Stories about Russian from July, 2011
Russia: US Support of Opposition?
LJ user grad46 (Maxim Petrovich) claims [ru] that several Russian opposition groups are funded by US-interests. Until recently an opposition activist himself, Petrovich publishes corroborating documentation, accuses several leading opposition activists of taking American money, and is interviewed [ru] on the issue by Russian newspaper Moskovsky Komsomolets.
Russia: News as Rap
Edmund Downie at Foreign Policy Passport reports that Russian president Dmitri Medvedev is much impressed by news agency's RIA-Novosti introduction of news in the form of musical rap info [ru].
Russia: Science Fiction Vocabulary
Yelena of Russian Blog addresses a few of the new Russian words adopted with the increasing popularity of science fiction in the 1990s.
Kyrgyzstan: Government Bans News Websites from the Election Campaign
Ahead of the presidential elections to be held in Kyrgyzstan on 30 October, 2011, the Central Elections Committee (CEC) came out with a controversial decision, barring web-based news media from taking part in the campaign. Eleven news sites were denied accreditation to inform voters on the pre-election developments.
Ukraine: Collapse of Government Policies
Taras Kuzio posts a translation of Vitaliy Portnikov's article [ru], arguing that the policies of the Ukrainian President Yanukovich and the government are close to a political collapse.
Belarus: Schengen Visa=Guilty
Pyotr Kuznetsov mentions [ru] a Belarusian police officer who interpreted a Schengen visa in the passport of one of the women detained at a protest rally as a solid proof that she was not a law-abiding citizen. He said this to a colleague who used to know the woman and...
Russia: Policeman that Promised to “Rob and Kill” Dismissed
A policeman that was caught on camera saying that if he would be dismissed he would “go to the streets to rip, rob, and kill” (video [ru]) was dismissed, lenta.ru reported [ru]. The dismissal (result of a bloggers’ activity in spreading the word about the case), however, didn't solve a...
Russia: While LiveJournal Experiences DDoS Attack (Again), Users to Twitter and Facebook
LJ-user igrick (head of LiveJournal development team) publishes [ru] (the link might be temporary unavailable) evidence of another serious DDoS attack against the platform. Roem.ru, on the other hand, brings up graphs [ru] that say that bloggers deprived of their publishing platform move to Twitter and Facebook.
Russia: Bloggers Find Street Shooter
Bloggers across the Russian Internet were quick to respond with posts and information after well-known photo-blogger Dmitry Ternovsky was shot at recently on a highway in the southeast of Moscow. Ashley Cleek details the story.
Belarus: East and West and Nothing in Between?
"East is East and West is West, and never the twain shall meet." This chronically misused Kipling phrase seems to catch the realities for an increasing number of Belarusians, who, waking to a wild and hostile world, are asking: "Who cares about Belarus?"
Russia: Questioning Emigration
Anatoly Karlin of Sublime Oblivion questions whether there is a second wave of Russian emigration, instead seeing this as a Russophobic myth and continues this theme by posting a translation of Nikolai Starikov's blog post [RU] “How liberal myths are created.”
Russia: “Double-Entry Bookkeeping” in Moscow State University
Blogger Vladimir Varfolomeev writes [ru] about strange occurrences during the entry exams to the prestigious Journalism Department of the Moscow State University. Varfolomeev brings up a story of the entrant who received the highest possible mark for the interview. After the interview, however, the mark was significantly reduced by a...
Russia: Envisioning the “Cloud Democracy” Utopia
'Cloud Democracy' is the title of the new book written by Leonid Volkov and Fyodor Krasheninnikov, two political bloggers from the Urals region of Russia. The book displays the authors' vision on how a system of 'future' democratic governance can be built with the help of online tools.
Is Russia's Political “Black Hole” About to Reach Tipping Point?
In December 2011 Russian voters will elect a new parliament, and than in March 2012 a new (or perhaps, not so new) president. Analysts predict that the upcoming elections threaten a confrontation between the old political parties and their new, network-based, alternatives.
Russia: Online Effort to Discredit Environmentalists Exposed
Suren Gazaryan, Russian environmentalist, publishes [ru] the scan of the document that describes the strategy of discrediting local environmentalist organizations protesting against the development of the Tuapse oil terminal. The “plan” includes prices for the paid posts in the blogs, forums, media outlets, as well as a list of possible...
Russia: President Medvedev's Gadgets Evaluated in a YouTube Video
YouTube user tebedam publishes a video [ru/en] entitled as “Medvedev is NOT corrupted,” that provides market prices for the gadgets president Medvedev had been spotted with on various photos, including Leica S2 camera (Price 22,995 US dollars), other top shelf Swiss watches, and a spacious Moscow flat. According to the...
Russia: Women ‘Rip For Putin’ As Election Campaign War Begins
Russian 2012 presidential candidate Vladimir Putin is quickly catching up with his supposed rival Dmitry Medvedev in engaging guerrilla marketing techniques and new media to boost his campaign.
Russia/Belarus: Two More ‘Revolutionary’ Initiatives Appear Online
Ukraine-based Looo.ch launches [ru] street-art initiative called “Belarus Front of Street Art,” which idea is to spray word “Скоро” (“Soon”) on the streets of Belarus thus inspiring people to oppose the regime of Alexander Lukashenko. In Russia, the community “Crayon Revolution” [ru] calls people to draw “This government should resign”...
Russia: Kremlin Critics Threatened With Travel Ban
On July 6, 2011, leading political opposition activists Boris Nemtsov and Vladimir Milov suddenly found themselves banned from leaving Russia by the country's Federal Bailiff Service. The concept of a travel ban has a special place in the hearts of people who lived during the Soviet Union.
Belarus: Vkontakte Social Network Blocked by the Providers
Update: Access to the Vkontake site is now restored. Vkontakte, Russian social network, is unavailable for Belarus Internet Users. The network hosts “Revolution Through the Social Network” [ru] group used to organize non-violent protests, telegraf.by reported [ru]. Individual Belarus-based users told GV that the page loads only header but the...
Russia: Popular Curse Temporarily Becomes a Worldwide Twitter Trend
#хуи [ru], Russian swearword for penis (plural), for a few hours became a global trend. Lenta.ru notes [ru] that the sudden appearance of this hashtag marks the launch of Cyrillic hashtag functionality.
