Stories from Quick Reads and RuNet Echo
Kiev Kowtows to Washington … on Twitter
Ukraine's new foreign minister, Pavlo Klimkin, is in hot water on the Russian Internet today, where bloggers are drawing attention to his first subscriptions on Twitter. RuNet users have noticed that some of the first accounts Klimkin chose to follow are US politicians John McCain and Mitt Romney, the neoconservative American think...
Celebrating Russian Crimea with a Candy
A Russian chocolate company in Novosibirsk has released a new candy bar called “The Crimea” with the slogan, “Just try to grab it!” A product announcement shared with the press features a super-hero character wearing the colors of the Russian flag, standing before a map of Crimea, with the following...
Russian Special Forces Blogger Throws in the Towel
The anonymous LiveJournal blog hardingush, run by a member of Russia's Ministry of the Interior special forces operating in Ingushetia, is now closed.
Crowdsourcing Ukraine’s Rebellion
Bloggers in Ukraine are turning to the Internet to publish the locations of troops in the country’s southeast, where the army is in the midst of a massive “counter-terrorist” operation against militants who have seized control of parts of major cities. A group called “Military Maps” on the Russian social...
Ukrainian Artists Cage Russians Like Animals
A group of artists in Kiev has opened a new exhibit that many Russians are calling dangerously xenophobic. Yesterday, April 24, 2014, the “Ukrainian Cultural Front” presented four interactive installations intended to criticize Russia for its opposition to the EuroMaidan movement and its interventions in southeastern Ukraine. The most controversial...
Censorship Forces Navalny to Abandon LiveJournal
Russia's most famous blogger (or as he describes himself: "corruption fighter, son, husband, father") has been forced to move away from the blogging platform that launched him to fame.
Russia Intends to Clean Up “Internet Pollution”
The Russian government is drafting a new project that would redefine the “principles of state cultural policy.” In a concept paper shared with the press this week, a working group led by Sergei Ivanov, Putin's chief of staff, declared Russia's need to preserve its unique “state-civilization” and moral foundation in...
Creator of Quirky Movement Defends Kremlin Propagandist
Artyom Loskutov, creator of "Monstration", signed a letter in support of odious propagandist Dmitry Kiselyov. Was he right to do so?
Ukrainians Desperate to Flip the Script on Fascism
Photoshoped swastika is making the rounds on RuNet.
Ukrainian Paramilitary Leader Assassinated, Moscow to Blame?
Over the past several hours rumors spread through the RuNet claiming that Alexander Muzychko, second-in-command to Ukraine's ultra-nationalist "Right Sector" leader Dmytro Yarosh, was gunned down near Rivno.
A Telethon to Save Russia's Independent TV
Russia’s only independent television station, TV Rain, is on its last leg. Following what appears to have been an orchestrated campaign to rob the channel of its cable and satellite distributors, advertisers have run for the hills and the station is being evicted from its Moscow studio at Red October...
Update: Russia Blocks Fifth Liberal Website
Russian ISPs blocked the website of the liberal radio station Echo Moskvy.
Pavel Durov's Seven Reasons to Stay in Russia
As Russia falls under international criticism, the founder of VKontakte gives his reasons for staying at home.
Facebook Teams Up with Russia's Top Search Engine
Scholars and researchers of the Russian Internet can rejoice this week, for Russia's leading search engine, Yandex.ru, is now the second website in the world, after Bing in the United States, to gain access to Facebook firehose data [ru]. This means that Yandex can now search Facebook's streaming API and provide live...
Accenting the Positive on the Russian Internet
BestPozitiv.ru, also known as “Tol'ko Pozitiv” (Only the Positive), is a Russian website that promises to “fill you with positivity every day” by bringing its viewers “the most interesting” videos, GIFs, photographs, lists, and other multimedia “that the Internet has to offer.” The site aggregates everything, from memes of cute...
#askPussyRiot Wants Your Questions
After almost two years in federal custody, Pussy Riot's two most famous members, Nadezhda Tolokonnikova and Maria Alekhina, will hold their first post-prison press conference [ru]. The event will be hosted by the online TV station Dozhd and take place on Friday, December 27, 2013, beginning at 2:00 PM Moscow time (5:00 AM...
Pussy Riot Free to Tweet at Last!
Maria Alekhina and Nadezhda Tolokonnikova are already micro-blogging up a storm.
LGBT-Friendly Coloring Books for Russians
Activists from the LGBT equality T-shirt company FCKH8.com are planning to send 10,000 copies of a pro-gay coloring book titled “Misha and His Two Mothers” to families with children in Moscow and Sochi, prior to the 2014 Winter Olympics. The book's core message, captured by the catchphrase “Gay Is Okay!”...
Pussy Riot's Tolokonnikova Transferred to Krasnoyarsk
Nadezhda Tolokonnikova's exact whereabouts were unknown for the past three weeks, after prison authorities announced that the Pussy Riot icon would be transferred from a prison in the Republic of Mordovia to an unknown location. On November 12, 2103, authorities finally revealed some information about Tolokonnikova's new home. The federal human rights...
Moscow Soccer Fans Clash with Police
Following Saturday's scoreless soccer game that catapulted Moscow's CSKA club to its fourth Russian Premier League title, the team's fans clashed with riot troops in downtown Moscow. Police detained 140 people [ru], later releasing all but two. Bloggers posted photos to LiveJournal here, here, and here [ru], alleging police brutality.
Police Raid Navalny's HQ in Kirov
At this very moment, Kirov police are searching [ru] Alexey Navalny's local headquarters, established to coordinate the blogger's public outreach in the city where he currently stands trial for embezzling roughly half a million dollars. The case has attracted international attention as the latest in a long series of politicized Russian judicial...
