· December, 2009

Stories about Russia from December, 2009

Russia, U.S.: Billy Joel in 1987

  31 December 2009

Siberian Light writes about Billy Joel, “who stumped up $2.5 million of his own cash, and became the first American rock star to tour the Soviet Union with a fully staged show” in 1987.

Russia: Livejournal Shuts Down Putin's Critic

RuNet Echo  30 December 2009

Russian popular blogging platform Livejournal has suspended an account of a historian Yuri Felshtinsky [ENG] after he had published a link to a Russian translation of his book “The Age of Assassins: The Rise and Rise of Vladimir Putin” [ENG].

Russia: “Criminalisation of Tourists”

  29 December 2009

St Petersblurb describes a recent misadventure at the Russian-Polish border and explains that “the criminalisation of tourists is just another huge nail in the coffin of Russia’s tourist industry.”

Russia: iPhone 3GS

RuNet Echo  24 December 2009

Profy reports that “two of the three largest Russian carriers have finally reached an agreement with Apple on iPhone 3GS which means that the gadget will be officially sold in Russia – as soon as in the first three months of 2010.”

Russia: “Cyber-Tatars”

RuNet Echo  24 December 2009

Evgeny Morozov reviews the newest issue of Digital Icons (formerly known as the Russian Cyberspace Journal), which includes Dilyara Suleymanova's article that “explores how Tatar groups use Vkontakte, one of Russia's most popular social networks, for constructing and negotiating their ethnic identity.”

Russia, U.S.: Brittany Murphy in Moscow on Dec. 19?

RuNet Echo  21 December 2009

LJ user becky_sharpe (Bozhena Rynska, Gazeta.ru‘s gossip columnist) claims (RUS) that actress Brittany Murphy, who died on Dec. 20 in Los Angeles, was a guest at a private party in Moscow on Dec. 19 and was [“hungover”] when she flew back home. UPDATE: a follow-up discussion (RUS) of LJ user...

Russia: Yegor Gaidar, Russia's Economic Reformer, Dies at 53

RuNet Echo  19 December 2009

Yegor Gaidar, a Russian economist and politician who initiated the 1992 "shock therapy" reforms, died in Moscow on Dec. 16 at the age of 53. Russian bloggers' responses serve as a vivid reflection of how divided people still are on Gaidar's legacy and on the direction the country has taken since the demise of the Soviet Union.

Russian Rock Star Talks About His Social Network

RuNet Echo  19 December 2009

Ikra.tv is a pioneer of music social networks in Russia. It currently consists of about 6,500 members and offers various forms of communications for fans including blogs, forums and different options to share music, pictures and videos.

Russia: A Third of Russians Use Internet

RuNet Echo  19 December 2009

There are 42 million Internet users (29,6% of total population) in Russia according to the latest Public Opinion Foundation research [Google Translation ENG]. This is 2 million more compared to the Summer of 2009. Daily Internet audience in Russia accounts for 23,9 million.

Russia: “Anti-crisis” is Word of The Year

RuNet Echo  18 December 2009

Three most popular words dominated Russian society in 2009 according to a well-known “Word of the Year” contest on Imhonet.ru. Those words are “antikrizisniy” (anti-crisis), “zomboyashik” (zombie-box) as a description for TV, and “Medveputiya” (Medvedev and Putin).

Russian Programmer Community Hacks Super-Earth Name Vote

RuNet Echo  17 December 2009

After The Wired magazine opened a vote [ENG] to name a newly discovered “most Earth-like” planet, Russian Habrahabr-user khekkly started a flashmob[Google Translation – ENG] urging Russian programmers to name it “Siberia.” This name currently leads the chart.

Russia: Two Stories of Space Blogging

RuNet Echo  16 December 2009

Blogging from and about space gains popularity and recognition among professional space travelers and regular bloggers. Russia is no exception. While the latest fashion for NASA astronauts is space twittering [ENG], more and more space explorers are going full-text. And the fact that one wouldn't necessarily call those blogs par...

Russia: Google Bus Stop Ads Hacked

RuNet Echo  15 December 2009

While Russia and the U.S. were holding meetings on cyber warfare, Russian activists took the process of hacking from virtual space to real bus stops in Moscow where they slightly altered original Google ads.