Latest posts by Kevin Rothrock from August, 2012
Russia: Police Claim Top Blogger Was Hacked from Germany
The Moscow police department has determined [ru] that Aleksei Navalny's email and Twitter accounts were hacked in late June from a German IP address. Fellow liberal blogger Andrey Malgin criticized [ru] the...
Russia: Foreign Ministry Looks to Germany to Justify Pussy Riot Verdict
Russia's Foreign Ministry has made a series of comments that further enraging Pussy Riot's supporters. Spokesperson Aleksandr Lukashevich defended the recent verdict and lashed out at the West for ignorance about the band members' pasts and highlighted perceived double standards regarding interferences into religious services and criminal penalties, citing laws in Germany and Austria.
Russia: Senator Wants 15 Years in Prison for Hackers
In the aftermath of a hacker attack on the court that convicted Pussy Riot's 3 members, Kremlin youth group organizer and Senator Ruslan Gattarov [ru] has proposed [ru] making criminal penalties stricter...
Russia: State-Owned TV Caught in Anti-Semitism?
Writing on Openspace.Ru, Oleg Kashin discusses [ru] a short-lived but disconcerting report [ru] from state-owned Vesti.Ru about Patriarch Kirill's recent trip to Białystok, Poland, where he visited the Nikolsky Cathedral — home to...
Russia: Pussy Riot's Courthouse Is Hacked By Anonymous
On August 21, just days after Moscow's Khamovnicheskii Court sentenced the 3 members of Pussy Riot to 2 years in prison, hackers attacked and vandalized [ru] the court's official website [ru]. Hackivist groups self-identifying...
Russia: Government Bans Serbian Film for Underage Sex and Drugs
On August 17, Sam Klebanov announced that Russia's Ministry of Culture has banned the release of a Serbian film called "Clip." Klebanov's company owns the Russian distribution rights to the movie, which was honored with a Hivos Tiger Award at the forty-first International Film Festival Rotterdam in the Netherlands earlier this year.
Russia: Zombies Versus the State in Omsk
Early last Sunday morning in the city of Omsk, a few hundred youths gathered together for a flashmob. Police were on hand to warn everyone that they represented an illegal assembly, and could be charged with breaking the law. Why had roughly 300 people come together? The answer to that question is the "Zombie Parade": the city's first attempted 'walk of the living dead.'
Russia: Millions of Taxpayer Rubles Earmarked for Facebook “Likes”
Earlier this week, Aleksei Navalny took aim at a pending state tender for advertising services to aid the state-owned broadcasting company The Voice of Russia. The dispute surrounding VoR and its Facebook marketing strategy reveals much about how Russians understand online popularity, particularly their low faith in the very concept.
Russia: Yekaterinburg University Begins Masters Program in Blogging & Political Journalism
Yekaterinburg's Ural Federal University is for the first time offering a Masters Degree [ru] in “political journalism” with specific training in blogging and “image-making.” In February 2011, UFU hosted [ru] journalist and...
Russia: Moscow's Intelligentsia on Trial in Tver?
While this summer's 'hooliganism' charges against Pussy Riot have enjoyed the spotlight at home and abroad, there is another trial that perhaps reveals even more about tensions in modern Russian society. That is the case against Ilya Farber, a schoolteacher and eccentric recently sentenced to 8 years in prison and fined 3.2 million rubles for exhorting bribes from a building contractor.
Russia: Putin Refuses Controversial Kiss From Priest
"Father Mefodii has shown the way to all citizens, including Pussy [Riot]. In order to be forgiven, all must kiss Putin on the hand." While Putin was greeting local priests in Karelia, one of them suddenly lunged forward and tried to kiss his hand, the President instantly recoiled.
Russia: Graffiti Festival in Kazan
Bloggers celebrate the recent conclusion of the “Like It. Art.” graffiti art festival in Kazan, which was co-financed by the local municipal government, along with funds from telecommunications company Beeline...
Russia: Political Ambitions for Most Influential Blogger?
Earlier this week, members of Aleksei Navalny's inner circle announced that they are forming a new political party called "People's Alliance." Navalny is expected to abstain from the party, but he is likely to take part in upcoming protest elections meant to institute aspects of "cloud democracy."
