Global Voices · Citizen media stories from RuNet Echo

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20 February 2012

Russia: Dmitry Rybolovlev, the Quintessential ‘New Russian'

Written by Donna Welles · Eastern & Central Europe, North America

Billionaire Dmitry Rybolovlev serves as an example of the quintessential 'New Russian' through his controversial activities during the Yeltsin era, his modern business practices, and his extravagant international spending - he has just purchased the most expensive New York City apartment to date.

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15 February 2012

Russia, U.S.: An Overview of Alexander Ovechkin's NHL Career

Written by Donna Welles · Eastern & Central Europe, North America

Alexander Ovechkin is a Russian-born NHL hockey player who is surrounded by controversy due to his aggressive style of play, but who remains in the public spotlight because of his talent and pure sensationalism.

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10 February 2012

Russia: “Anti-Gay Propaganda Bill” Passes Second Reading

Written by Veronica Khokhlova · Eastern & Central Europe

St. Petersburg is getting closer to signing into law the notorious "anti-gay propaganda bill." "Will talking about Tchaikovsky be banned?" tweets British writer and actor Stephen Fry. Some of the Russian netizens' reactions are translated below.

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6 February 2012

Russia: Practice of Compulsory Military Service Comes Under Attack

Written by Donna Welles · Eastern & Central Europe

Russia's compulsory military service practices are under attack due to a variety of reasons, including economic inefficiency, governmental corruption, and brutal hazing rituals that incite young conscripts to take their own lives. Donna Welles reports.

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24 January 2012

Russia: “Mikhail Dmitrievich Prokhorov: An Unpredictable Kremlin Project”

Written by Donna Welles · Eastern & Central Europe

Although some believe the 2012 Russian presidential election's outcome to be pre-scripted, the complexities surrounding Mikhail Prokhorov's candidacy should not be overlooked. Donna Welles reports.

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18 January 2012

Russia: Obama's McFaul Sworn in as U.S. Ambassador

Written by Donna Welles · Eastern & Central Europe, North America

President Obama's closest adviser on affairs of state of the Former Soviet Union and architect of the 'reset' in the U.S.-Russia relations, Michael McFaul, has officially replaced President Bush's appointment as the United States' Ambassador to Russia.

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Updates from RuNet Echo

22 February 2012

Russia

At Jamestown Foundation Blog, Valery Dzutsev reports that Ramzan Kadyrov, the President of Chechnya, has called politician and anti-corruption activist Alexei Navalny “a real chatterbox” - and Navalny retaliated by publishing (here and, later, here; ru) “the results of his investigation of the Chechen police’s car inventory acquisitions, naming and shaming several people in Kadyrov’s entourage […].”

• Veronica Khokhlova

9 February 2012

Russia

On February 9, 2012, following the widely-discussed leaks of pro-Kremlin mailboxes, LiveJournal, where the leaks were published, became temporarily unavailable, Lenta.ru reported [ru]. Russian representative of Anonymous group @OP_Russia, suggested [ru] that it was a DDoS attack to hide the evidence of massive wrongdoings (including corruption, thievery, political provocations, and cybercrime) [ru] by Nashi youth movement. Later that day @OP_Russia took responsibility for taking down 3 websites of United Russia party: mos-partya.ru, er-region.ru, and er-kaluga.ru.

• Alexey Sidorenko

Russia

At OpenDemocracy.net, Olesya Gerasimenko talks to the parents of three young neo-Nazi men who were convicted of race murders: “One has adopted the views of their only child and says that violence is necessary. One blames the politicians that have incited adolescents to street fighting. One cries, convinced of the innocence of his son. They are all different, but they have all asked themselves one and the same question: ‘am I to blame for what happened?’”

• Veronica Khokhlova

8 February 2012

Russia

Andrey Rylkov Foundation writes about the first case of enforcement of the domain seizure rules in the “.ru” and “.рф” domain zones. The rules [ru] (Article 5, point 5.5) , updated on November 11, 2011 allow any law enforcement agency (like police, Federal Security Service, Prosecutor's office or Federal Drug Control Services (FDCS)) to request domain seizure without a court order. On February 3, 2012 FDCS successfully seized the domain of rylkov-fond.ru, a website of Rylkov Foundation that had severely criticized situation with drug trafficking.

• Alexey Sidorenko

Russia

Read The Guardian's take on the so-called “Potupchik-gate,” a series of scandals surfaced as a result of hacking and publishing of private inbox of Kristina Potupchik [ru], press-secretary of Nashi, notorious pro-Kremlin youth group. All hacks were published by twitter-user @OP_Russia who uses Anonymous symbolics. Representatives of Anonymous, previously never seen involved in Russian online politics, had also issued an Russian/English statement on the issue.

• Alexey Sidorenko

3 February 2012

Ukraine

Ex.ua, a file-sharing site that the authorities shut down two days ago, is now back online [uk], though its content is still inaccessible. @bl4ka tweets [ru]: “The DDoS revolution has won! […]” @VsemPohuy tweets [ru] about the DDoS attacks that followed the shutdown, and the situation in the country in general: “Ex.ua's back, it's now okay to stop DDoS-ing the sites of [the Interior Ministry], the president, etc. That students continue to be killed at police stations, that's [no big deal].” Journalist Pavel Sheremet writes [ru] about “the hackers' revolution”: “There was [Orange Maidan], then [“Tax Maidan”] […]. Now there's a Maidan on the internet.”

• Veronica Khokhlova

2 February 2012

Russia

Anonymous hackers had allegedly hacked an inbox of pro-Kremlin activist Kristina Potupchik and publicised [ru] a ‘price-list' of posts of the most popular Russian bloggers. Government-sponsored Nashi were caught several times on organizing paid campaigns aimed to influence blogosphere's opinion. The prices vary from 130 to 1000 US dollars per post.

• Alexey Sidorenko

Comments on "RuNet Echo"

Russia: Practice of Compulsory Military Service Comes Under Attack

Very comprehensive and objective review. Reminding that Russian government is digging its tomb by each day of delaying with long...

The turnout in Piter was woefully small, and outside Moscow the protests were dominated by Communist activists. The photo from...

Hi, I have a question: What does the "modern newspaper" mean?
Could this outpouring be in any way related to the millions of dollars that the CIA, via its NED agency,...