Stories about Eastern & Central Europe from November, 2010
Russia: Leading Activist Blogger on How Internet Changes Politics
Marina Litvinovich, is one of the most influential activist bloggers in Russia. In an interview with Gregory Asmolov, she shares her vision of the future role of the Internet in Russian politics.
Caucasus: Revelations & Confusion over Cablegate
As the media worldwide reveals revelation after revelation with the gradual release of over 251,000 leaked U.S. Embassy cables over the coming weeks, there were also some items of specific interest in the South Caucasus.
Russia: Competing Models of Internet Politics
RuNet becomes an arena of the competition of at least two concepts of the usage of the cyberspace: "United Russia"'s formula "Internet instead of democracy" and independent, grass-roots formula "Internet as a free environment for civil society initiatives." Alexey Sidorenko analyzed the recent trends of the role of the Internet in contemporary Russian politics.
Central & Eastern Europe: Initial Reactions to WikiLeaks’ Cablegate
While other regions feature a lot more prominently in the collection of U.S. embassy cables published by WikiLeaks thus far, a few countries of the CEE region do appear in the kickoff edition of Cablegate. Below is a small selection of initial reactions from the region's bloggers.
Russia: Online Cartoon Against Corruption in Road Construction
Antimult studio published [RUS] an informative and entertaining cartoon on corruption in road construction in Russia. Together with usage of the old technologies, corruption causes 4 times higher price of...
Russia: Phenomenal Growth of Facebook and Twitter in 2010
Facebook and Twitter audience in Russia grew 3-4 times since the beginning of the year, Vedomosti cites [RUS] comScore data. By the end of 2010, almost 6 mln of Russian netizens...
Russia: 25% of Registered Cyrillic Domains Suspended
Coordination Center for .rf (.рф) domain (ccTLD) has temporarily suspended [RUS] all domains registered by Ru-Center registrar following the scandals with the closed auctions for the most lucrative Cyrillic domains....
China: Time for a new conversation about privacy invasion
With a broader and perhaps global view of more pervasive privacy issues, poet and professor Rui Shen asks: "Some people disagree with airport security measures that display people's bodies, feeling those to be an invasion of their privacy. Watching the debate on the news, though, I wonder: are these people confused or just stupid?"
Serbia: Air India Pilot's Family Reacts to Leaked Media Report
Six months after the May 22 Mangalore plane crash, which claimed 158 lives, an investigation report blaming Serbian pilot Zlatko Glusica for the country’s worst air disaster of the last decade was leaked to media. Sasa Milosevic reviews media coverage of the case and talks to Mr. Glusica's family.
Ukraine: Entrepreneurs Renew Mass Protests
@Matteush reads tweets marked with the #kat_ua hashtag, concludes (UKR) that “the whole country has risen to protest bandit tax code”: rallies and strikes by entrepreneurs are taking place in...
Russia: Mikhail Khodorkovsky's Facebook Account Banned and Un-Banned
On November 20, 2010 Facebook has suspended Mikhail Khodorkovsky‘s private account allegedly due to usage violations. It took four days to convince the social network to un-ban it. Anton Nossik...
Russia: Bashkortostan President Meets Loyal Bloggers
JournalUfa comments [RUS] on the recent meeting of Rustem Khamitov, the new president (governor) of Bashkortostan republic, with the bloggers. Only loyal bloggers were allowed to come, plus several controversial...
Russia: LiveJournal Suspends Another Independent Blogger
LiveJournal abuse team has suspended account of Stanislav Sadalsky, an actor and a popular independent blogger. Sadalsky claims he can access his account but can't post new posts at stanis-sadal...
Ukraine: Social Media Play Crucial Role in Covering Anti-Tax Code Protests
On Nov. 22, several thousand Ukrainian entrepreneurs from different regions gathered in Kyiv to protest against the new tax code approved by the Ukrainian Parliament last Thursday. While the country’s traditional media failed to produce timely and balanced coverage of the events, social network users and bloggers kept Ukrainians well-informed about the latest developments.
Russia: New Portal Launches WebCam Discussion On Police Reform
“Talking heads,” a new socio-political portal, presents a debate on police reform in an unusual format: expert webcam chat. The idea of the website is to make a cultured, person-to-person...
Serbia: Abuse of Stray Animals Continues
The Serbian President is willing to adopt a severely mutilated dog called Mila, which became a symbol of the suffering of Serbia's stray animals. However, despite all the publicity, horrifying animal abuse cases continue to be reported in the Serbian mainstream and citizen media. Sasa Milosevic reviews some of them.
Ukraine: “Revolution 2.0″
Andriy Kachor (@Ka4or) reports (UKR; #kat_ua) that Khreshchatyk, Kyiv's central street, has been “blocked” by the protesters and that “the number of cops is growing proportionally to the number of...
Ukraine: Protests Against New Tax Code in Kyiv
Thousands of representatives of the Ukrainian small and medium business community are protesting against the new tax code in Kyiv. Live Ustream broadcast is here (over 5,000 viewers); Twitter tag...
Bulgaria: Reactions to Hate Speech Against Arabs and Islam
Kapka Siderova, the wife of a far-right nationalist politician in Bulgaria, made some controversial statements about Arab women on a popular talk show yesterday, sparking outrage and allegations of racism and bigotry. Ruslan Trad reviews the reactions of Bulgarian Facebook users.
Macedonia: Skopje Zoo Improvements
Basic improvements at the Skopje Zoo have brought new quality of life for the captive animals and the visitors, who regain confidence in this public enterprise.
Russia: Oleg Kashin is Back Online
Oleg Kashin, recently recovered from artificially inducted coma, published the first post [RUS] entitled: “I have nothing to say now but I will thank everyone later.” A post with just...
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