Russian Internet in 2008

Russian Internet media "Zagolovki.ru" ("Headlines") - a web source that daily gathers and thematically sorts articles from various Russian newspapers and magazines emphasizing those with especially smart and funny headings, have summarized what the year 2008 meant for Russian Internet. Here is, according to them, a list of remarkable events that happened:

1. The parliament, the Internal Affairs Ministry, and the Public Chamber (an institution that was created by Putin that represents "cultural elite" of Russia - the members are directly and indirectly assigned by Putin but have no real power) announced their plans of legal regulations

 for the Internet. They plan to regulate the Internet through the mass-media law. According to it all media that have more than one thousand consumers should be officially

 registered. The officials say not only news web sites should get registered but also blogs, online diaries, forums, chats, and dating sites.

2. The new Russian president Dmitry Medvedev addressed in one of his speeches the problem of Russian segment of the Internet. He said that it should be cultivated. In the same speech Medvedev noted that government should not interfere in what was going on the Internet unless it violated Russian laws...

3. During a parliamentary discussion on rising crimes against immigrants in Russia, an Internal Affairs Ministry official emphasized that the best way to prevent the crimes was to intensify governmental control over the Internet. During the very session a legislation was presented that would allow closing web sites that would be accused in publishing "extremist content".

4. In a short time after that a web site www.ingushetia.ru that informed about news from a rebellion region of Russia Ingushetia in a way that opposed Ingushetia's official information, was closed. The method of IP-address filtering was used. In three months the owner of the web site Magomed Evloev was "accidentally" shot to death in a police car in which he was put by police officers without any clear reason. 

5. One blogger was determined guilty for criticising militia in his blog comment. Another blogger - a member of an opposition movement - is still on trial.

6.  The Minister of Internal Affairs came out with a legislative initiative to qualify Internet as a mass media.

7. Criminal case was open against Internet users who on the pages of their blogs falsely informed that the president of Tatarstan (region of Russia) died.

8. The registration on the most popular Russian social network odnoklassniki.ru (classmates) became paid.