Category: Media, Internet, Social Media, Television
Russia without whom?
As the Soviet Union collapsed, a generation had just been born. The online journal Russia without us catalogues their struggle to find a place in today’s Russia. Interview. (opendemocracy.net – Andrey Urodov, Maxim Edwards – January 21, 2016) Andrey Urodov is a freelance journalist covering сultural and social issues in Russia. He runs the non-profit Russia without us magazine. Maxim […]
» Read moreRussian media bosses unimpressed with Chechen leaders’ anti-opposition rhetoric
(Interfax – Moscow, January 18, 2016) Editor-in-Chief of Ekho Moskvy radio station Aleksey Venediktov has said that Chechen parliament speaker Magomed Daudov’s statements against opposition journalists were an inappropriate reaction to uncomfortable questions in the media about the investigation into the murder of politician Boris Nemtsov. “I consider his words to be a reaction to our questions about the investigation […]
» Read moreNetflix’s Desire for World Domination Reaches Russia
(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Eva Hartog – January 15, 2016) China, the world’s most populous country, might have slipped through its fingers, but with Russia Netflix in January pocketed the largest country by landmass and the promise of tapping into a booming online market. Netflix’s move into Russia, along with 129 other countries, was heralded by its CEO as […]
» Read moreNEWSLINK Russia Direct: “Review of the week: Putin’s Bild interview and US-Russia relations. The most important Russian foreign policy events of the past week centered on Ukraine, including a discussion of the Minsk agreements and the potential for increased Russia-U.S. coordination in bringing the confrontation to an end.”
Moscow’s 5 most interesting mobile apps for tourists
Foreign travelers can now get to know Moscow better thanks to some new mobile apps for those that love museums, architecture and even making random new friends in the metro. (Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – Kira Egorova, RBTH – January 18, 2016) Moscow, Russia If digital detox while on holiday is not one of your goals and you […]
» Read moreDJ: Recent comment on Johnson’s Russia List by a former State Department official
DJ: Recent comment on Johnson’s Russia List by a former State Department official: “I have just returned from travel and started in on JRL #7, only to find the first ten percent or so of the issue taken up by a banal, boring, partisan regurgitation of Putin’s Bild interview. Why do you continue to inflict on your readers such tripe […]
» Read moreBad News Trumps Glad Tidings During Russia’s Long Vacation
(RFE/RL – rferl.org – Tom Balmforth – MOSCOW – January 10, 2016) A lot can happen in 10 days, and during Russia’s long winter holiday, it usually does. From bizarre, bloody attacks to lethal combinations of bad weather and alleged government negligence, the long Russian New Year and Orthodox Christmas break has brought plenty of grim news — along with […]
» Read more10 facts about the Russian Internet
Desktops are beginning to become a thing of the past: In the past year the number of Russian users going on-line from mobile devices has increased by 90 percent. RBTH has sifted some more curious facts about the Internet. (Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – YEKATERINA SINELSCHIKOVA, RBTH – January 11, 2016) 1. 11.8 million Russian users (14%) go […]
» Read morePutin’s Crude and Desperate Propaganda
From: John Evans <EvansinAmerica@aol.com> Date: January 5, 2016 To: letters@washpost.com Subject: Putin’s Crude and Desperate Propaganda To the Editor: With all due respect to Paula Dobriansky and David Rivkin, and with prior apologies for engaging in “Whataboutism,” I question the authors’ one-sided excoriation of Russian media and officials (Op-Ed, Jan. 5) for some racist and decidedly off-color remarks and representations, […]
» Read moreNEWSLINK Kyiv Post: “Ukrainian journalists still not guaranteed justice under new regime”
NEWSLINK Wall Street Journal: “Russia’s Taxi-Hailing Apps Gain Ridership. Gett, Yandex.Taxi and Uber make inroads, despite protests by taxi drivers”
Ukraine’s media: a plea for pluralism
Ukraine’s media is caught between propaganda and counter-propaganda. We need to stop this black and white thinking. (opendemocracy.net – Igor Burdyga – December 29, 2015) Igor Burdyga began his career as a journalist with Interfax-Ukraine in 2007 before moving to Kommersant-Ukraine. Since the fall of 2013, he has worked as a special correspondent for Vesti.Reporter, reporting on EuroMaidan, the annexation […]
