Author: Alexey Sidorenko

Aleksey Dymovskiy, former policeman famous for publishing a series of anti-corruption videos who got arrested on January 22, 2010, had been released from the prison, newsru.com reported [RUS].

A renowned Russian music critic Artemiy Troitskiy has been banned from a liberal radio station “Echo Moskvy.” Troitskiy wrote on his blog that the reason for the ban was his decision to play a rap song about the car accident involving oil tycoon Anatoliy Barkov.

Polit.ru, independent portal on Russian politics, launched a government blog ranking “goslyudi.ru” [RUS] (govpeople) so people can have better access to the blogs of politicians and monitor the issues discussed on those blogs.

Pro-Kremlin party “Just Russia” announced the launch of the social network “Soratniki” (”Companions (-in-arms)”), lenta.ru reported. It is the second “Party-network” launched in Russia, after “Berloga” [RUS] (”Bear's Den”), a social network of “United Russia,” the country's ruling party.

A recent car crash in Moscow dominated headlines and blogs in Russia during the last four days. Bloggers launched a full-blown advocacy campaign to rehabilitate the memory of the two women killed in the crash and draw attention to a pressing issue of cars with “special” license plates that constantly disobey the rules and cause traffic accidents.

According to many witnesses, on February 25, black Mercedes of Anatoliy Barkov, vice president of Russia's largest oil company Lukoil [EN], drove to an opposite lane at a high speed and crashed into red Citroen with two women. Both women, Vera Sidelnikova and Olga Aleksandrina, died immediately. Vera Sidelnikova was a famous Moscow obstetrician and gynecologist who saved many lives during her practice.

The official version [RUS] of the accident – repeated by many government-controlled media channels – was just an opposite to the witnesses' accounts: the two women in Citroen drove to an opposite lane at a high speed and crashed into Mercedes (here is a video reconstruction of the accident based on the official version).

Many people noticed how the official version of the road accident did not make any sense to start with. Apparently, a lane opposite to Citroen has been filled with many cars and, if Citroen did drive into an opposite lane,  it would be impossible to hit only Mercedes without crashing into other cars around it. At the same time, a lane opposite to Mercedes was pretty much empty and the car could easily drive into it and hit Citroen without damaging other cars.

Journalist and blogger Elena Tokareva (aka LJ user elena-tokareva2) expressed her doubts [RUS]:

Интересная трагедия. Нелогичная. Ситроен с геникологом Верой Сидельниковой за рулем ехал утром в сторону области, по свободному шоссе, с чего бы ему ни с того ни с сего вылететь на встречку? Тем более, что пожилые водительницы всегда едут медленно и печально, не гоняют. Что-то привирают гаишники

Another blogger an4en was more straightforward [RUS]:

Утром по Серебряному дождю в блоке с информацией о пробках передали сообщение о том, что на площади Гагарина произошло ДТП с участием Мерседеса со спецномерами и Ситроена.
Звонили слушатели-очевидцы – все как один говорили о том факте, что Мерседес выехал на встречную полосу, где и столкнулся лоб в лоб с Ситроеном.
И вот уже вечером, буквально 20 мин назад, по “чудному” каналу РОССИЯ.1 в новостях сообщают, что это именно Ситроен выехал на встречную полосу, именно девушка виновата в аварии.
Hу да. Это мы тут, в Москве, такие. Несколько тысяч, кто слышал это сообщение по радио. А вся страна смотрит новости по федеральному каналу. И верит. И как-будто всё слава Богу. И как-будто власть у нас хорошая.

an4en later accused the Russian radio of deleting the witnesses' accounts from its Web site:

я лично слышала в эфире Серебряного дождя, как радиослушатели звонили и сообщали, что авария случилась, потому что мерс со спецномерами выехал на встречку. Сегодня отслушала архив эфира от 25 февраля на сайте www.moskva.fm – эти звонки из эфира стёрли! Вырезали! Эфир смикшевали! Просто нет никаких сообщений от слушателей об аварии на Ленинском! Ну я-то не сумасшедшая! Я же слушала!!! И слышала!

Immediately after the crash, Russian rapper Noize MC [RUS] wrote a hip-hop song “Mercedes S666″ where the Vice-President of LUKoil Anatoliy Barkov is presented as a demon from “South Park” cartoon:

In the song, the oil tycoon boasts about his high rank and supernatural powers that allow him to escape a punishment:

I am a persona of other level.
I am a being of a higher rank.
I don’t  know the problems that cannot be solved with a bribe.
I don’t know people whose lives are more important than my interests.
I don’t care what newspapers write about me.
If you are in the way of my Mercedes, it is your fault in any situation.
[…]
I can bend the time-space continuum.
All video cameras break when they capture the evidence of my crime.
You can shove your public opinion.
People will talk and then calm down.

