Latest posts by Gregory Asmolov from June, 2010
Russia: Chechen President Launches Blog
Ramzan Kadyrov [EN], president of the Chechen Republic [EN], launched a blog ya-kadyrov [RUS] at Livejournal. In his first post Kadyrov writes that he is “a sociable and to the limit outspoken person”, and that he “hopes to develop friendship and discuss various events with his readers”. There is no option to...
Russia: Bloggers React to President Medvedev's Silicon Valley Tour
For the first 24 hours, Dmitry Medvedev's @KremlinRussia Twitter account provided a unique opportunity to send unmoderated comments to the Russian president. Then all the comments were removed, and the era of the Russian unmoderated online democracy ended. Gregory Asmolov reviews Russian bloggers' reactions to the president's visit to California.
Russia: Flaws and Pitfalls of the Subsidized “Social” Internet Plan
Gregory Asmolov examines the potential of the Russian government's two new initiatives that aim at reducing the digital divide in the country.
Russia: Novaya Gazeta, An Opposition Newspaper Under Internet Attack
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: Authorities Anounce “Social Plan” for Internet Access
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: From “Sovereign Democracy” to “Sovereign Internet”?
Gregory Asmolov analyzes some of the recent Internet-related initiatives of the Russian government and explains what RuNet may possibly evolve into in the future.
Russia: Mysterious Death of a Soldier in the Far East
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: Famous Blogger Speaks About the Future of Social Networks
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: Media Company Calls to Close Country's Biggest Social Network.
Alexander Akopov, head of a media company “Amedia“, called [RUS] to close Russia's biggest social network “Vkontakte” for massive copyright violations describing it as “the main pirate of the country” and its users as “30 millions of criminals”. He offered to prosecute both the network and its users and demand 100 million...
