Latest posts by Alexey Sidorenko from July, 2010
Russia: The First Case of YouTube Ban

Alexey Sidorenko writes about the Russian authorities' first attempt to ban YouTube.
Russia Tops Aggressive Internet Traffic Rating

Habrahabr users discuss [RUS] the latest Akamai‘s “State of the Internet” report. According to the research, 12 percent of all the Internet-attacks in the first quarter of 2010 were carried...
Russia: Prosecutor That Banned Youtube Gives Interview

Marker.ru publishes an interview with Vladimir Pakhomov, city prosecutor that obliged the local Internet provider to block Youtube, Web.archive.org and other websites [EN]. Pakhomov expressed Chinese-government-style philosophy on Internet-filtering: “Provider...
Russia: LiveJournal Under Fire Of Criticism for “Innovations”

LiveJournal, Russia's still most popular blog platform, recently fell under severe criticism for several “innovations”: purging suspended and “inactive” accounts [EN] and closing OpenID registration [RUS] (allowed LJ-users to comment in other...
Russia: Forest Park Defenders Attack Khimki City Administration

User berillii posts [RUS] a footage of the storming of the Khimki city administration [EN] by anarchists and antifascists that took side of the Khimki forest park defenders. LJ-user mmet...
Russia: Unknown People in Masks and Police Attack Environmentalists

From 20 to 40 young people in white masks attacked the camp of the defenders of the Khimki forest park [RUS], Igor Podgorny [RUS] and Novaya Gazeta [RUS] reported. The...
Russia: Anti-Religious Online Group Closed

“Antireligion” group in the social network “Vkontakte“, with more than 8000 members, had been closed and its content deleted, ru_antireligion reports [RUS]. Prosecutor's office, that was checking the group for...
Russia: “Why Did They Kill Yuri Volkov?”

The murder of a TV journalist and football fan Yuri Volkov in the centre of Moscow on July 10, 2010, became a widely discussed event in the Russian blogosphere. A complicated topic, dealing with hostile ethnic stereotypes, crime, police corruption and Russian subcultures, has generated nearly 7,000 comments, tweets and blog posts.
Russia: Roadtrip to Caucasus

Popular bloggers tema [RUS], nl [RUS] and others [RUS] (9 bloggers in 3 cars) post pictures and short notes from the roadtrip to Caucasus, that started on July 15th, 2010. So far, they travelled...
Russia: Pictures of the Khimki Forest Defense

Photographer Igor Podgorny publishes [RUS] pictures from the camp of the defenders of the Khimki forest park [EN] situated in the Moscow's outskirts. After authorities started to cut the trees...
Russia: Collection of Online Ideas

Blogger fritzmorgen published [RUS] a collection of ideas gathered from various Russian bloggers. Most interesting ideas include: Russian laws put into Wiki-like engine [RUS], several implementations of ‘Taxi 2.0′ idea...
Russia: Priest's Blog Hacked

While police denied to start investigation [RUS] of the hack attack of Maxim Sviridenkov's blog [EN], one more blog had been hacked [RUS]. This time the victim of “Hacker Hell” (alleged Bonn-based...
Russia: New Election Codex Project Discussed Online

Last month, a Russian non-governmental election-monitoring organization, Golos (A Voice), published an alternative Election Codex on the internet, that is designed to provide free, fair and transparent elections in Russia. It is one of a few recent examples of publicly developed draft bills that are promoted online.
Russia: Deadly Combination of Alcoholism and Heat
LJ-user morita reports [RUS] three cases within one day (and one deadly) of people getting seriously injured after getting drunk at the heat. While the temperature in Saint-Petersburg, where morita works...
Russia: Photo of Four Rainbows

Taiga.info posts a picture [RUS] of unusual natural phenomena that occurred in Tomsk (Siberia) – four rainbows were caught by photographer at one time.
Russia: Tax Service Lacks Paper to Process Documents

Saleksashenko posts [RUS] a photo of the announcement in the office of a local Tax Service [RUS] that says the department lacks paper to process documents. This case illustrates the real...
Russia: New “One Day Rule” for Censoring Comments on Demand

Alexey Sidorenko analyses the new practice of comment removal on news media websites introduced by the Russian authorities. Although not direct and not efficient, it threatens to significantly limit online discussion.
Russia: Political Regime as a Model for Social Network

User art_of_press ironically compares [RUS] Facebook to its clone Vkontakte, Russia's most popular social network. His conclusion: Vkontakte's model reminds current political regime. Vkontakte changes Terms of Service without informing users,...
USA, Russia: Discussing ‘Spies’ 2.0

The arrest of 11 individuals belonging to a network of alleged Russian spies became the topic of the week on the Russian Internet. Alexey Sidorenko reviews the online discussion.
Russia: Hackers Provoke Closure of the Major News Website

Several articles of Ura.ru, one of the major media outlets, had been significantly transformed by unknown hackers, kommersant.ru reported [RUS]. Aksana Panova, executive editor of the portal, suggested, hackers added...
Russia: Human Rights Website Hacked and Blocked

First page of Prison.org, a website Moscow Center for Prison Reform, of one of the oldest Russian human rights NGOs, had been hacked, Russ.ru reported [RUS]. The content of the website...