Kevin Rothrock · October, 2012

Latest posts by Kevin Rothrock from October, 2012

Russia: Assessing Predictions About the Coordinating Council Election

RuNet Echo

As RuNet Echo readers know well, the Coordinating Council's elections took place last week, and that body has already convened virtually through Facebook and once again in person. Weeks in advance of the vote, Global Voices offered projections based on Yandex's blogger rating index. Here, we've assessed those predictions against the actual results and another forecast model

29 October 2012

Russia: A Ponzi Scheme to Destroy the Opposition's Coordinating Council?

RuNet Echo

There are storm clouds rolling in for the Coordinating Council's coming elections, and the promise of a democratic triumph for the protest movement could be faltering, thanks mainly to the unsavory scheming of one of Russia's most infamous and odious characters: Sergei Mavrodi, the founder of the MMM series of pyramid schemes

19 October 2012

Russia: Getting It Wrong on the Pussy Riot Prisoner's Dilemma

RuNet Echo

Reactions to the release of Yekaterina Samutsevich have generally been myopic and misleading. The popular "insight" is that the authorities are maneuvering to "divide and conquer" the punk rocker trio. That is undoubtedly part of what's happened, but it isn't the whole story.

12 October 2012