Stories from RuNet Echo from January, 2013

Where Russia's Honest Ones Go to Die: Dolmatov's Suicide

  27 January 2013

On the morning of January 17, Russian political refugee Alexander Dolmatov was found having hanged himself in a solitary cell of a Dutch deportation center. Dolmatov left Russia last summer, believing himself to be under observation by Russian security forces and in danger of arrest for participation in a May 6, 2012, Moscow rally that turned violent.

Russian Parliament Confronts Next Threat to Kids: “Homosexual Propaganda”

  25 January 2013

The Russian parliament's effort to defend the nation's children continues. In the last year, Duma deputies have labored feverishly to shield Russia's youth from child pornography and online enticements to drug use and suicide, and—more recently—they passed a law to put an end to the scourge of American adoptions of Russian orphans. Law-makers have now zeroed in on the next heinous threat: "homosexual propaganda."

Opposition Party Attacks Russian eDemocracy

  24 January 2013

Just Russia has always been a conflicted political entity. Nominally, it's a social-justice-oriented opposition party with members in the Russian parliament. During the past year, Just Russia has gained a reputation for rebelliousness, after several of its high profile members began moonlighting as leaders of the unofficial opposition. The party's leadership is now demanding an end to the rebellion.

Russia's Siberian State Within A State

  23 January 2013

Roughly 90% of Russian gas production originates in the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug, located in the northwestern corner of Siberia. In recent months, bloggers and Russian netizens have reacted to the latest in a series of changes to internal migration laws inside YaNAO that make it difficult for non-residents even to pass through the region.

Pedophilia & Rape Accusations Flood the RuNet with Cruelty

  12 January 2013

The Internet, any way you slice it, is a strange place populated by strange people. In the last few weeks, the Russian Internet—often your typical den of online cliques and conspiracy theorists—has boiled over the levees of "strange" and flooded the RuNet with a new intensity of bizarre moral recriminations. In the six days since RuNet Echo first reported on this story, top blogger Rustem Adagamov's situation has developed rapidly.

Russia's Protest Movement Is Back (to Usual)

  10 January 2013

For those of you who have been living under a rock for the past year: the Russian protest movement—which sprung to life in December 2011—has collapsed. Trusted demonstration speakers are selling toothpaste on TV, top bloggers are accused of pedophilia, and recent rallies have attracted smaller crowds. In other words, Russia's opposition—as it's been known throughout the Putin years—is back to usual.

Dazed & Depardieu'd in Russia

  7 January 2013

On January 3, 2013, Vladimir Putin signed into law nine pieces of new legislation (mostly dealing with immigration) and one executive order to naturalize French actor Gérard Depardieu. Not shockingly, most Russian bloggers and journalists responded to the latter event, given how utterly bizarre it is indeed. In that daze, however, they missed something.

1968 Comes to Today's Russian Universities?

  6 January 2013

Last month, on December 18, students at the Russian State University of Trade and Economics (RSUTE) began a strike and blocked the main door of their alma mater. Controversy surrounds Sergei Baburin, the school's recently sacked chancellor, whose academic tenure overlapped with a long history of political activity.

Vladimir Pozner & Russia's Own Political Correctness

  4 January 2013

Late last month, Vladimir Pozner—one of Russia's best known journalists—spoke out on his television show against the “Dima Yakovlev” law. He criticized the need for such legislation, condemning it as an unnecessary and improper retaliation against the American “Magnitsky Act.” In what caught Russian headlines and sent the RuNet buzzing, Pozner also took an uncharacteristically harsh shot at the federal parliament, quipping that it is a house of fools

Secret Money, Hacks, and Politics of Russian Web

  4 January 2013

While suspicions about money and sponsorship plague all Russian politics, the RuNet is a particularly contentious battleground. The rift between the oppositionist and pro-government camps is a hotbed of accusations about illicit funding, with each side desperately professing its own honesty and insisting on the other's deception.

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