The Center for Countering Disinformation at the National Security and Defense Council confirms that a large-scale PR campaign has been launched in russia around the letter Z, intended to reinforce in the minds of ordinary russians the belief that the decision on military invasion was correct and that victory is inevitable.
In order to demonstrate support for the russian military, participants of flash mobs in all rf cities line up in the Z shape, this letter is drawn on cars and public transport, on billboards, and on T-shirts.
The Russian state-owned RT TV channel began calling the war in Ukraine “special operation Z” and started producing T-shirts with this symbolism. Similar T-shirts and car stickers have also appeared in one of the largest rf online stores, Wildberries.
The rf Ministry of Defense has not provided any explanation for this symbolism, but slogans using these letters have appeared on the ministry’s Instagram account: “Za Mir” (For peace), “Za Pravdu” (For truth), “Zakanchivayem voiny” (We end wars), “ZaPatsanoV” (For the boys) and others.
Manipulations with the letter Z sometimes take a bizarre form in russia, often reaching the point of absurdity. For example, a week after the outbreak of the war, the governor of the Kemerovo region, Sergei Tsivilev, ordered that the name of the region be renamed “KuZbas” in official documents as “a sign of support for our soldiers and a symbol of our society’s solidarity”.
Transbaikalia is referred to as “Zabaikalie” in the information materials of the regional authorities.
The Kemerovo region authorities have developed a guide for opinion leaders with recommendations on how to properly support the russian military on social media – bloggers are required to use hashtags ZаРоссию, ZаНаших, ZаПутина in their posts.
In Kazan, a similar action was organized by a hospice: child patients, their parents and staff of the organization lined up in a Z-shape and were forced to hold up leaflets with the flags of ORDLO, russia and Tatarstan. A quadcopter was used to record the shooting, and journalists from a federal channel also arrived.
And the most inadequate supporters of the letter Z place it on chicken “patriotic eggs” from a Yakut poultry farm.
On March 18, russia celebrated the anniversary of the annexation of Crimea in Z-style.
The letter Z has also been used to intimidate those who do not support the war in Ukraine.
A resident of Surgut was fined 40,000 rubles under a new article on discrediting the russian armed forces. He left a comment on VKontakte saying that Z stands for “zasrantsy” (“assholes”).
Despite the kremlin’s propaganda machine’s attempt to use Latin symbols to demonstrate “the consolidation of all segments of society around the president and his policy of denazification of Ukraine”, flash mobs with the letter Z and recitations of patriotic poems are gaining less and less support among russians.
So far, they have mostly expressed their disagreement with putin’s policies in their own kitchens, with a diminished assortment of food. However, news of the deaths or injuries of their relatives and friends in Ukraine is gradually prompting them to take more decisive action.
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