Global Voices » Vadim Isakov

Russia: Overview of Top RuNet Trends and Events in 2011

Vadim Isakov — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 09:29:57 +0000

This post is part of our special coverage 2011 on Global Voices.

2011 was full of important – and sometime surprising – events in the blogosphere and social media scene in Russia. Having effectively replaced the ‘kitchen talks' of Brezhnev’s era, blogs and social networks became a place where millions of Russians discuss the country's present and contemplate its future.

Russia's booming Internet community is now the largest in Europe [ru] with at least 52.9 million monthly visitors – a very important milestone in itself with countless implications. The country's netizens are rapidly becoming more confident and – with the wall of Soviet-style censorship and propaganda largely failing online – more dissatisfied with political stagnation.

At the end of this turbulent and inspiring year, RuNet Echo editors present you with a list of events that had a profound impact on the Russian Internet in 2011 and serve as important steps in the development of the country's online community.

7. Domodedovo airport bombing.

This tragic event at the beginning of 2011, highlighted the fragile security situation in Russian airports (in 2011 Russia had been recognized as the most dangerous airspace) and incompetence of the authorities in face of a crisis. It showed how fast and effective social media can be in the coverage of breaking events.

As a counterweight to heavily censored traditional media, blogs and social media sites effectively presented an up-to-date picture of what happened in the airport and became a space to vent frustration with the lack of adequate coverage of the event on Russian TV and radio.

6. Troubles with newspapers

The rise of the Internet inevitably led to the start of newspapers' demise. Although the situation with traditional journalism platforms in Russia is far from being as bad as in the United States, newspapers seem to be more aware of the roles they are asked to play in the era of the information abundance.

More and more often, blogs and social media become places for reporting breaking news (as in case of Domodedovo airport bombing) and traditional media merely follow the Internet in their coverage of important events.

5. President Medvedev recognizes the power of online communities

A two-and-a-half hour meeting between Dmitry Medvedev and representatives of Russian Internet community highlighted the importance of growing Internet in the eyes of the Kremlin. Earlier, Medvedev publicly praised Gdecasino.ru, an online crowdsourcing project identifying illegal casinos in the country. This stood as a contrast to the official policy of ignoring the Internet in previous years – Vladimir Putin famously bragged about not using the Web.

4. Successful crowdsourcing projects

Along with Navalny's anti-corruption website Rospil.info, 2011 saw the growing popularity of crowdsourcing projects such as Gdecasino.ru and Kartanarusheniy.ru, a project mapping violations during the recent parliamentary elections in the country.

Other notable projects include LizaAlert.org, a volunteer community dedicated to saving missing people (read Gregory Asmolov's interview here), numerous Fix-my-street startups (RosYama.org, Map of Potholes, and others), democracy2.ru, a citizen-funded open source e-democracy platform, platforms against bribes (vzyatochnik.info and roskomvzyatka.ru as well as minor ones), emergency-related mapping platforms (holoda.info, rynda.org, radiation.crowdmap.org). Our author Marina Litvinovich talked about Russia's crowdsourcing initiatives in her article in March.

3. Online attacks

“Russian online space is getting more violent,” Alexey Sidorenko, an editor of Global Voices RuNet Echo, wrote in April. Indeed, DDoS attacks against Livejournal.com, the most popular bogging platform in the country, demonstrated the vulnerability of the Internet and led to re-shaping of the blogosphere. It also motivated numerous discussion on Internet politics.

The use of “human bots” to fight the opposition online has also contributed to the notion of intensifying efforts to discredit the Internet as a democratic platform.

2. Rise of blogger Alexey Navalny.

Largely unknown outside of the RuNet in 2010, controversial blogger and civic activist Alexey Navalny (see his interview with Global Voices here) turned into “Putin’s greatest challenger” by the end of 2011. Due to his extremely popular online crowdsourcing and crowdfunding project Rospil.info, Navalny positioned himself as a fierce fighter against corruption in the government.

“The Party of Crooks and Thieves,” Navalny's name for the party of power, United Russia, became the most recognized Internet political slogan that has effectively migrated to a real life. In the country with tightly controlled political opposition, Navalny's rise would have been impossible without the Internet.

1. Post-electoral protests

The end of 2011 was marked by widespread demonstrations against allegedly rigged results of the parliamentary elections (see Global Voices' extensive coverage here). Blogs and social media played an extremely important role in coordination of the protests.

