Russia
"Gazprom, get your phallus out of St Petersburg"
Thousands of St Petersburg residents took to the streets on Saturday to protest plans to build a 400-metre skyscraper in the historic centre of the city. Despite widespread opposition however, the future home of Russian energy giant Gazprom is already being built. Read more...
Moscow council is corrupt and xenophobic... they said so themselves
"Driver, give way to expensive foreign cars
with flashing lights!"
Muscovites were, on September 24, surprised to find adverts in the city streets suggesting that their council was corrupt, xenophobic and irresponsible. Carrying the council logo, the allegations seemed to be coming straight from the horse's mouth. Read more and see the photos...
The death of the Aral Sea
Once one of the world's largest inland seas and home to thousands of species, in under 20 years the Aral Sea has shrunk to ten percent of its original size and is so salty that barely any life form remains. The Russians were taught to believe that the sea was an "error of nature" and therefore pointless, but as our Observer points out, the real catastrophe was man-made. Read more...
Putin's not a fan of punk rock
With lyrics like "Just don't listen to him; a pig will always find mud to roll in", it's no surprise that punk band PTVP can't be found on Russian TV. But one of our pro-Kremlin Observers tells us it's got nothing to do with politics. Read more...
Russia to launch nationwide citizens militia
The Russian government is planning to allow pro-Kremlin volunteers to set up a nationwide youth militia by recruiting 100,000 destitute 17- to 25-year-olds to patrol the streets in return for food and shelter. The news comes just months after a similar initiative was set up in Italy. Is Europe seeing a return to citizen policing? Read more...
Twitter under cyber attack, Russia suspected
Twitter came under an unprecedented cyber-attack on Thursday night, which blocked some 17 million subscribers from accessing the micro-blogging platform. Clues on the origins of the attack suggest the Russian-Georgian conflict may have spilled over into the social networking site. Read more...
Why they're chanting “Death to Russia!” in Tehran
Thousands of opposition supporters gathered for Friday Prayers in Tehran last week. Most of the slogans on show were anti-Ahmadinejad, but there were also, strangely, many people demonstrating against Putin and Medvedev's Russia. Read more...
“Punk’s not dead, it’s just under police surveillance”
One of our Observers in Russia, blogger Sean Guillory, has made us aware of an unusual addition to the country's "extremist" list. The authorities have added none other than, punks, to their blacklist. Read more...
Some Russians haven’t heard about the crisis
One of our Observers for Russia, Ostap Karmodi, alerted us to these photos which are making the rounds on the Russian blogosphere. According to bloggers, this sumptuous abode, currently under construction just north of Moscow, appears to belong to the head of gas giant Gazprom.