The song's chorus compares Russian high-ranked businessmen in their expansive cars as patricians who treat the rest of people like slaves:

Mercedes S666.
Get out of my way, plebs.
Fear us, pathetic slaves!
Patricians are on the road!
We are in a hurry  on the road to hell!
Make way to our chariot!!!

Many comments to the song and blog entries describing the situation around the car crash call for boycotting the LUKoil gas stations around Russia and abroad.Blogger v_l_a_d_i, for example, posted an improvised sign calling for the boycott.

People also actively search for additional witnesses of the accident. The info for the YouTube video of the song, for example, contains a phone number and e-mail address where people can call and tell what they saw.

Another anti-LUKoil YouTube video depicts an impatient driver who is so eager to get to a LUKoil gas station that he ignores all the rules of the road and flies above other cars. Before making a jump in his car, the drives declares: “We'll get through it! We'll turn off video cameras and change the license plate!” The last slide in the video says: “LUKoil. Official partner of the Vostryakovo grave yard.”

Marina Litvinovich (aka LJ user abstract2001) who recently played an important role in distributing the information on another car crash [EN]  in Irkutsk posted an open letter [RUS] of the victims' relatives. The letter accuses LUKoil and road police of falsifying the evidence of the crash and urges all witnesses to contact the relatives.

Headlines of other blog posts about the car crash pretty much describe the netizens' attitude toward the incident:

“They were giving lives and he was selling oil”
“Let's help together! The evil must be punished!”
“Let's boycott murderers from LUKoil”
“Who is to blame and what is to be done?”
“Murderers must answer… What kind of country we have…”

Barkov's case gave life to an old issue of unspoken privileges for top businessmen and government officials on Russian roads. Mercedeses, Porches or Maibachs with “special” license plates (like the ones with three “C” or “O” in a row – Barkov's luxury Mercedes had the number c398cc77) are ignored by traffic police and are, in an Orwellian way, “more equal than others” [EN]. Special license plate numbers are normally assigned to special services cars so they can be identified by policemen. But this practice got corrupted. Instead of a tool for better work, the license plates became an example of overwhelming corruption: they can be “bought” in the traffic department. The Web site Avtomarket.ru even came up with a price-list [RUS] of “special” license plates:

ССС77 – около 4.000 $. В основной своей массе принадлежат Центру спецсвязи (больше половины), ФАПСИ, Фельдъегерской связи, МинСвязи. Несколько десятков номеров висят на машинах “близких” структур и на частных машинах сотрудников. Остальные – у “частников” Весьма неплохо работают.

It is still unclear wherever the criminal case started since the authorities of different levels tell controversial information. Russian Federation of Car Owners (RFoCO) started independent ivestigation of the case. Sergey Kanaev, leader of the Moscow department of the RFoCO called all Russian car owners to start boycotting LUKoil gas stations from March 1 until the independent investigation committee finds the evidence of Barkov's guilt.

Vadim Isakov

Vesti.ru wrote [RUS] about the visit of the U.S. “innovation delegation” [EN] led by America's Chief Technology Officer Aneesh Chopra [EN]. The plans of the Russian-U.S. cooperation include launching e-government Web sites and visits of Twitter, Cisco and Mozilla representatives to Russia in June 2010.

Blogger w7062c wrote [RUS] about two unsuccessful attempts to connect Sakhalin island [EN] (island in the Pacific north closer to Japan) to the broadband network of Russia. The third attempt is scheduled for 2011. Until then, 580,000 inhabitants of the island are able to go online via satellite only.

Gov-gov.ru blogs [RUS] about a new online initiative: government-sponsored blogger schools that emerge in Tomsk (Siberia) [RUS] and Dagestan [RUS]. The Dagestan region has one of the lowest Internet penetration rates in the country. The schools involve the most popular Kremlin-affiliated bloggers.

The prosecutor's office of the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug, Siberian region where most of Russia's oil comes from, filed a suit against a local Internet provider that refused to block “extremist” Web site, Regnum reported. However, there's no federal law that requires providers to block the sites.

The Russian Federal Telecommunications Agency announced [RUS] a competition to support online media. Adindex.ru reports [RUS] that requirements for  lack transparency and suggests the competition is a way to encourage new media loyal to the government.