The Internet became a place for failed attempts to compromise opposition leaders and a platform for mobilizing the opposition supporters. It was also a key tool in promotion the information about the demonstrations and their purpose. As a result, strictly censored traditional media outlets had no choice but to report on the protests.

Without any doubt, the role of the Internet in these demonstrations is the most important milestone in the development of RuNet whose ripples we are very likely to feel for years to come.

Bolotnaya rally, Moscow, December 10, 2011. Photo by Dmitry Chistoprudov. Courtesy of Ridus.ru

This post is part of our special coverage 2011 on Global Voices.

Russia: New Decrees Push for More Government Openness Online

Vadim Isakov — Wed, 10 Aug 2011 14:56:04 +0000

On August 10, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev signed several decrees obliging 19 government agencies (including country's secret services) to put timely information online about their activities, Bloomberg reports.

Russia: Internet Audience Continues to Grow Rapidly

Vadim Isakov — Thu, 14 Jul 2011 19:54:20 +0000

RuMetrika sums up the recent survey of “Public Opinion Foundation” on the Internet audience in Russia. According to it, the audience grew 7 percent (versus predicted 3.7) in the first three months of 2011. During the last year and a half, the monthly Internet audience increased by 27 percent.

Russia: Notorious Foundation Clashes with “Forbes”

Vadim Isakov — Thu, 14 Jul 2011 19:45:12 +0000

Infamous “Federaciya” foundation accused “Forbes” employees of contacting the internationally famous guests of a Russian charity event and trying to persuade them not to attend, “Forbes” reported on its Facebook page. The magazine denies any involvement in the issue.

Russia: New Statistics of Social Network Users

Vadim Isakov — Thu, 14 Jul 2011 19:36:19 +0000

Russian collaborative blog Habrahabr.ru publishes statistics on the users of Vkontakte.ru, the most popular social platform in Russia. According to the data, Alexander (for man) and Ekaterina (for women) are the most popular names of users. The most users are from Moscow or Saint Petersburg.

Russia: Photoblogger Covers Drug Addiction in Afghanistan

Vadim Isakov — Thu, 14 Jul 2011 19:28:32 +0000

Popular Russian photoblogger Ilya Varlamov (zyalt) traveled to Afghanistan where (among other things) he covered drug addiction in Kabul.

Russia: Government Company to Bring Internet to Largest Island in Norway

Vadim Isakov — Thu, 14 Jul 2011 19:22:43 +0000

Russian government company “Kosmicheskaya Svyaz” plans to bring fast Internet and digital TV to Spitsbergen, the largest island in Norway, news website Lenta.ru reported.

Russia: News Website to be Closed Because of Racial Clashes Coverage

Vadim Isakov — Thu, 14 Jul 2011 19:12:23 +0000

URA.ru, an information agency and website that became popular after it extensively covered clashes in a small Russian village Sagra, is on the verge of being closed down by the authorities. It is said that because of URA.ru, the coverage of Sagra clashes became “too extensive” in media.

Russia: Infamous ‘Vanishing' Charity Foundation Resurfaces

Vadim Isakov — Wed, 06 Jul 2011 15:08:20 +0000

The heartwarming performance of Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin playing the piano and singing the song “Blueberry Hill” at a charity concert in December 2010, was darkened by the scandal surrounding the ‘Federaciya' (Federation) foundation that allegedly tried to disappear with the money raised by the event.

It is easy to think that this reputation would render the foundation blacklisted. However, Federaciya has resurfaced again, advertising through new billboard posters [ru] in the center of Moscow.

The posters are promoting another charity concert set to take place on July 9-10, 2011, featuring such stars as Larry King, Woody Allen, Kevin Costner, Francis Ford Coppola, among others.

History repeating?

One of the Federaciya posters featuring Sophia Loren. Photo by Stepan Yakovlev.

It is only logical that Russian bloggers are concerned about the possible repetition of the previous scenario, when the charity's fundraised money found its way to the sick children it was intended for only due to the persistence of netizens and reporters.

Blogger amapai suggests [ru]:

У Ларри Кинга есть свой The Larry King Cardiac Foundation. Я полагаю, что если внятно и понятно объяснить им, во что вылилась предыдущая акция, то слова будут услышаны.

Larry King has his own The Larry King Cardiac Foundation. I think if one explains them clearly what the previous event has been transformed into, the words will be heard.

“Or you can ask him on Facebook,”LJ user dkuraev adds [ru] and gives a link to Larry King's CNN profile.

