Riot police around the country have begun sporting the insignia on their black helmets.Īt state-run institutions, numerous well-organized "flash mobs" featuring the Z symbol have taken place, many of them involving students or schoolchildren. ![]() A Russia-based online shop, Wildberries, has been selling a whole line of Z-related products, including window stickers for cars.Ī column of vehicles parade through the streets of Volgograd to express support for Russian troops in Ukraine. ![]() The Kremlin has barred Russians from calling the war in Ukraine a war, insisting that they use the term “special operation.” The state television channel RT has been officially calling the war in Ukraine "Special Operation Z" and has been marketing t-shirts with the Z logo. The Far Eastern Zabaikalye region adopted a similar measure. Kemerovo Oblast Governor Sergei Tsivilyov has ordered that all official references to the region known as the Kuzbass be written using the Latin Z:, KuZbass. The Central Election Commission has managed to work it into its logo. ![]() Over the last few weeks, the Z symbol has cropped up everywhere. The ribbons were also used to signify support for the previous Russian incursion into Ukraine in 2014. George ribbons that Putin’s government has promoted heavily in connection with the commemorations of the Soviet contributions to victory in World War II. Leviyev noted that Z has become a Kremlin "brand," similar to the orange-and-black St. Propaganda posters in support of Moscow's invasion of Ukraine in Sevastopol in Russian-occupied Crimea. To a lesser extent, the Latin letter V (for eastern, vostochny) has also been used in the same way. "Then they thought up various rather simplistic explanations such as that Z stands for ‘For Victory’ ( za pobedu in Russian)." "About a week after the beginning of the war, the Kremlin propagandists decided to take the symbol Z, which already had mythical associations, into their arsenal for propaganda purposes," said Ruslan Leviyev, a military analyst at the Conflict Intelligence Team, an independent monitoring group. The markings helped distinguish Russian equipment from similar equipment used by the Ukrainian armed forces, as well as to clarify lines of command. Other vehicles bore different symbols that seemed to refer to the Eastern, Southern, and Central military districts. Although the Russian military has not explained the use of the letter, analysts believe it is used to indicate forces from the Western (zapadny) Military District. The symbol originated when people noticed the letter Z painted on many of the Russian military vehicles that have poured into Ukraine over the past three weeks. The Z symbol, Yakovenko said, "fills me with only a feeling of gratitude for our president and for our armed forces because they were able to protect Russia from invasion." Russian municipal lawmaker Khelga Pirogovaĭeputy City Council Chairman Yevgeny Yakovenko launched into a blistering attack on Pirogova and others who oppose the war, denouncing them as "national traitors" who deserve to be sentenced to hard labor. It arouses in them anxiety, fear, and other negative emotions." "I have been getting rather a lot of messages from residents who are asking that something be done about this symbol," Pirogova t old RFE/RL's Siberia.Realities. Political commentator Vitaly Portnikov labeled the Z symbol a "stylized semi-swastika" and other commentators have taken to referring to it as the "Zwastika."Īt the Novosibirsk meeting, Pirogova introduced a question into the agenda, asking how much the city had spent to plaster the Z symbol all over the city, including on buses and other public transport. However, many in Russia and abroad have grown increasingly concerned about the often aggressively brandished symbol, which they see as a fascistic emblem of state-mandated blind loyalty and a militarized society. Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24, and particularly in the last two weeks or so, the letter Z has become the increasingly ubiquitous symbol of support for the war, for the military, for the Kremlin’ s policies, and most of all for President Vladimir Putin. She stood out among about two dozen ruling United Russia party deputies who wore black masks with the image of a bear and the Latin letter Z. At a session of the municipal legislature in the Siberian city of Novosibirsk on March 16, independent lawmaker Khelga Pirogova appeared wearing Ukrainian folk motifs and a garland of sunflowers.
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