Latest posts by Alexey Sidorenko from October, 2010
Russia: Online Activism Success Stories
While Internet analysts across the Atlantic are busy arguing whether technology brings about social and political change or not, bloggers in Russia add their humble contributions to the debate, probably unaware that the debate is taking place at all. Their victories are small and not numerous; their impact can easily be attributed to statistical error - but they certainly are out there.
Russian Newsweek Closes
Closure of Russian Newsweek provoked a lively reaction [RUS] among bloggers. One of the reasons for it is that the majority of Russian Newsweek's staff had blogs. Photomans posts [RUS] his press passes, Anticompromat complains that the whole archive of the magazine is inaccessible now, BFM explains why the closure...
Russia: Photos of Children's Camp Decorated as a Social Network
Habrahabr user goodsprite posts pictures of the children's summer camp. Author, who worked at the camp, claimed that children had to register in Russian social network Vkontakte.ru. Photos depict camp's wallpapers decorated by hand-drawn illustrations of Vkontakte.ru interface and various applications like “Happy Farmer” (analogue of “Farmwille”).
Russia: Videos of Election Fraud in Rostov Region
LJ user serg757 posts several videos that show various fraud cases at the recent regional elections in Rostov region.
Russia: Blogger Calls for Help to Expose Corruption in Public Procurement
Blogger Navalny calls [RUS] IT-specialists for help in exposing corruption in online projects of different government structures. The last case led by Navalny helped prevent stealing over $1,8M from the government's budget. He presents screenshots of 9 similar projects worth $17,7M at the state procurement website zakupki.gov.ru.
Russia: Review of Online Record Labels
Habrahabr-user frony posts [RUS] a review of Russian indie netlabels, online record labels that publish songs with Creative Commons license. Genres include hip-hop, alternative, as well as classical music.
Russia: Bloggers Meet With Iranian Ambassador, Avoid Sensitive Topics
The meeting of Russia's top-bloggers with the Iranian Ambassador in Moscow three days after Hossein Derakhshan had been sentenced to 19.5 years of imprisonment for "anti-government propaganda" highlighted the clumsy attempts of the Iranian online diplomacy in Russia. It also showed commercialization and excessive cynicism of some of the popular Russian bloggers.
Russia: Blogger's Car Vandalized after Youtube Video
Dgudkov tells about threats he received and, as an evidence, supplies [RUS] a picture of his car vandalized by the unknown. The threats, he says, are connected with the recently published video [RUS] named “Our Mexican Bay” that depicts oil spill authorities refuse to acknowledge.
Russia: Police Proposes Internet Traffic Control
Internet news portal Cnews writes [RUS] about the latest proposal by the IT-department of the Russian police to require Internet providers to block (on court demand) “illegal traffic.” If the proposal is put into legal form and approved, a number of law enforcement units (police, special services, prosecutor's office) will...
Russian Officials Push the Balance in Internet Governance
Nezavisimaya Gazeta [RUS] and CircleID blog present two opposite viewpoints on the Russia's proposition to transform Internet governance process at ITU conference, that would allow the International Telecommunications Union veto ICANN decisions. While the former source considers it an effort to “de-Americanize” the Internet, the latter believes this is an attempt to bureaucratize the...