Looking at the list of invited stars, drugalev makes [ru] an interesting point:

OЧЕНЬ любопытно присутствие среди приглашенных актёра Энди Гарсия. Именно он сыграл Саакашвили в недавно вышедшем прогрузинском фильме “5 дней августа”.

It is VERY INTERESTING to see Andy Garcia among the invitees. It was him who played Saakashvili [the president of Georgia] in the recently released pro-Georgian movie “Five Days of War.”

Another blogger leo_nardo replies [ru]: “He [Garcia] is a professional. All he cares about is money.”

The hope is that this time the Federaciya foundation will try to rebuild its shattered reputation by quickly transferring the funds raised by the event to the intended recipients.

If not, Russia's watchful bloggers are there to raise the alarm and prevent this money from disappearing into other pockets.

Thumbnail image shows Vladimir Putin singing “Blueberry Hill”, from a video uploaded to YouTube by RussiaToday.

Russia: New Initiative to Enforce TV Morality

Vadim Isakov — Tue, 14 Jun 2011 14:54:36 +0000

An initiative to create a Public Oversight Board for media control in Russia may seem like a passage from Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four but it is a reality in the country, which still struggles to accept the concept of democracy and free speech.

The letter [ru] behind the initiative, complaining about low standards of morality on television, is addressed to Russia’s President Dimitry Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. It has been signed by many prominent actors and “workers of art” with Nikita Mikhalkov, an Oscar-winning director and “favorite” of Russian bloggers, among them.

Moral degradation

Throw Away Your Television! Photo by Flickr user Rex Dingler (CC BY-NC 2.0).

The letter draws attention to immorality of Russian media and ties the rising level of “moral degradation of a large part of our society” to the lack of control from the state:

Продолжаются попытки предать забвению и намеренно исказить отечественную историю, культуру, традиции. Нравственные идеалы, гражданственность и патриотизм в процессе воспитания и обучения детей и молодежи формируются слабо. Приходится с сожалением констатировать утрату многих базовых ценностей, падение общего культурного уровня. Во многом «благодаря» новой культурной политике государства поползла вверх кривая роста преступности, алкоголизации, наркомании, педофилии, суицидов, коррупции и прочих социальных пороков. Возрастает степень моральной деградации значительной части нашего общества. На призывы неравнодушных людей к властям остановить нравственное разложение нации мы слышим: Извините, у нас – демократия.

Efforts to bury and intentionally distort national history, culture and traditions continue. Moral ideals, citizenship and patriotism in the upbringing and education of children and young people is poorly formed. One has to regrettably declare the loss of many basic values and decline of general level of culture. In many ways, “thanks to” new cultural politics of the state, the level of crime, alcoholism, drug addiction, pedophilia, suicide, corruption and other social vices has increased. The level of moral degradation of a large part of our society has also gone up. As an answer to the appeals of those who care to the authorities to stop the moral corruption of the nation, we hear: “Sorry, we have a democracy.”

The letter proposes the creation of a Public Oversight Board responsible for controlling the level of morality in media:

Считаем необходимым приступить к созданию Общественного наблюдательного совета, осуществляющего контроль за соблюдением средствами массовой информации исторически сложившихся норм нравственности. Такой контроль, связанный с возможностью общественного порицания, не имеет ничего общего с политической цензурой недавнего исторического прошлого.

We consider it necessary to create a Public Oversight Board responsible for controlling compliance of media with historically established norms of morality. Associated with the possibility of public condemnation, this control has nothing to do with the political censorship of the recent historical past.

Objective censors?

The initiative has not found a lot of support among bloggers. Although most agreed with the lack of taste in the Russian media, they condemned any efforts to openly censor its content.

Blogger helenova wonders [ru] about the motives for the letter. “Of course, the text of the letter by worker of culture regarding censorship, spirituality and church is horrible in its helplessness and limited view,” she writes. “I cannot understand why it has been signed by respected grown-ups many of whom probably experienced all advantages of censorship.”

helenova is sceptical about the future of this initiative and explains why it would not work:

But one can understand them: streams of tastelessness from TV screens have flooded all good and kind a long time ago. All that should be stopped at some point but these letters won’t help. […] Because the policy of a TV channel is determined by the management that brought this idea of what people need. It is also determined by Almighty Dough.

