(RFE/RL – November 17, 2012) As one of the most recognizable personalities on Russian television, Vladimir Pozner is no stranger to the spotlight. But the 78-year-old veteran journalist found himself in the midst of a controversy last month after lambasting the state of justice in the country during his popular show on state-controlled Channel One. Pozner harshly criticized the abduction […]
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(Fyodor Krashenninikov and Leonid Volkov – www.opendemocracy.net – November 16, 2012) Leonid Volkov is protest movement activist and political blogger based in the city of Yekaterinburg. In 2009, Volkov ran for and won a seat on Yekaterinburg’s city council. Together with Fyodor Krasheninnikov he co-authored “Cloud Democracy” published in Russia in 2011. Fyodor Krasheninnikov is political PR consultant, protest movement […]
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(RFE/RL – Tom Balmforth – November 14, 2012) MOSCOW The law was supposed to make the Internet safer for children. So far, it has led to the brief blocking of an electronic library, a popular satirical encyclopedia, and the country’s most highly trafficked torrent-tracking website. The sites are just the first collateral damage from controversial legislation aimed at regulating […]
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(Moscow News – themoscownews.com – Alina Lobzina – November 14, 2012) A State Duma deputy who was riled by the press for estimating the intellectual abilities of “the dumbest” of his colleagues above those of an average Russian, lamented the lack of control over journalists on Wednesday. Ilya Kovtunov, member of ruling United Russia party, tweeted his apologies but got […]
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WASHINGTON November 14 (By Suleiman Wali for RIA Novosti) – A controversial new law that expands the definition of treason in Russia is being decried by critics in the United States as the Kremlin’s continuing effort to return the country to a “darker criminal code.” “Over the past six months, a series of laws have been passed in Russia that […]
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MOSCOW, November 14 (RIA Novosti) Russia’s telecoms watchdog, Roskomnadzor, has struck 21 entries off its “blacklist” in three days, the agency said in a statement on Wednesday. The 21 links and IP-addresses included popular internet resources, whose blacklisting triggered public debate. “This includes the Lurkmore.to resource, links to individual pages in the social networking site Vkontakte and also the […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Nikolaus von Twickel – November 14, 2012) As the number of websites banned or blocked under the new Internet law continues to grow, the country’s media watchdog backpedaled Tuesday by acknowledging that censoring content was technically and legally difficult, and it promised to remove popular sites from the blacklist. The Mass Media Inspection Service said […]
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MOSCOW, November 14 (Marc Bennetts, RIA Novosti) A controversial law on state treason that critics fear could be used to stamp out political dissent came into force in Russia on Wednesday, two days after President Vladimir Putin told human rights workers he was ready to “review” it. The law, initiated by the Federal Security Service (FSB), and signed by […]
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(Moscow News – themoscownews.com – Alina Lobzina – November 14, 2012) Controversial journalist Arkady Mamontov, best known for authoring programs accusing Kremlin-critics of being the servants of Western powers, has prepared his latest round of revelations, this time over the recent embezzlement scandal in the Defense Ministry. The state-owned federal Rossia 1 TV station aired his investigation under the title […]
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(Interfax – November 13, 2012) The net culture online encyclopedia Lurkomorye has been removed from the communications, IT and mass media oversight service Roskomnadzor’s list of banned Web sites. “We have conducted a thorough check and removed the [Lurkomorye] links and IP-addresses from the list,” Roskomnadzor spokesman Vladimir Panin told Interfax on Tuesday. The ban was lifted after Lurkomorye’s owners […]
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MOSCOW. Nov 12 (Interfax) – Famous TV anchor Vladimir Pozner has said that his show will continue airing on Channel 1 and that he has not had to apologize to anyone for his comments about the Russian law enforcement system. “Let me get things clear. I did not apologize, I was not fired, reports of my departure are absolute nonsense, […]
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MOSCOW, November 12 (RIA Novosti) Moscow’s first 24-hour English-language radio station, Moscow FM, started broadcasting on Monday. The radio station is the brainchild of the city government’s Moscow Media holding, hopes to become a must-listen-to resource on events in the capital. “Today we are opening the first English-language radio station in Moscow. I hope that this station will open […]