Logo of the Grani.ru, Grani.ru website

The war on extremism has become a universal formula used by Russian authorities to fight the freedom of online expression. On February 11, police started an inspection [RUS] of the opposition media portal Grani.ru trying to figure out if it promotes extremism. Grani.ru is well-known as an open platform for liberal journalists and civil right activists. The site is supported by an oligarch in exile Boris Berezovsky [ENG].

The case illustrates the recent “War on Extremism” policy in action. The policy was “launched” in 2006 and became wide-spread during the first term of Dimitry Medvedev's presidency. More and more, this is being applied against online media.

President Dmitri Medvedev established [RUS] Anti-Extremism Police Departments (so-called “‘E'-Centers”) in September 2008. The term “extremism” is vaguely defined by 18 activities [RUS] (causing civil disorder and defamation of the authorities are among them).  This broad definition gives a lot of freedom of interpretation for the authorities. During 2009, for example, 548 crimes were defined as extremism, Grani.ru reported [RUS].

Both individual activists and whole groups fell victim to the broad definition of the term. The prosecutor's office published an online list of “extremist materials” [RUS] that currently consists of 490 items and continues to grow. Since the introduction of the president's decree, civil rights activists have been continuously insisting [RUS] on changing the definition of extremism and disbanding “E”-Centers.

The recent inspection of Grani.ru started with a telephone call from the local “E”-Center representative Alexander Skripnikov. He requested a personal meeting with the Web site director and asked for documents indicating that the site is registered officially (common practice for online media in Russia). The “E”-Center representative also stated that the site is under investigation for alleged extremist activities. Grani.ru editor-in-chief and the director refused to meet personally and requested an official response from the authorities that was delivered to the Web site's office the next day.

During the inspection, the police and prosecutor's office plan to establish if the articles published on the Web site contain calls for ethnic conflicts or promote the regime change. It is the second time that the authorities have inspected Grani.ru for publishing allegedly extremist materials. The first inspection was conducted in 2007-2008 and was aimed against one of the Grani.ru's authors Andrey Piontkovsky [EN], Russian scientist and political writer.

In an interview in “Ezhednevny Zhurnal” [RUS], Vladimir Korsunsky, editor-in-chief of Grani.ru, commented on the situation:

«Грани.Ру» проводят настолько взвешенную и сбалансированную информационную политику, что более сбалансированная — это будет уже неприлично. Непонятно, на что похожа вся эта история. Сначала они вообще хотели неформально с нами пообщаться — встретиться и поговорить. О чем — непонятно. Поэтому пришлось им сказать «нет». Мы же не друзья. Если у них есть к нам дело, пусть обращаются официально, мы будем официально отвечать. Я глубоко убежден, что такие контакты должны происходить строго в рамках закона. Невозможно вести с оперативным работником разговор по душам. Тем более что он не говорит, чего он хочет. Вполне возможно, что он ищет: а вдруг ты что-то такое скажешь в разговоре, за что он зацепится и начнет: «А, вот зачем я тебя проверяю!» Пусть сам нам скажет.

Interestingly enough, the online censorship and increasing Internet regulations go along with Medvedev's projects of modernization (like the ambitious Russian “Silicon Valley”). But is it possible to create an innovation-based society without freedom of expression? It looks like authorities think of something good and inspiring at the same time thoughtlessly oppressing and condemning the last providers of independent information.

Ilya Kormiltsev's LJ-avatar

On February 4, 2010, Russian bloggers celebrated the sad date. Ilya Kormiltsev [ENG], one of Russia’s most talented and controversial poets and songwriters, died of spine cancer three years ago. Back in 2007, Kormiltsev’s death became the first and the most publicized death on RuNet (Russian Internet).

Bloggers remembered him years after posting and re-posting his poems and songs, admiring his talent as well as non-conformism, respecting  his thirst for freedom of expression and active civil position.

Kormiltsev’s success story began in the the 80s in the city of Sverdlovsk (now Yekaterinburg) [ENG]. Kormiltsev became famous for working as a songwriter in the band “Nautilus Pompilius” [EN], one the legendary rock bands during Perestroika [EN] and later Post-Soviet period.

Kormiltsev’s songs were aimed against the communist regime, although this criticism was wrapped in sophisticated poetic forms and go unnoticed during the era of the Soviet censorship. In 1999, radio “Nashe” published “Top 100 Best Russian Rock Songs of the Century” [RUS] rating where seven out of 100 songs were written by Kormiltsev.

