My intuition about Russian blogs is that independent minded people are distrustful of the traditional media in Russia, which they see as controlled by the Government - and by extension I think many of them think the foreign media is not much better. It’s rather what has gone on in America after the Iraq War where people felt that the media was not sticking up for them enough, and was to soft on the political leaders. It’s natural for people like this to turn to blogs for free expression.

Having spent a few days now immersed in the Russian blogosphere, I’m convinced that this is right, and there is something very alive and growing here. Even though internet penetration is still low, it’s on the up. People have computers at work. At home they are getting quite prosperous thanks to the oil economy and are starting to buy their own computers.

There are 1.5 million blogs according to Yandex, a leading Russian search engine. You can see that some of the most active Russian bloggers post several times a day and frequently attract 50+ comments per post. Abramovich’s divorce is much discussed today. However, it would appear from the blogus and technorati that they don’t link to each other as much as in the West. This is a pity, because blogs become powerful when a story gets into circulation and starts to spread. I also think that use of RSS is in its infancy. For some reason, Livejournal is very much the blog engine of choice. It would be nice if it were a bit less concentrated in one place, because that makes it a bit easier to control. If blogs were using a greater variety of publishing tools, they would be safer from pressure.