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Protests in Russia 2012

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Submitted By kudar
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The uniting power of social networks has been greatly underestimated by the Russian authorities during the recent parliamentary elections in Russia. Dissatisfaction, accumulated over the years, struck on the officials, making them pretty nervous, and forcing them to reconsider their views on the Internet's growing sway. And even though Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said he doesn’t use the Internet, particularly social networking tools, because he’s too busy with his work, it seems like the Internet became a part of his job.
Alexey Navalny, a “Person of the Year 2009” by Russian business newspaper “Vedomosti” became a most recognized political activist and opposition since 2009, when he started to publish blogs exposing corruption among the members of the ruling party. His LiveJournal blog became the most readable source in RU-net. Years before Navalny, members of Russian opposition would hardly attract any public attention. There was no chance for the opposition leaders to get on central television and small public protests would typically be dispersed by heavy-handed riot police. For Navalny, social networking made everything much easier:
• Nobody can shut down his account, even though several DoS attacks were performed on LiveJournal and other blogs during latest elections.
• He immediately gets access to millions of people: Russia has the largest Internet audience in Europe, with number of unique users close to 51 million.
• And finally, with the power of numbers, he quickly became so widely known that his popularity is protecting him from any threats and persecution by the government.
His example encouraged many around the country. People massively started to share various offences from the government agencies. Growing online activity quickly received a response in a real world, in the forms of unions and human rights organizations, which, meanwhile are preserving and enhancing their online presence. For example, Russian online “Car Owners Society” helped many to press charges against the infamous corrupt road police.
What happened during the parliamentary elections was inevitable. Social networks gave the dissatisfied an opportunity to unite, the Internet made it almost impossible to hide something from public. And Russian political system has a lot to hide. Through social networks, thousands of people shared videos of various violations at polling stations - ballot stuffing, use of erasable pens and etc. The public felt responsible for what is happening in the country, and the feeling of unity that social networks gave people, has given them confidence that they are able to make a change. The ignorance of the officials, their denying of things happening during the protests made the situation even worse, when thousands across the country saw the difference between the reality, shown on the Internet and soviet-style propaganda shown on the television. It is ridiculous, but the protests first time appeared on the news on the central television only 5 days after the first event. While the government tried to hide the real situation, numerous discussions on Facebook, VK (biggest social network in Europe, originally Russian) and Twitter attracted bigger and bigger audience. As a result, thousands of people gathered on the streets of Moscow, Saint-Petersburg and many other cities around the country demanding fair elections. Last time Russia saw such large crowds during the Red Revolution at the beginning of the 20th century.
Luckily, violence has been avoided. Of course, several arrests were made, but the government has finally heeded the opinions of citizens, limiting the powers of the ruling party and facilitating the creation of new ones. Moreover, an online video tracking system was implemented for the 2012 presidential elections, giving anyone an opportunity to observe the election process through web cameras installed on each of hundreds of polling stations. Again, volunteers quickly organized shifts for each region and polling station through social networks. Few violations were caught on camera, but the calculation was carried out excluding the irregularities, so in general, Russians got what they demanded – fair elections.

References
• “Coordinated DDoS Attack During Russian Duma Elections” By Hal Roberts and Bruce Etling, Internet & Democracy Blog, Dec 2011 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/idblog/2011/12/08/coordinated-ddos-attack-during-russian-duma-elections/ • “Russia: Internet Usage and Marketing Report”, Internet World Stats 2011
http://www.internetworldstats.com/euro/ru.htm

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