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(Moscow Times – Rachel Nielsen – November 2, 2012) The law giving government agencies the power to order Internet companies to block material the state deems illegal came into force Thursday. Ostensibly aimed at protecting children from pernicious content online, the measure allows material to be blocked if officials determine that it includes child pornography, solicits children for porn, encourages […]
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MOSCOW, November 2 (RIA Novosti) Moscow city officials plan to target tourists and English-speaking residents in a whole new way: with a new English-language radio station. Moscow FM, which will be hosted on the 105.2 frequency, is expected to hit the airwaves on November 12, the Kommersant daily newspaper reported Friday. Igor Shestakov, chief editor of the Moscow Media […]
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(Natalia Yudina – opendemocracy.net – Natalia Yudina is chief expert at the Moscow based SOVA hate crime monitoring agency – October 30, 2012 – charts here: http://www.opendemocracy.net/od-russia/natalia-yudina/runet-hate-crime-and-soft-targets-how-russia-enforces-its-anti-extremism-la) The internet is a tool that can be used for good, but it can also be manipulated by fanatics preaching violent hate propaganda. Policing is never going to be easy, but the Russian […]
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MOSCOW. Oct 31 (Interfax) – Civil Society Development Fund Head Konstantin Kostin thinks there is no reason to criticize the latest amendments to the Law on State Secrets. He called the negative reaction of certain human rights activists “emotional.” “I have seen nothing extraordinary in these amendments. Any country wants to protect its interests, including state secrets,” he told Interfax […]
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(What the Papers Say, Nov. 1, 2012 – Moscow Times/BBC Monitoring – http://www.themoscowtimes.com/news/article/what-the-papers-say-nov-1-2012/470826.html) The Moscow Times and BBC Monitoring summarize news from Russian-language print newspapers; click here for full report: http://www.themoscowtimes.com/news/article/what-the-papers-say-nov-1-2012/470826.html
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Date: Mon, 8 Oct 2012 From: “Russian Analytical Digest (RAD)” <newslist@isn.ch> Subject: No.118: Russia’s Evolving Political System RUSSIAN ANALYTICAL DIGEST Newsletter 2 October 2012/No. 118 Russia’s Evolving Political System To download this issue please click here: http://www.css.ethz.ch/publications/DetailansichtPubDB_EN?rec_id=2215 Analyses The Regime, the Opposition, and Challenges to Electoral Authoritarianism in Russia, by Vladimir Gel’man, St. Petersburg/Helsinki Russian Riot: Senseless and Ruthless or […]
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From: Lucy Ash <lucy.ash.05@bbc.co.uk> Subject: BBC online stories Date: Tue, 23 Oct 2012 Audio slide show for “Putin’s favourite monastery. The wooded island of Valaam, in a large lake in northern Russia, is a beacon for Russian Orthodox believers – among them President Putin.” http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-20041504
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Nikolaus von Twickel – October 19, 2012) Soviet listeners tuned in to Radio Liberty, Voice of America and the British Broadcasting Corp.’s Russian service to get objective information. But since Voice of America and the BBC nixed their Russian radio broadcasts in favor of an online-only regime in 2008 and 2011, respectively, Radio Liberty, known […]
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MOSCOW. Oct 16 (Interfax) – The people accused of murdering Novaya Gazeta journalist Anna Politkovskaya will ask for a jury trial. “We will certainly make a motion for a trial by jury. Legislation allows us to do so,” Alexei Mikhalchik, a defense lawyer for one of the suspects, told Interfax. According to the Russian Code of Criminal Procedure, a request […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – October 16, 2012) Investigators announced Tuesday that they have wrapped up a second inquiry into the murder of journalist Anna Politkovskaya and charged five suspects with murder and illegal possession of weapons. “The investigative team has collected enough evidence to draw up an indictment,” Vladimir Markin, the official spokesman for the Investigative Committee, said in […]
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RUSSIAN PRESS REVIEW – Vladimir Putin has marked his 60th Birth Anniversary – ITAR-TASS – October 8, 2012 ITAR-TASS provides its take on Russian press accounts of Russian President’s Vladimir Putin’s 60th birthday. Click here for the full article: http://www.itar-tass.com/en/c142/539889.html
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Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Jonathan Earle – October 4, 2012 State-controlled NTV television is scheduled to air two new politically themed documentaries this weekend an opposition expose on Friday and a feature about the day-to-day life of President Vladimir Putin on Sunday, his 60th birthday. The channel has a history of producing controversial documentaries about Kremlin foes […]
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