· December, 2011

Stories about Eastern & Central Europe from December, 2011

Russia: AIDS Epidemic – “Shame Russia Shame”

RuNet Echo  30 December 2011

International organizations are taking notice of Russia's AIDS epidemic and the hurdles the country faces in combating it. Recent international attention has been directed toward Russia's healthcare system, the stigma attached to those infected, and Russia's drug policies. Donna Welles reports.

Macedonia: Health System Software Vendor Lock-in

  29 December 2011

Novica Nakov warned [mk] that the state discriminates against users of operating systems like GNU/Linux or Mac OS X, purporting vendor lock-in by forcing medical doctors to use the latest version of Windows as the only platform for the obligatory e-health card software [mk] by the Fund for Health Insurance...

Russia: Moscow Election Committee Calls to Prosecute Popular Blogger

RuNet Echo  28 December 2011

Moscow Election Committee had issued an official letter to the Prosecutor's office and the police to start an investigation of probable defamation against Oleg Kozyrev, one of the top Russian bloggers, blogger reports [ru]. The letter is the reply to Kozyrev's complaint letter he had sent to the Committee earlier.

Russia: Social Network In-Between Security Services and Free Market

RuNet Echo  28 December 2011

As social networks in Russia like Vkontakte play an ever increasing role in communication between post-election protesters, so too grows the interest of the security services to limit them. This conflict leads to a hard choice: whether Vkontakte should respond to security service requests, or allow its users uncontrolled protest activity.

Russia: The Opposition in St. Petersburg Fails to Reach Understanding

RuNet Echo  27 December 2011

December 2011 post-election protest events consist of two elements: 'professional oppositioners' and concerned citizens. In Moscow those two elements managed to get together. In St. Petersburg, however, the meeting was let down by one of the parties. Citizens responded with confusion and disdain.

Macedonia: Christmas Tree Made of Plastic Bottles

  25 December 2011

Inspired by the example of Kaunas, Lithuania, Macedonian Twitter users made a Christmas tree from plastic bottles at the Skopje City Park on Dec. 25, to raise awareness of everyone's responsibility for the environment. The action's organizers used their blogs [mk, mk, mk, mk] as a starting point for the...

Russia: Opposition Faces Online Communication Problems

RuNet Echo  23 December 2011

The ability to broadcast the events of December 2011 in Russia live online, has made people around the world and in the country the spectators of a truly historical event – the December 22 gathering of some 100-150 opposition activists, who represented thousands of the netizens and millions of not-connected Russians.

Russia: Phone Hacking Case Unites Opposition

RuNet Echo  22 December 2011

The leaking of private phone conversations of a prominent Russian opposition leader to the media has given rise to many issues and left a lot of questions unanswered. Dmitry Davidov reports.

CEE: More on Václav Havel and His Legacy

  22 December 2011

More posts on Václav Havel and his legacy from around the region's Anglophone blogosphere: Richard Byrne of Balkans via Bohemia; CzechFolks.com; Petr Bokuvka of The Czech Daily Word – here and here; Jeremy Druker of TOL's East of Center; Tjebbe van Tijen and Mary Kaldor for OpenDemocracy.net; Giustino of Itching...

Czech Republic: A Tribute to Václav Havel

  22 December 2011

A tribute to Václav Havel, by Luboš Motl of The Reference Frame: “[…] Havel has been an unusually strong moral autority that has influenced even people such as me who ultimately found out that they disagree with him about many pretty fundamental things. He's been proposed for a peace Nobel...

Russia: Alexey Navalny Released From Jail

RuNet Echo  20 December 2011

“Everyone's waiting for Navalny ) 5 more minutes! pic.twitter.com/3BRHiuGa,” tweeted [ru] @varlamov a short while ago, posting a picture of the crowd waiting outside a Moscow prison for activist Alexey Navalny‘s release. @plushev tweeted [ru]: “Absolutely fantastic numbers. In the middle of the night, some 5,000 people are viewing [the...

Global Voices: Donate Today

  20 December 2011

2011 has been an extraordinary year for online content. Global Voices has been there as revolutions happened, dictatorships fell, and network effects rippled through the cities and neighborhoods of our contributors reporting from around the world.

Poland: Change to Drug Law, Change in Policy?

  15 December 2011

On December 9, an important change was introduced to Poland's drug policy: an amendment to the law on illegal drug possession came into force, which would allow prosecutors to abandon initiation of the criminal procedure against those in possesion of drugs. Anna Gotowska reports.

About our Eastern & Central Europe coverage

Filip Stojanovski
Filip Stojanovski is the Central Europe editor. Email him story ideas or volunteer to write.

Daria Dergacheva
Daria Dergacheva is the Eastern Europe editor. Email her story ideas or volunteer to write.