» Read moreRussia’s politics of paranoia
Russian society tries to keep its nerve. The Kremlin thrives on it, the papers amplify it-but nobody can quite control this profound paranoia. (opendemocracy.net – ANNA ARUTUNYAN – December 22, 2015) Anna Arutunyan is a Russian-American journalist and the author of The Putin Mystique. She is currently a fellow at the Kennan Institute in Washington. Russian society tries to keep […]
» Read moreThis Russian Bear Is Hitting the Mall
After sweeping YouTube and Netflix, Masha and the Bear looks to licensing. (Bloomberg – bloomberg.com – By Ilya Khrennikov – December 17, 2015) The bear has long been a ferocious projection of Russia’s power at home and abroad. Lately, a Russian bear that’s more like a kindly uncle has been winning hearts from Baltimore to Berlin: the affable and patient […]
» Read moreRIA Novosti: Putin warns against moves to close Ukrainian library in Moscow
(RIA Novosti – December 25, 2015) Vladimir Putin has intervened in the case of the Library of Ukrainian Literature in Moscow, whose director is in custody and facing charges of inciting hatred, RIA Novosti news agency reported on 25 December. Natalya Sharina was held on 28 October when the Investigations Committee carried out a search of the Library and found […]
» Read moreThe End Of Russia’s Mass Hallucination
(RFE/RL – Brian Whitmore – December 23, 2015) Fresh barbed-wire fencing around the nation’s main TV tower isn’t exactly a sign of a confident regime. In addition to reinforcing its perimeter, Moscow’s state-run Ostankino television center also upgraded its security detail, replacing regular police officers with elite Interior Ministry forces. “These are normal security measures that are connected to the […]
» Read moreNEWSLINK European Council on Foreign Relations/Francisco de Borja Lasheras: “Understanding modern Russia? Why European leaders should read Peter Pomerantsev”
TRANSCRIPT: [Putin at] First Russian Internet Economy Forum
(Kremlin.ru – December 22, 2015) Vladimir Putin attended the First Russian Internet Economy Forum. The First Russian Internet Economy Forum is taking place in Moscow on December 21-22. The plenary session, attended by representatives of the national IT industry and relevant ministries and agencies, is dedicated to initiatives for the long-term development programme of the Russian Internet segment and branches […]
» Read moreThe Russian government ’embraces’ transparency
Russia is finally embracing transparency-so long as it poses no threat to political stability. (opendemocracy.net – Andrei Jvirblis – December 18, 2015) Andrei Jvirblis is a Moscow-based journalist and head of Transparency International Russia’s Public Activism group. As the response of Russia’s Prosecutor General to accusations of graft this week shows, nothing gets Russian public officials angrier than journalists rooting […]
» Read moreFrom tabloids to state-run dailies: A tour of the Russian press
(Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – George Butchard – December 14, 2015) In early December a group of young journalists from over a dozen countries attended the New Generation program in Moscow, where they had the opportunity to tour some of Russia’s key media publications and ask questions about the way the state media apparatus works. First on the […]
» Read moreYoutube Unveils Russia’s Most Popular Music Videos of 2015
(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Katrin Scheib – December 11, 2015) [Links to the videos here themoscowtimes.com/news/article/youtube-unveils-russias-most-popular-music-videos-of-2015/552545.html] The stats are in: Youtube has released a list of the music videos that were most popular in Russia in 2015. Some of them were meant to be funny, others just are, and they are all worth watching. So dig out your headphones, […]
» Read moreThe Year Of The Troll
(RFE/RL – rferl.org – Brian Whitmore – December 10, 2015) For much of the year, Russian bombers, warships, and submarines played chicken with NATO with provocative incursions into member states’ sea and airspace. And as the year drew to a close, Moscow finally got burned when Turkey’s air force shot down a Su-24 warplane. The incident, which has led to […]
» Read moreRBTH: Cable wars: Can Russia really cut the jugular?