Eugenyshultz expresses [ru] criticism of the initiative and condemns any effort to censor media content (the general feeling amongst bloggers):

It is clear to me that every stand-alone or group (with not many members) organ of censorship - even with the best intentions - will eventually become “choker of freedom.” Mikhalkov’s ideas on censorship, as far as I understood from the text, wonder in search of a good censor. But this approach goes nowhere. Objective censors do not exist.

Some bloggers couldn’t help but criticize film director Nikita Mikhlakov, who famously went to war with bloggers over their comical versions of posters for his new movie “Burnt by the Sun 2.”

Blogger master-radar calls [ru] Mikhalkov “The Great Inquisitor” and batanin accuses [ru] the director of forgeting about censorship under communists.

New reality and old thinking

Dissatisfaction with low standards of media content in Russia does go far back and revolves mainly around entertainment programs on television. Notorious reality show DOM 2, for example, has long been a subject of fierce “What people need vs what people want” debate.

The Internet is no exception. Efforts to present the platform as a place for pornography and pedophiles come from the top. Vladimir Putin once said that 50 percent of Internet content was pornography and diminished its role as a trusted source of information.

Nevertheless the initiative to create a Public Oversight Board will probably go nowhere. As depressing and tasteless as the media content in Russia (like in many other countries) is today, it will be almost impossible to go back to the days of the old kultsovet, the board responsible for content of art products in the Soviet Union.

But this proposal to control the media content is an indication of a long-lasting conflict between new media realities and Russian old-school thinkers in power. While the younger generation doesn’t seem to mind current media and Internet content, the older generation fails to grasp the situation that people are free to choose what to watch, listen and read.

Russia: Reporters' Open Letter Highlights TV Censorship Concerns

Vadim Isakov — Wed, 25 May 2011 18:34:50 +0000

Censorship on the majority of Russian television channels has been around forever but a recent open letter by REN TV reporters showed how even remaining small islands of media freedom could get washed away by a tsunami of political paranoia.

The letter [ru] written on the behalf of REN TV news service employees appeared on the website of anti-government politician Vladimir Ryzhkov. It accused the management of REN TV, one of the largest private television channels in Russia, of blacklisting members of Russian opposition and shying away from the topic of human rights abuse and social problems:

Censorship Causes Blindness. Image by Flickr user Andreia Bohner (CC BY 2.0).

Уже составлены «черные» списки политиков, которых запрещено показывать. Среди них такие известные деятели оппозиции как Борис Немцов и Гарри Каспаров. Запрещена всякая критика «Единой России» и ее лидеров. Кардинально изменилась вся информационная политика канала. Вместо репортажей о социальных проблемах, борьбе правозащитников и произволе чиновников эфир занят криминальными новостями, сообщениями об успехах «силовиков» и «заказными» сюжетами, восхваляющими губернаторов и депутатов.

They [REN TV management] have already created black lists of politicians prohibited from being shown on television, including famous opposition leaders such as Boris Nemtsov and Garry Kasparov. Any criticism of “United Russia” and its leaders is prohibited. The channel’s information policy has drastically changed. Instead of reports on social problems, the struggles of human rights defenders and the arbitrariness of government officials, the broadcast is occupied by criminal news, reports on successes of siloviki [former K.G.B employees, policemen, and military officers] and “made-to-order” news praising governors and senators.

Devalued journalism

Managers of REN TV dismissed the accusation and called the authors of the letter “fools.” But bloggers took the side of the authors and condemned censorship in Russia media.

Finam FM radio host Yuri Pronko wrote [ru] on his blog:

Профессия журналиста в России полностьюдевальвировалась. Журналистики сейчас как таковой в стране практически не осталось. Есть только видимость, как и видимость публичной политики. Все превратилось в сплошную болтовню, в болтологию.

Сложно оставаться в профессии, тем более заниматься политической журналистикой, если поля для этой профессии нет! Последний бастион свободы на ТВ, которая еще наблюдалась на канале РЕН, вот-вот рухнет. Все чаще журналисты подвергают себя самоцензуре, самоконтролю, неисполнение которого чревато потерей работы.

Journalism as a profession in Russia has been completely devalued. Journalism as such does not exist in the country. There is only an appearance [of journalism], the same as an appearance of politics. Everything has been turned into chatter.

It is difficult to stay in the profession and especially practice political journalism if there is no space for this. The last bastion of television freedom that one could see on REN TV is about to collapse. More often, journalists practice self-censorship, self-control and can lose their jobs for not doing it.

