-government Web sites and visits of Twitter, Cisco and Mozilla representatives to Russia in June 2010.
Russia: Sakhalin Island Fails to Connect to Broadband
Blogger w7062c wrote [RUS] about two unsuccessful attempts to connect Sakhalin island [EN] (island in the Pacific north closer to Japan) to the broadband network of Russia. The third attempt is scheduled for 2011. Until then, 580,000 inhabitants of the island are able to go online via satellite only.
Russia: Government Supports Blogger School
Gov-gov.ru blogs [RUS] about a new online initiative: government-sponsored blogger schools that emerge in Tomsk (Siberia) [RUS] and Dagestan [RUS]. The Dagestan region has one of the lowest Internet penetration rates in the country. The schools involve the most popular Kremlin-affiliated bloggers.
Russia: Provider Sued For Not Blocking Web Sites
The prosecutor's office of the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug, Siberian region where most of Russia's oil comes from, filed a suit against a local Internet provider that refused to block “extremist” Web site, Regnum reported. However, there's no federal law that requires providers to block the sites.
Russia: Online Media Competition Lacks Transparency
The Russian Federal Telecommunications Agency announced [RUS] a competition to support online media. Adindex.ru reports [RUS] that requirements for lack transparency and suggests the competition is a way to encourage new media loyal to the government.
Russia: Media Portal Undergoes Check For Extremism
The war on extremism became a universal formula used by Russian authorities to fight the freedom of online expression. Interestingly enough, this practice co-exists with ambitious projects of the Russian President Dmitry Medvedev to modernize the country.
Russia: Bloggers Remember Rock Legend
In February, Russian bloggers celebrated a sad date. Ilya Kormiltsev, one of Russia’s most talented and controversial poets and songwriters, died of spine cancer three years ago. Kormiltsev’s death became the first and the most publicized death on the Russian Internet.
Russia: Bloggers Discuss Utilization of Old Books
Libraries are throwing away old books due to old age and lack of readership, literary critic Alexander Zhitinski reported [RUS]. A library in Saint-Petersburg had to throw away all the books published before 1999. Mistreatment of books provoked a heated discussion online [RUS] while mainstream media ignored the subject.
Russia: 17-Year-Old Builds Popular Video Chat
The New York Times blogs [EN] about Andrey Ternovskiy, a 17-year-old Moscovite, inventor of popular random video chat Chatroulette.com.
Russia: Tracing City Buses in Real Time
The city administration of Ryazan [ENG] in the Central Russia became the first in the country to launch an interactive map of the public buses [RUS], gov-gov.ru reported. Equipped with GPS devices, the buses can now be traced online in real time.
Russia Liberilizes Rules For Wi-Fi
Russian President Dmitri Medvedev signed the law [RUS] liberalizing the installation of the Wi-Fi networks. Previously, the installation required tons of paperwork and a formal permission from the government.
Russia: Moscow Wants Its Own ‘Silicon Valley’
The Moscow Times writes [ENG] about the new Kremlin innovation center modeled after the American Silicon Valley. President Dmitry Medvedev signed a decree on creating a working group that would deal with the project.
Russia: Copy-Paste Online To Become Illegal
The Russian Telecommunications Agency is about to propose a new anti-plagiarism law that will require all Web sites to provide hyperlinks to the original source of the information that they use, newspaper Vedomosti reported [RUS]. Experts argue that the law will be hard to enforce.
Russia: More Prominent Reporters Go Online
Another two popular Russian journalists started to blog recently, a contemporary artist Dmitri Vrubel reports [RUS]. The prominent reporters for the major Russian newspaper “Kommersant” Andrei Kolesnikov [RUS] and Valery Panyushkin [RUS] joined the community of bloggers.
Russia: Another Newspaper Web Site Attacked
One of the most influential Russian business newspapers Vedomosti has been experiencing DoS-attacks [EN] for at least four days, Lenta.ru reported [RUS]. This is the second DoS-attack on the major newspaper's Web site in 2010. A Web site of an oppositional weekly Novaya Gazeta has also been attacked earlier [ENG].
Russia: Pictures and Videos of Arctic Winter
Russian traveler Dan Kislov (a.k.a. LJ user nub1an) posted [RUS] a video and pictures of the Nenetsky Autonomous District [EN], one of the most perspective oil and gas provinces in the country. Oil towers, snowstorms and kilometers of unpopulated terrain.
Haiti: Russian Interpol Officer Blogs About Disaster
A Russian Interpol officer in Haiti shares his accounts of the disaster and its aftermath on his blog.
Russia: Blogger Addresses Russian President With Environmental Claim
Blogger tebedam from Norilsk, one of the most polluted cities in the world, wrote a post [RUS] addressing Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and demanding the introduction of innovative environmental technologies.
Russia: Forbes Magazine Publishes List Of Top Government Bloggers
Forbes magazine published the list of the top-20 official bloggers [RUS]. President Medvedev [RUS] tops the list, followed by an ex-oppositionary Maria Gaidar [RUS] and Perm Governor Oleg Chirkunov [RUS].
Russia: Liberal Policy Report Provokes Online Debate
The Institute Of Contemporary Development [EN], a think-tank related to Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, recently presented a policy report “Russia of XXI Century: Image of the Desired Tomorrow” [RUS]. Recommending massive reforms of police, electoral system and strategic partnerships with the U.S. and E.U., the report provoked a big discussion...
Russia: Bloggers Saved Tourist's Life
A blog campaign saved the life of Alexey Kalabin, a Russian tourist bitten by a snake in Indonesia, Svpressa reported. Desperate to contact a Russian insurance company, Kalabin's daughter Anna asked one of the top RuNet bloggers to spread the word online and that led to a happy ending.
