Stories about Russian from February, 2010
Azerbaijan: ANTV receives freedom of the press award
ANTV [AZ/EN/RU], an online citizen journalism site co-founded by now imprisoned video blogging youth activist Emin Milli, has received an award from ZEIT-Stiftung for its work in promoting independent voices and alternative news and views in Azerbaijan [RU]. The Institute for Reporters Freedom and Safety (IRFS) also carries the news...
Russia and US to Broaden Collaboration Online
Vesti.ru wrote [RUS] about the visit of the U.S. “innovation delegation” [EN] led by America's Chief Technology Officer Aneesh Chopra [EN]. The plans of the Russian-U.S. cooperation include launching e-government Web sites and visits of Twitter, Cisco and Mozilla representatives to Russia in June 2010.
Russia: Sakhalin Island Fails to Connect to Broadband
Blogger w7062c wrote [RUS] about two unsuccessful attempts to connect Sakhalin island [EN] (island in the Pacific north closer to Japan) to the broadband network of Russia. The third attempt is scheduled for 2011. Until then, 580,000 inhabitants of the island are able to go online via satellite only.
Russia: Closure of Torrents.ru Makes People Suspicious of .Ru Zone
The decision to close Torrents.ru is certainly controversial and became one of the major discussion topics in the country. Going beyond the copyright concept, bloggers wonder how safe it is to have a domain in .ru zone.
Russia: Government Supports Blogger School
Gov-gov.ru blogs [RUS] about a new online initiative: government-sponsored blogger schools that emerge in Tomsk (Siberia) [RUS] and Dagestan [RUS]. The Dagestan region has one of the lowest Internet penetration rates in the country. The schools involve the most popular Kremlin-affiliated bloggers.
Russia: Provider Sued For Not Blocking Web Sites
The prosecutor's office of the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug, Siberian region where most of Russia's oil comes from, filed a suit against a local Internet provider that refused to block “extremist” Web site, Regnum reported. However, there's no federal law that requires providers to block the sites.
Caucasus: Lezginka dance
Orxanbey posts a video on YouTube of what is described as an Azeri guy and and an Armenian girl dancing to the Lezginka (national dance popular in the North Caucasus), location unknown. Wearing the national flags of Armenia and Azerbaijan, Because of the still unresolved conflict between the two countries...
Russia: Seeking Justice by Linking and Re-Posting
The recent story of a car crash in one of Siberian cities and reaction of boggers to the incident illustrate how an improvised online campaign attempts to affect gloomy reality.
Italy, Russia: Berlusconi's Russian Style
IZO links to LJ user maratguelman‘s post (RUS) and writes: “Silvio Berlusconi travels round Rome in a Russian-made VAZ-Patriot car and likes to wear a commando jacket given to him by Putin.”
Russia: “Merry Gnome”
IZO links to LJ user postoronniy-cb‘s post (RUS) and writes: “When prez Medvedev visited Omsk recently, a sign advertising a play for children called We Await You, Merry Gnome was removed from his route in great haste at the last moment.”
Russia: Torrents.Ru Shut Down
IZO reports on some Russian bloggers’ thoughts (RUS) on why “the massively popular Russian file-sharing site torrents.ru has been shut down.”
Russia: Online Media Competition Lacks Transparency
The Russian Federal Telecommunications Agency announced [RUS] a competition to support online media. Adindex.ru reports [RUS] that requirements for lack transparency and suggests the competition is a way to encourage new media loyal to the government.
Russia: New Military Doctrine and Information Security
The new Russian military doctrine provides an interesting opportunity to evaluate the role of information from security perspective. This may apply to the issues of cyber security and Internet, as well as other information platforms.
Russia: Media Portal Undergoes Check For Extremism
The war on extremism became a universal formula used by Russian authorities to fight the freedom of online expression. Interestingly enough, this practice co-exists with ambitious projects of the Russian President Dmitry Medvedev to modernize the country.
Russia: Torrents.ru Is Suspended
The major Russian torrent (files exchange) service torrents.ru has been suspended due to investigation of copyright violations, RIA Novosty reported. The service continues to work via another domain.
Armenia: Homophobia Hall of Shame
Following even more examples of homophobia in the media in Armenia, Unzipped: Gay Armenia has started a Homophobia Hall of Shame. In the first new posting for the list, the blog details the homophobia of the head of one major local radio station and advises international donors to choose wisely...
Armenia: Eurovision blog
Despite the controversy following Sunday's national song contest to determine Armenia's entry into this year's Eurovision Song Contest in Oslo, Norway, still lingering, the successful entrant, Eva Rivas, has launched a blog to accompany her bid at http://eva-rivas.livejournal.com/.
Russia: More People Watch Video Online
Russian Internet TV daily audience grew 45 percent since last year and now consists of 1.39 million people watching TV programs online, “RUmetrika” reported.
Russia: Bloggers Remember Rock Legend
In February, Russian bloggers celebrated a sad date. Ilya Kormiltsev, one of Russia’s most talented and controversial poets and songwriters, died of spine cancer three years ago. Kormiltsev’s death became the first and the most publicized death on the Russian Internet.
Russia: Bloggers Discuss Utilization of Old Books
Libraries are throwing away old books due to old age and lack of readership, literary critic Alexander Zhitinski reported [RUS]. A library in Saint-Petersburg had to throw away all the books published before 1999. Mistreatment of books provoked a heated discussion online [RUS] while mainstream media ignored the subject.
Russia: Human Rights Activists’ Blogs
A list of links to Russian human rights activists’ blogs (RUS) – at Human Rights in Russia (hro.org).
