SERPUKHOV, Moscow Region — Yury Chervochkin had no Internet connection at his apartment in this industrial town 100 kilometers south of Moscow where he lived with his mother and younger brother.
So when the 22-year-old opposition activist was released from police custody on the evening of Nov. 22, 2007, he went straight to the Internet cafe Portal in the center of town to post an account of his detention on an opposition blog community.