Unlike in Belarus where the electoral commission members never raise a voice against falsifications, their Russian counterparts are more active. Read More »

A group claiming to be affiliated with Anonymous recently released hacked emails from leaders of the pro-Kremlin youth group Nashi that show the group was paying journalists and bloggers hundreds of thousands of dollars for positive coverage, according to The Guardian. The group reportedly also paid bloggers and Internet trolls to smear or leave negative comments about opposition leaders. Read More »

There’s not a lot of good detective stories in the world these days. Whether in real life or in the movies, they seem to have been overshadowed by car chases, explosions and government-wide conspiracy stories. Read More »

Peer pressure and the desire to be part of the “in-crowd” is typically enough to get even the biggest luddite to try social media networks.  But apparently, for top officials in Dagestan, peer pressure is just not enough–they need an extra push by the president to get them to set up that Facebook page. Read More »

Internet users helped root out a doctored photo of a prominent Russian political critic that shown just how much the Internet has changed the nature of political shenanigans in the country since the days of Soviet political photo montages.  The story appeared recently in the New York Times. Read More »

Once again, here are some interesting bits of news related to our coverage region, in this case, Russia, from the folks at CIMA’s Digital Mash Up, including a link to a Forbes profile of Alexei Navalny:

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I’ve come across a great resource for those interested in staying up to date on digital developments worldwide: the Digital Media Mash Up, which calls itself “a weekly newsletter focusing on digital media events, news, and research from around the world”.Produced by the the Center for International Media Assistance (CIMA), an initiative of the National Endowment for Democracy (one of TOL’s long-time donors), the newsletter’s archive can be accessed here and you can find out how to sign up.

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Days before Russians go to the polls to choose a new parliament, Global Voices blogger Alexey Sidorenko reports on a remarkable example of push-back against the “official” way of electioneering – and increasing pressure from the political center on a group intent on documenting election violations. Read More »

As Russia gears up for parliamentary elections in a few days and presidential elections this coming spring, more and more eyes are turning to watch a new player in the national political scene there: the Internet.  Read More »

A video that may or may not show hundreds of Russians booing Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin at a mixed martial arts match this past weekend has gone viral. Almost 2 million people have now watched the video of the incident, which took place on 20 November after Putin appeared in the ring to congratulate Fedor on his victory. While the organizers and Kremlin claim that the crowd was razzing the defeated American fighter, Jeff Monson, many believe the audience’s anger was directed at Putin. Read More »

The largest country in Europe now boasts the most Internet users as well, new research shows. Read More »

Infographic on the Russian Blogosphere by the Berkman Center at Harvard University, October 2010

A new report, “Social Change and the Russian Network Society,” by Gregory Asmolov and Josh Machleder has been published on information technology in Russian civil society. They explain how new information technology has given rise to the “Fifth Estate,” a social media-oriented network society that is taking its place alongside traditional media and is changing the way Russians consume information. Read More »