In the 2000's Kormiltsev quit his songwriter career and started a publishing house “Ultra.Kultura” [RUS]. As a professional interpreter, he translated and published works of the most controversial authors of the contemporary time (both Russian and foreign): William Burroughs [ENG], Ernesto Che Guevara, William Gibson [ENG], Huey P. Newton [ENG] and others. Ultra.Kultura’s books covered such radical topics as drugs, pornography, racial issues, crime, etc.

In November 2006, during the trip to London, Kormiltsev started filling sick. In his last blog post, he wrote [RUS]:

ЛИЧНАЯ ПРОСЬБА. Никто не едет в Лондон на днях? Надо отвести лекарства. Мне.

Couple of months later, in January 2007, he was diagnosed with spine cancer. It was too late to help Kormiltsev. His friend, music critic Boris Barabanov, wrote [RUS] that Kormiltsev suffered not only from his sickness but also from the absence of the Internet and the ability to write “something important” to his readers. Kormiltsev’s last post gathered 1,720 comments. Desperate to find any information on their idol, fans were leaving messages of grief and sorrow in the comments section. Some people were asking questions about his lyrics and poems, hitting the last chance to hear author’s interpretations.

Kormiltsev’s death became one of the most discussed events in the blogosphere, newspaper “Kommersant” reported.

Right now, Kormiltsev’s LiveJournal account has a status “Memory Journal.” Any further comments are closed but the journal’s content is open to everyone. The last post in his journal was written by his friends and repeated Kormiltsev’s last words:

Был потрясен тем, что я вам так дорог, и что вы прониклись таким участием к моей судьбе. Огромное спасибо за поддержку. Постараюсь ответить всем лично.

But he never did. Three years after Kormiltsev’s death, bloggers were posting his portraits, favorite poem extracts and the last interviews.

Blogger A.Monach wrote:

для меня всегда было загадкой, как так человек может зацепить сотни мозгов и заставить петь миллионы свои песни, при этом почти вообще не используя рифмоплетения. Одинаково жестко с его уст слетала “социалка”, “политинформационное творчество”, любовь – смерть, которые всегда ходили в его произведениях рядом, разврат и боль, божественное и дьявольское и тд…

Regul_leia wrote:

Говорят, художник чувствует нить времени тоньше, чем все остальные и предугадывает ее. А поэт – как родитель над колыбелью малыша – нашептывает песню, по которой новый человек учится говорить и понимать мир.

All_decoded commented on regul_leia’s post:

Но если Вам нравится Кормильцев (а это нормально !) Вы начинаете диссидентствовать по отношению к сегодняшней власти

Libraries are throwing away old books due to old age and lack of readership, literary critic Alexander Zhitinski reported [RUS]. A library in Saint-Petersburg had to throw away all the books published before 1999. Mistreatment of books provoked a heated  discussion online [RUS] while  mainstream media ignored the subject.

The New York Times blogs [EN] about Andrey Ternovskiy, a 17-year-old Moscovite, inventor of popular random video chat Chatroulette.com.

The city administration of Ryazan [ENG] in the Central Russia became the first in the country to launch an interactive map of the public buses [RUS], gov-gov.ru reported. Equipped with GPS devices, the buses can now be traced online in real time.

Russian President Dmitri Medvedev signed the law [RUS] liberalizing the installation of the Wi-Fi networks. Previously, the installation required tons of paperwork and a formal permission from the government.

The Moscow Times writes [ENG] about the new Kremlin innovation center modeled after the American Silicon Valley. President Dmitry Medvedev signed a decree on creating a working group that would deal with the project.

The Russian Telecommunications Agency is about to propose a new anti-plagiarism law that will require all Web sites to provide hyperlinks to the original source of the information that they use, newspaper Vedomosti reported [RUS]. Experts argue that the law will be hard to enforce.

Another two popular Russian journalists started to blog recently, a contemporary artist Dmitri Vrubel reports [RUS]. The prominent reporters for the major Russian newspaper “Kommersant” Andrei Kolesnikov [RUS] and Valery Panyushkin [RUS] joined the community of bloggers.

One of the most influential Russian business newspapers Vedomosti has been experiencing DoS-attacks [EN] for at least four days, Lenta.ru reported [RUS]. This is the second DoS-attack on the major newspaper's Web site in 2010. A Web site of an oppositional weekly  Novaya Gazeta has also been attacked earlier [ENG].