Both the U.S. and Russia have the means to clip undersea cables but don’t worry, unless there’s a full on war, your internet surfing won’t be interrupted. (Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – RAKESH KRISHNAN SIMHA, SPECIAL TO RBTH – December 9, 2015) There are more than 285 cables crossing the world’s oceans, with the entire network spanning over […]
» Read morePeskov: No restrictions for [quick data] messengers planned
(Interfax – December 9, 2015) The Kremlin said that no restrictions for the quick data transmission systems, the so-called messengers, are planned to introduce. “I am aware that the issue is really being worked on, but not in the aspect of restrictions. As far as I am concerned, there are no restrictions there, but the issue is being worked on, […]
» Read moreInterfax: Russia, U.S. cooperating in telecommunications, environmental issues, access to drinking water in Arctic
MOSCOW. Dec 4 (Interfax) – Russia and the United States are cooperating in spheres of mutual interest in the Arctic Council, Russian Foreign Ministry Ambassador at Large, senior official in the Arctic Council Vladimir Barbin has said. “Speaking of the U.S. program, they have lots of projects Russia is interested in […]. Naturally, we will be cooperating with them,” Barbin […]
» Read moreInoculated Against Russian Propaganda
(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Daria Litvinova – December 4, 2015) Immediately following the harrowing terrorist attacks in Paris on Nov. 13, Russian pro-Kremlin media adjusted their rhetoric, abandoning their previous anti-Western and anti-U.S. vitriol even before the Kremlin spoke of a broad military alliance. “A listener called Komsomolskaya Pravda radio station … and said that Americans are not our […]
» Read moreTruthiness in Russia; What we’re missing from the propaganda debate: how state propaganda feeds off and enhances public sentiment
(opendemocracy.net – Nelli Babayan – November 23, 2015) Nelli Babayan is Fellow at the Transatlantic Academy, German Marshall Fund US and Associate Fellow at the Center for Transnational, Foreign and Security Policy at Freie Universität Berlin. Her latest book is Democratic Transformation and Obstruction: EU, US, and Russia in the South Caucasus. Find her on Twitter @nellibabayan As opinion polls […]
» Read morePlots against Russia (Book and Blog)
Date: Thu, 12 Nov 2015 From: Eliot Borenstein <eb7@nyu.edu> Subject: Plots against Russia (Book and Blog) A brief announcement: I’m posting the first draft of my new book project, Plots against Russia: Conspiracy and Fantasy after Socialism, as a blog. This is while I write it, in real time. I explain the idea behind the project here: http://jordanrussiacenter.org/news/new-book-new-blog-plots-russia/#.VkPdLbcq2rV The blog/book’s […]
» Read moreRecommendations for additions to the Russia expert media outlet mix
Subject: Reaction to a piece in #217/Top Russian Media Date: Wed, 11 Nov 2015 From: Sarah Lindemann-Komarova <echosiberia@gmail.com> Recommendations for additions to the Russia expert media outlet mix: Response to JRL #217, Russia Direct’s “Top 10 Russian media any Kremlin watcher needs to know” Uliana Malashenko’s “special round-up of the most influential and interesting media outlets that provide insights into […]
» Read moreWhen In Doubt, Blame The West
(RFE/RL – rferl.org – Brian Whitmore – November 9, 2015) So Russia went there after all. The crash of Metrojet Flight 9268 in Egypt on October 31, which killed all 224 people on board, was more than the worst aviation disaster in the country’s history. Once it became clear that the cause of the crash was probably terrorism, it also […]
» Read moreKremlin’s Campaign against Russophobia Threatens both Russia and the West, Polish Experts Say
(Paul Goble – Staunton, November 11, 2015) The Kremlin’s revival of a campaign against what it calls “Russophobia” constitutes a threat not only to Western countries but to Russia’s future as well, according to two Polish experts. As such, they argue, it can properly be described as “a weapon of mass destruction.” In a new study, “Russophobia in the Kremlin’s […]
» Read moreNEWSLINK Ukraine Today: “The Monster Is Dead: How Mikhail Lesin managed to kill Russian journalism.”
TRANSCRIPT: Russian Propaganda: Ways and Means – Leon Aron Senate Testimony
Statement before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Subcommittee on Europe and Regional Security Cooperation On “Putin’s Invasion of Ukraine and the Propaganda that Threatens Europe” Russian Propaganda: Ways and Means Leon Aron, Ph.D. Resident Scholar and Director of Russian Studies American Enterprise Institute November 3, 2015 The American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research (AEI) is a nonpartisan, nonprofit, 501(c)(3) […]
» Read moreNew Editor-in-Chief Appointed to The Moscow Times
(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – November 6, 2015) Liberal Russian journalist Mikhail Fishman was appointed editor-in-chief of English-language paper The Moscow Times on Thursday, the newspaper’s owner Demyan Kudryavtsev said. “He is a decent, well-known and well-connected person,” Kudryavtsev, who bought the paper earlier this year, said in e-mailed comments to The Moscow Times. The appointment of Fishman comes less […]
» Read moreNEWSLINK The Guardian: “Russia’s last independent English newspaper ends daily edition”
Vladimir Putin again tops list of world’s most powerful people
(Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – YANA LUBNINA, SPECIAL TO RBTH- November 5, 2015) Vladimir Putin has been named the most powerful man in the world once again. The president of Russia took first place in Forbes’ annual ranking for the third year in a row. German Chancellor Angela Merkel and U.S. President Barack Obama took second and third […]
» Read moreConfession of a Russian internet provider: A firsthand account of how the internet is monitored, regulated and blocked in the Russian Federation
(opendemocracy.net – Dmitry Okrest – November 5, 2015) Dmitry Okrest is a former staff writer with The New Times and currently works as an independent journalist. The internet is no longer free in Russia-that’s according to Freedom Net, a report recently published by Freedom House. Freedom of expression on the internet has been under threat for some time in the […]
» Read moreRussian Propaganda: ‘The Weaponization of Information’
(Voice of America – Molly McKitterick – November 3, 2015) When a Russian news outlet edited the U.S. ambassador into a picture of an opposition rally, the U.S. Embassy countered by editing the ambassador into a series of improbable photos – for instance, on the moon and at an ice hockey rink. The idea was to show that the original […]
» Read moreDétente NOW!