Oleg Kozyrev (oleg-kozyrev) draws attention to the graph [ru] by Internet analysis company Medialogiya. The graph shows that REN TV did reduce the coverage of Boris Nemtsov, an outspoken critic of Russian government, from January to April this year. At the same time, the coverage of the ruling party United Russia remained high.

Other netizens showed little surprise with censorship on REN TV. “Elections are near and Russian traditions are strong,” Georgian blogger olegpanfilov2 wrote [ru], “Before elections, there are either blasts or nationalization of media.”

“Closer to elections, they clear what hasn't been cleared before,” svorodnikov echoed [ru].

“This is Medvedev's modernization in full swing,” blogger drandin concluded [ru]. “This is Medvedev's ‘freedom is better than non-freedom.'” [a reference to the famous quote by Medvedev]

But it looks like some bloggers expected an open resistance toward censorship on REN TV. Apparently, the anonymous letter reminded people of a widely spread practice in the Soviet Union, when an unnamed letter could easily put an innocent person in prison.

Blogging on Slon.ru, Vasiliy Gatov criticized [ru] the authors of the letter for not disclosing their names:

Задумайтесь: даже если это действительно написано кем-то из работников службы новостей РЕН ТВ, анонимность означает только одно: этим людям так хочется работать в «ящичке», так важен этот сомнительный наркотик, что они скрывают свои имена (опасаясь за свои теплые рабочие места с соцпакетами), вскрывая между тем вполне отвратительные методы нового руководства.

Think about it. Even if the letter is indeed written by someone from REN TV news service, the anonymity means only one thing: people want so much to work on the “box” [television] and they appreciate this doubtful drug so much that they conceal their names (afraid for their warm work places with social packages) while disclosing the disgusting methods of the new management.

Old news and new ways

Prominent Russian journalists have occasionally warned about the demise of country’s media. Vladimir Pozner, a famous television host, recently said that self-censorship in Russia nowadays was “at an all-time high.”

In an earlier interview with PBS Frontline, Pozner also talked about the lack of “different views” on Russian television networks. Professional media practitioner, Pozner is notorious for underlying the principle of Russian self-censorship by citing famous Russian poet Yevgeny Evtushenko:

An educated neighbor of Galileo
Was as smart as Galileo himself.
He knew that the Earth rotates,
But he also had a family.

The phenomenal speech [ru, with English subtitles] by prominent Russian journalist Leonid Parfenov at the end of 2010 on media freedom, provoked a reaction within the media community but did not change the situation regarding media censorship. Symbolically, the speech found its way to people through blogs and social media since many television channels cautiously refrained from broadcasting it.

It may be all too logical for outspoken Russian reporters to go online and abandon traditional media channels. After all, people do regard blogs and online news portals more open than old media.

But radio, television and newspapers still hold the attention of the majority of Russians and serve as the primary sources of information for people in different corners of the country. The development of the Internet may bring something that, according to Pozner, Russian people never had and therefore could never desire: freedom of speech.

Russia: Most Users of Popular Social Network Are Russian Orthodox

Vadim Isakov — Tue, 24 May 2011 19:11:00 +0000

Ten million users of the most popular social network in Russian Vkontakte.ru consider themselves Russian Orthodox, news agency Interfax reported. It is the most popular religion on Vkontakte.ru followed by Islam (1.5 million users) and Buddhism (363 thousand users).

Russia: Senator Calls for Civilized Political Discussion Online

Vadim Isakov — Tue, 24 May 2011 19:02:59 +0000

Senator from pro-Kremlin “United Russia” party Robert Shlegel urged opposition leaders to join him in developing the rules of civilized political discussion online, Lenta.ru reported [ru]. The senator said the opposition often uses “lies, accusations and provocations” online.

Russia: FSB Blocks Access to LiveJournal in Ulyanovsk City

Vadim Isakov — Tue, 24 May 2011 18:52:02 +0000

A user of Internet portal Habrahabr wrote [ru] that on May 17, 2011 an Internet provider company in Russian city Ulyanovsk blocked access to the blog of Aleksey Navalny, a famous online personality on RuNet, following the order of FSB, Russian security service. It was later reported [ru] by GTZ.ru that the IP blocked the whole LiveJournal platform due to alleged technical problems. It is still unclear what really happened.

Russia: Internet Economy To Reach 4 Percent of GDP by 2015

Vadim Isakov — Tue, 24 May 2011 18:34:35 +0000

Russian Internet economy will more than double within the next four years and rich four percent of the country's GDP by 2015, reported [ru] Lenta.ru citing the latest research by The Boston Consulting Group.