Russia’s Prosecutor General, Yury Chaika has made the rather risible claim that Ukraine’s Pravyi Sektor Group attempted to overthrow the Russian government by using social media.
Tag: VKontakte
Russia Update: Internet Ombudsman Provokes Storm of Protest
An Internet official unleashed a storm of protest with his call for ending the training of IT specialists as it only fed brain-drain. Welcome to our column, Russia Update, where we will be closely following day-to-day developments in Russia, including the Russian government’s foreign and domestic policies. The previous issue is here. Recent Translations: –The […]
Meet The Russian Fighters Building A Base Between Mariupol And Donetsk
By now a large body of evidence has been accumulated which proves that Russia is supplying both equipment and soldiers from its military to the Russian-backed separatists in the Donbass region of eastern Ukraine. Last year, the initial focus was on the weapons such as tanks and anti-aircraft missiles which were showing up in separatist-controlled […]
Is Colonel Strelkov Making a Comeback or Has He Been Tamed?
On 14 August, the popular and enigmatic Col. Igor Strelkov resigned from his position of “Defense Minister” and “Commander of the Donetsk People’s Republic Militia” after reports that he was wounded. He then disappeared for weeks, and was rumored to be in Sevastopol, in a rest home. When he surfaced yesterday September 11 for a […]
Russia This Week: Siberian Group Seeking Greater Autonomy is Censored (28 July – 2 August)
Updated Daily. A group seeking greater autonomy for Siberia found its web page, VKontakte community and Twitter account censored as well as an interview with its leader in slon.ru. A rally organized by Russian ultranationalists in support of the separatists fighting in southeastern Ukraine had a very low turnout. Young Russian men cheered a Russian […]
History of ‘Donetsk Republic’ Goes Back Almost a Decade
Staunton, July 29 – Most commentaries assume that the Moscow-backed secessionist “ Donetsk Republic” arose in response to the Maidan at the end of last year and the beginning of this. Now, Sobkorr.ru reports an online group promoting that idea appeared on Russian VKontakte pages as early as 2008. This prehistory is important for two reasons. On […]
Russia This Week: Kurginyan Brags About Sending Repairman for Buks (14-19 July)
Updated Daily. Ultranationalist Sergei Kurginyan bragged that an electronics specialist was sent to repair a Buk anti-aircraft system for the separatists in Donetsk. The citizen reporter at the lake in Gukovo who filmed Grad rockets launching from Russian territory in Ukraine has had his VKontakte page removed. July 15 marks the fifth anniversary of the […]
Was Col. Strelkov’s Dispatch About a Downed “Ukrainian Plane” Authentic?
When regular watchers of the news from the self-proclaimed “Donetsk People’s Republic” saw the latest dispatch on 17 July from Col. Igor Strelkov, the self-appointed “Defense Minister” of the DPR, they realized that the pro-Russian separatists didn’t know yet what had happened. Donetsk commander Strelkov, longtime Russian agent, claimed credit today for shooting plane he […]