Subject: Détente NOW! Date: Fri, 30 Oct 2015 From: “Dr. Christian Wipperfürth” <cwipperfuerth@email.de> Your readers might be interested in the “Détente NOW!” – Initiative by leading members of the Social Democratic Party (which takes part in the German government), the industrie and NGOs. It can be found at http://www.cwipperfuerth.de/2015/10/detente-now-english/ —- Pax Christi Press Release (translation) Berlin, October 2015 For a […]
» Read moreNEWSLINK New York Times Sunday Book Review: “‘Winter Is Coming,’ by Garry Kasparov”
Case against Moscow’s Library of Ukrainian Literature may be closed
(Interfax – October 30, 2015) A criminal investigation launched against the director of the Moscow-based Library of Ukrainian Literature, Natalya Sharina, who is a suspect in a case opened into the spreading of extremist literature, may be closed, a source in law enforcement agencies told Interfax. “The case against Sharina may be closed on the basis of the Prosecutor’s Office’s […]
» Read moreNEWSLINK The Washington Post: “The West should take on the Putin P.R. machine”
NEWSWATCH Reuters: “Russian media take climate cue from skeptical Putin”
Reuters covers Russian media coverage of climate issues. … the Russian public heard little mention of climate change, because media coverage across state-controlled television stations and print media all but ignored it. On national TV, the villains were locals who routinely but carelessly burn off tall grasses every year, and the sometimes incompetent crews struggling to put the fires out. […]
» Read moreSmooth censorship in Russia
Everybody understands everything, everybody knows everything, and no one says anything aloud. (Opendemocracy.net – Gregory Tumanov – October 27, 2015) Grigory Tumanov is a Moscow based journalist and blogger. He is a staff correspondent for Kommersant daily, one of Russia’s most respected publications. Follow him on Twitter @scumsquad The history of censorship in Russian media runs for pages and pages. […]
» Read moreInterfax: Foreign Ministry: Russian sub rumors are part of information campaign
(Interfax – October 27, 2015) Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova has described a number of Western military officials’ latest remarks as elements of an information campaign being waged against Russia. “We have encountered a very large-scale, well-orchestrated and strategically structured information campaign aimed at shaping public opinions. The main goal of this campaign is to create an enemy image. […]
» Read moreAnnouncement of new Russian-language journal Kontrapunkt
Subject: Announcement of new Russian-language journal Kontrapunkt Date: Thu, 22 Oct 2015 From: Cory Welt <cwelt@gwu.edu> New Russian-Language Journal of Politics & Society “Counterpoint” George Washington University’s Institute for European, Russian, and Eurasian Studies (IERES) is pleased to announce the first publication of Counterpoint (Kontrapunkt), a new open-access Russian-language journal of politics and society edited by Maria Lipman available at […]
» Read morePoroshenko Pressures TV Channel to Keep Putin Handshake Off-Air
(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Anna Dolgov – October 19, 2015) A Ukrainian television channel has published a statement by its former producer, claiming officials from President Petro Poroshenko’s administration banned the channel from broadcasting footage of a handshake the Ukrainian leader exchanged with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin at a recent meeting. The handshake took place at the start […]
» Read moreA Critic Who Raised the Curtain
(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – John Freedman – October 15, 2015) I wrote my first article in August 1990 for a newsletter that transformed in 1992 into The Moscow Times. I publish my last article as theater critic of The Moscow Times today. Between those dates I wrote about 1,600 reviews, interviews, features, op-ed pieces, columns and personal observations for […]
» Read moreRBTH: Instant messaging apps: Social resource or security threat?
Is tighter government regulation of instant messaging apps using encryption really needed? Where is the line between user friendliness and national security threat? Internet expert Anton Merkurov reflects upon the matters for RBTH. (Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – Anton Merkurov is an internet expert and representative of Open Garden, the developer behind FireChat – October 15, 2015) While […]
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