Johnson's Russia List
#6040
26 January 2002
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A CDI Project
www.cdi.org
#10
Proliferation of Fake Putin Websites
Izvestiya
January 19, 2002
[translation for personal use only]
Report by Nataliya Alekseyeva: "Putin and Putin"
It is not known exactly how many Putins there are in Russia, but we do know
that on the Internet all names with the "putin" letter combination have
been snapped up long ago and people hold on tight to them. The owners of
some of these addresses are hoping that someone will buy the trendy name
from them, while the rest, strange as it may seem, are actually making
their own Putin, Vladimir Vladimiroviches. Some times it turns out that
some gullible users begin their letters with the words "Dear Mr President".
Even more virtual Putins have sprung up with the creation of new domain
names (.name, .info). One of the fake presidents automatically inundates
the user with a Russian website collection of compromising material on
everybody and every thing. From another site which is claimed to be "the
head of state's unofficial website" you begin to get the impression that
the chatroom is somewhere else nearby. Any attempt to move from the main
page to the tags (like news or speeches) ends with the intimidating legend
"You are unauthorized to view this page".
The most plausible of these websites can compete with the president's real
website as far as constant updates of news, daily reviews of domestic and
foreign mass media texts on Putin, their own examinations of experts, and
photo-archives of snaps of the head of state in anything from a kimono to
soccer kit are concerned. The nicest item is the president-locator. A
red dot pulsates against a gray map of the world to show exactly where the
website's main namesake is. You can even send free mail there at
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Putin has admirers in Germany too (which is no surprise on the whole) in
the base site .de. A girl called Bea has called her site 'putin' and has
collected what she considers key subjects there - a biography of the
Russian president, his speech in the Bundestag and photo-montages she has
created herself, transforming "canonical" photographs of Putin into her own
handiwork. Alongside this there are the best personal representations.
The preliminary versions of Putin's virtual space have remained in
unchanged form - www.putin2000.ru (where talk of his election team and
election results is still online) and www.vvp.ru (now a stubbornly
un-updated issue of strana.ru).
P.S. The name of the president's only official website remains the same:
www.kremlin.ru.
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