The Moscow Times has some follow up on the story of the historical website www.hrono.info getting shut down by authorities (the owner later moved to another server and got back up an running). Here’s the interesting bit which ties the crackdown to an article by St. Petersburg Governor Valentina Matviyenko, rather than the posting of materials related Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf – which was the original reason cited:
Rumyantsev said Tuesday that he suspected that the real reason for the closure last week was an article critical of Matviyenko that was posted on the site’s magazine section on June 15, four days before the police warning.
“It was a very quick reaction,” he said. “‘Mein Kamp’ was on the site for two years, and no one lifted a finger.”
In an ideal world, all of these materials would be free and open to the public, but this makes for an illuminating bragging point. Russia’s new history cops appear to be saying “look, we are sophisticated and tolerant enough to have Hitler on the internet, but criticizing a governor, that’s just not allowed.”