With Russia’s anti-voter fraud movement making international headlines Monday after a Moscow rally of some 15, protesters resulted in the arrests of around 5 people, there has been a rising interest in following the events in Russia as they unfold.
A large contingent of youth have been organizing and protesting the results of December’s presidential election, won by Vladimir Putin, claiming that they were ‘impertinently manipulated’. During Monday’s protest and arrests, the U.S. ambassador to Russia, Michael McFaul, tweeted the following:
Russia’s foreign ministry responded to McFaul with the following: “The police on Pushkin (Square) were several times more humane than what we saw in the break up of the Occupy Wall Street protests or the tent camps in Europe.”
Social Media Chimps received an email from a reader this week looking to follow the events in Russia. She had already been following Alexey Navalny’s Twitter account and translating his tweets through Babelfish, but was hoping to find some reliable resources in English. We did some research and aggregated the accounts below. We’d like to welcome our readers to skim through the list and follow those you find the most informative. Otherwise, you can follow them all by subscribing to our public RussiaNews list on Twitter.
People and Organizations
@Russia_FairVote – This is the official Twitter handle of the Fair Vote for Russia youth movement, whose members believe that the results of December’s election were ‘impertinently manipulated’ (Facebook account). Note that most tweets are in Russian.
@mschwirtz – Michael Schwirtz is a reporter and researcher for the New York Times in Moscow.
@herszenhorn – David Herszenhorn is another reporter for the New York Times based in Moscow. Though not highly active, his tweets from the March 5 protests have us hoping he’ll become more acquainted with Twitter.
@seansrussiablog – This is the Twitter account for Sean Guillory’s blog on Russia, aptly named Sean’s Russia Blog.
@PowerVertical – Brian Whitmore’s Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty blog on Russian politics is a great resource.
@rsolash – Richard Solash, a RFE/RL correspondent based in Washington DC, has also been paying lots of attention to the protests in Russia.
@MoscowTimes – The Moscow Times is Russia’s only daily newspaper in English.
@russiaprofile – From their profile: “Russia Profile is an English-language information service geared toward readers with a professional interest in Russia.”
Government
@McFaul – Michael McFaul, the U.S. ambassador to Russia, recently was ‘rebuked‘ by the Kremlin for this tweet: “Troubling to watch arrests of peaceful demonstrators at Pushkin Square. Freedom of assembly and freedom of speech are universal values.”
@KremlinRussiaE – This is the Russian government’s official Twitter account, named after the historic Kremlin.
@MedvedevRussiaE – Dmitry Medvedev is the man stepping down as Russia’s president. His account is not too active, nor does it openly address the Russian protests, but we still feel that it’s worth following.
@StateDept – As the U.S. State Department is a prolific account, tweeting on numerous things regarding foreign relations, we will not be including it on our RussiaNews Twitter list. We would, however, like to provide this as an option for our readers.
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If anyone in our readership knows of more accounts to follow, please let us know. We will be happy to add them to the list. In the meantime, connect with us on Twitter.