Latest posts by Alexey Sidorenko from July, 2010
Russia: The First Case of YouTube Ban
Alexey Sidorenko writes about the Russian authorities' first attempt to ban YouTube.
Russia Tops Aggressive Internet Traffic Rating
Habrahabr users discuss [RUS] the latest Akamai‘s “State of the Internet” report. According to the research, 12 percent of all the Internet-attacks in the first quarter of 2010 were carried out from the territory of Russia, while the U.S. hackers took the “second prize” for 10 percent of the world's...
Russia: Prosecutor That Banned Youtube Gives Interview
Marker.ru publishes an interview with Vladimir Pakhomov, city prosecutor that obliged the local Internet provider to block Youtube, Web.archive.org and other websites [EN]. Pakhomov expressed Chinese-government-style philosophy on Internet-filtering: “Provider is obliged to filter the information that goes through its channels to the Worldwide Web”, and didn't exclude probable filtering...
Russia: LiveJournal Under Fire Of Criticism for “Innovations”
LiveJournal, Russia's still most popular blog platform, recently fell under severe criticism for several “innovations”: purging suspended and “inactive” accounts [EN] and closing OpenID registration [RUS] (allowed LJ-users to comment in other blog-platforms). Blogger sviridenkov observes [RUS] more and more bloggers switching to stand-alone blogs, while Artur Welf says [RUS] disappointed users...
Russia: Forest Park Defenders Attack Khimki City Administration
User berillii posts [RUS] a footage of the storming of the Khimki city administration [EN] by anarchists and antifascists that took side of the Khimki forest park defenders. LJ-user mmet supplies photos of the event. A peaceful meeting grew to a chaotic demonstration, after authorities once again detained [RUS] the...
Russia: Unknown People in Masks and Police Attack Environmentalists
From 20 to 40 young people in white masks attacked the camp of the defenders of the Khimki forest park [RUS], Igor Podgorny [RUS] and Novaya Gazeta [RUS] reported. The police intervention didn't help – instead several environmentalists and journalists were detained.
Russia: Anti-Religious Online Group Closed
“Antireligion” group in the social network “Vkontakte“, with more than 8000 members, had been closed and its content deleted, ru_antireligion reports [RUS]. Prosecutor's office, that was checking the group for extremism [RUS], recognized photos of t-shirts with slogans “Orthodoxy or Death” [EN] as “extremist” and obliged administration of “Vkontakte” to...
Russia: “Why Did They Kill Yuri Volkov?”
The murder of a TV journalist and football fan Yuri Volkov in the centre of Moscow on July 10, 2010, became a widely discussed event in the Russian blogosphere. A complicated topic, dealing with hostile ethnic stereotypes, crime, police corruption and Russian subcultures, has generated nearly 7,000 comments, tweets and blog posts.
Russia: Roadtrip to Caucasus
Popular bloggers tema [RUS], nl [RUS] and others [RUS] (9 bloggers in 3 cars) post pictures and short notes from the roadtrip to Caucasus, that started on July 15th, 2010. So far, they travelled through the North Caucasus republics and are planning to go to Azerbaijan, Armenia and Georgia.
Russia: Pictures of the Khimki Forest Defense
Photographer Igor Podgorny publishes [RUS] pictures from the camp of the defenders of the Khimki forest park [EN] situated in the Moscow's outskirts. After authorities started to cut the trees [RUS] (illegally) on July 15th, a group of environmentalists [RUS] erected barricades in order to stop the cuttings.
Russia: Collection of Online Ideas
Blogger fritzmorgen published [RUS] a collection of ideas gathered from various Russian bloggers. Most interesting ideas include: Russian laws put into Wiki-like engine [RUS], several implementations of ‘Taxi 2.0′ idea (collaborative taxi service), hostels that travel with the travellers [RUS], etc.
Russia: Priest's Blog Hacked
While police denied to start investigation [RUS] of the hack attack of Maxim Sviridenkov's blog [EN], one more blog had been hacked [RUS]. This time the victim of “Hacker Hell” (alleged Bonn-based hacker Sergey Maksimov) is Yakov Krotov [EN], a priest and a publicist. Content of both his LJ-account and personal site krotov.info had been...
Russia: New Election Codex Project Discussed Online
Last month, a Russian non-governmental election-monitoring organization, Golos (A Voice), published an alternative Election Codex on the internet, that is designed to provide free, fair and transparent elections in Russia. It is one of a few recent examples of publicly developed draft bills that are promoted online.
Russia: Deadly Combination of Alcoholism and Heat
LJ-user morita reports [RUS] three cases within one day (and one deadly) of people getting seriously injured after getting drunk at the heat. While the temperature in Saint-Petersburg, where morita works in the hospital, is above +33°C, people get drunk, then go to the seashore and drown.
Russia: Photo of Four Rainbows
Taiga.info posts a picture [RUS] of unusual natural phenomena that occurred in Tomsk (Siberia) – four rainbows were caught by photographer at one time.
Russia: Tax Service Lacks Paper to Process Documents
Saleksashenko posts [RUS] a photo of the announcement in the office of a local Tax Service [RUS] that says the department lacks paper to process documents. This case illustrates the real situation in the country's budget, blogger suggests. LJ-user grey_dolphin sarcastically calls [RUS] it an example of Russian understanding of the “new public...
Russia: New “One Day Rule” for Censoring Comments on Demand
Alexey Sidorenko analyses the new practice of comment removal on news media websites introduced by the Russian authorities. Although not direct and not efficient, it threatens to significantly limit online discussion.
Russia: Political Regime as a Model for Social Network
User art_of_press ironically compares [RUS] Facebook to its clone Vkontakte, Russia's most popular social network. His conclusion: Vkontakte's model reminds current political regime. Vkontakte changes Terms of Service without informing users, doesn't allow content from third-party sources, allows only pre-moderated applications, and tends to create an isolated “Internet inside the Internet”.
USA, Russia: Discussing ‘Spies’ 2.0
The arrest of 11 individuals belonging to a network of alleged Russian spies became the topic of the week on the Russian Internet. Alexey Sidorenko reviews the online discussion.
Russia: Hackers Provoke Closure of the Major News Website
Several articles of Ura.ru, one of the major media outlets, had been significantly transformed by unknown hackers, kommersant.ru reported [RUS]. Aksana Panova, executive editor of the portal, suggested, hackers added severe critics towards regional and federal authorities in order to provoke Roskomnadzor [EN] to issue a legal notice, which might...
Russia: Human Rights Website Hacked and Blocked
First page of Prison.org, a website Moscow Center for Prison Reform, of one of the oldest Russian human rights NGOs, had been hacked, Russ.ru reported [RUS]. The content of the website hasn't been deleted, however, users can't access the website and are constantly forwarded to Yandex.ru search engine instead. Russ.ru suggests...
