Gregory Asmolov

Latest posts by Gregory Asmolov

Russia: New Details About the National Search Engine

Russia is going develop the National Search Engine, Gazeta.ru writes [RUS]. Despite the recent denial [RUS] of such plans by minister Igor Schegolev, journalists published slides of a closed presentation of the project, defined as the “informational window of Russia” to the world. The  search engine, that will cost more than...

Russia: Internet Draft Bill Published Online

Robert Shlegel, a “United Russia” [EN] party member and a political blogger, published [RUS] a new Internet draft bill. According to the draft, that mainly consists of updates for the current law “On Information, Information Technologies and Data Protection,” Russia has a jurisdiction to prosecute anyone suspected in committing online crimes against its...

Russia: Chechen President Launches Blog

RuNet Echo  27 June 2010

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: 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: 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: Bloggers Cover Moscow Gay Pride Parade

LJ-user Zyalt published [RUS] pictures from Moscow gay pride parade [EN] that took place despite it the ban by Moscow authorities. The event organizers had to change its location several times. Other pictures of the parade, which was just a few minutes long, can be found here, here and here.

Russian “Little Blue Buckets” Movement Reaches Ukraine

Ukraine-based feminist organization “FEMEN” [EN] conducted an action [ENG] in support of the Russian online movement “Little Blue Buckets” [ENG] and against the “unification of Russia and Ukraine under Kremlin patronage.” Activists with their breasts painted in blue tried to rally near the building of the Russian embassy in Kiev,...

Russia: Taking Children as a New Method of Pressure on Journalists

Children of Galina Dmitrieva, an oppositionary journalist and activist, were taken by Russian police after she published an investigation about Russian car manufacturer Avtovaz [EN], Anatoliy Baranov reported [RUS]. After instant blog-campaign her children were returned. Blogger Marina Litvinovich suggests [RUS] this method was used before against at least one oppositionary journalist.

Russia: Hacking of Women's Community Raises Gender, Ethical and Privacy Dilemmas

The legendary Russian women blog community "girls_only" with the most sensitive and private discussions was hacked by anonymous hacker and uploaded to a mirror site. The scandal raised a lot of legal, ethical and online security dilemmas. It also showed that men and women are creatures that live on different Internet planets and inspired online discussions about the gender differences.

Russia: Berkman Center Experts Visit Moscow

Researchers from the Berkman Center for Internet  and Society at Harvard University visited Moscow and met with local journalist and bloggers at the Moscow State University. Lenta.ru writes about the meeting and the research of Russian blogosphere by Harvard University.