I understand that there are many of these in Telegram, in Russia.
As @Valambrian has said everyone has assumed it’s for West and East, or Zapad & Vostok in Russian. There’s also O which doesn’t correspond to anything.
However, there’s an official meaning. I don’t think anything can surprise you by now.
Those letters are from phrases “Za Pobedy” (“For Victory”) and “Sila V Pravde” (“Right makes might”, or literally “The strength is in the truth”).
Dejin
6479
Wall Street Journal Reporter based in Moscow
Also Wall Street Journal Reporter in China
Yes, Russian propaganda is very much lagging behind. Most of what you see is Fackelzüge in support of the glorious leader or someone explaining geopolitics while being smart. Sometimes they show Ukrainian video and some expert says he knows it’s photoshopped, he can tell from some pixels. Another recent popular one is quoting comments under Western publications or Youtube videos. I shit you not, there are a lot of tabloid titles like “Americans think Putin is stronger than Biden” that quote youtube comment by John3928110.
They’re used to working on the internal audience. The post-truth idea they’ve facilitated is not about any specific belief, it’s about allegiance. They show experts and loyal masses and foreign Putin supporters not to prove some belief but to make the viewer feel there’s a consensus on the matter. Any Ukrainian video may be fake (and truth be told, many probably are) but the fact that the government can claim whatever they want and no one can argue with them without getting into trouble is obvious. The leader can say that the sky is green and no one opposes him - this is the testament to his power. You don’t need to make videos to prove his power, cause it stems from everyone around you agreeing with him, not from some scientific fact. They didn’t have to prove to people that Navalny is a criminal, they needed to prove that very few people are willing to defend them. Naturally, you can’t solve war or economy problems the same way.
It changes very rapidly when people feel threatened by politics. Russia had huge protest movements because of ecological problems and recently due to covid limitations and fear of mandatory vaccinations. Those didn’t turn violent but they were much more persistent than any political demonstrations. I fully expect that when fridges become empty people will mobilize.
Dejin
6482
I’m not so sure about the premise of the first part of the article:
Putin may be having trouble with it, because he hasn’t built up the infrastructure yet. But my impression is China is much better at it, since it has built a big security apparatus to control what information people can actually see.
Those systems - like that great firewall - do not offer proper 100% defense. Like Steam is banned in China but at some point one of the most popular games there was a Chinese game without English translation. They’re making access to foreign sites inconvenient. It’s not supposed to stop anyone from digging up The Truth, it’s supposed to stop you from quickly googling something and finding an article from some Western journalist explaining the thing.
However, right now there are talks about Russia turning off all external internet access. Like, physically. That might do the trick of making the access extremely inconvinient.
Dejin
6484
I was thinking more about China’s army of civil servants combing social media websites and shutting down discussion of whatever the government doesn’t want discussed. Russia might be able to block access to various websites and services. But it would take them a while to build up the sort of security infrastructure China has around controlling information.
Russia has put a lot of effort in flooding the media with bots, I think they’ll handle moderation too.
They’ve already put people in jail for extremists comments for a long time. Recently they’ve passed a law that will put you in jail for 5 years for asking to stop the war, so I think Russian internet will very quickly become a safe space.
One of the rare videos of russian forces.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jyEFSetENrw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jyEFSetENrw
Basically, a 5min video about russian soldiers in a war torn village, some burning vehicles etc. but nothing graphic.
Of course Fog of war etc. could be something else…
Interesting usage of reconaissance drones.
newbrof
6489
I have to mention something from Germany, that’s a little bit like a tangent to Putin’s war.
A lot of classical trained russian musicians, stars like Netrebko (Opera), Sochijew (Ballet), Gergijew (conductor) and others were forced to condemn publicly the war and Putin. So they did not or not enough, or remained silent and were forced to resign, contracts were cancelled.
I think those artists have strong ties to russia (family, friends, capital etc), so demanding public renounce, codnemnation and so on regarding Putin and the war seems to call for trouble when they go back for vistits, work etc… Are we in the middle ages again? I don’t think they are pro war or pro Putin, but there are heavy constraints speaking out publicly, when you have ties to the country.
Or am I wrong and we should punish them for not speaking out?
edit: Gergijew is a hardcore Putin apologizer, supported the crimea annexion, so maybe it was OK to fire him since he was actively doing propaganda for Putin
Dejin
6490
I think Russians are put in a really tough position. Personally I would say if they speak out in favor of Putin, that’s a problem. But staying silent, given as you say families back in Russia, that’s more of a grey area.
Has Putin started threatening family members? I know that’s something China has done, for example with respect to Uyghurs ex-pats speaking out.
Yeah, Russian officials wrote about this mad cancel culture. Volodin, speaker of the Russian parliament, wrote an article about it. It really sounds like a problem but when Russians worry about this it sounds like a very cheap whataboutism. Again, right now in Russia writing “No to war” in the social network is susceptible to 5 years in jail.
I’m pretty pessimistic about the prospects for Putin getting overthrown/voted out any time soon, but I do wonder if this split with the Church might be what does it. As I understand it his embrace of the Church (and its consequent support for him) has been a big part of his soft power within Russia. I wouldn’t be surprised if this was more damaging to him that anything regarding oligarchs.
Dejin
6493
There might be other gestures they can make that (hopefully) won’t get them in trouble with Russia, but can make it clear that they aren’t for the war. For example, maybe publicly making a donation to UNHCR or Red Cross.
Just a tiny clarification for those thinking about it, the Red Crosses you want to donate to are either the Ukrainian one or the ICRC in Geneva, which is responsible for Geneva Conventions, visiting prisoners, providing humanitarian assistance to civilians, non-combatants and so on during wars.
newbrof
6495
why? Because they are russians? They have to make gestures? Do other artists from other countries have to make gestures, too? No, because they are automatically believed to be against the war?
This just feels wrong to out russian artists…
Well I guess none of them are pro war and they are really in a though position, but some of them made clearly political statements in the past.
Netrebko said she would visit Donetsk and sing at the opera theatre as soon as military hostilities in the region were over. Asked about her views on the conflict, she insisted she was apolitical. “This is politics and I have nothing to do with politics, I just want to support art,” she said.
However, minutes later she held up the Novorossia flag and handed over a cheque to Oleg Tsaryov, a former Ukrainian MP who is wanted by Kiev on charges of separatism. Tsaryov, who is on a list of individuals sanctioned by the EU for their role in events in east Ukraine, styles himself as the chairman of the parliament of Novorossia.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/dec/08/opera-singer-anna-netrebko-ukrainian-separatist-flag
After Putin’s forces occupied the Crimean peninsula, unleashing concern and protests in many parts of the world, the Russian Ministry of Culture issued an open letter from a number of prominent Russian artists in support of Putin’s approach
…
Many musicians - including the pianist Denis Matsuev, conductor Vladimir Spivakov, violist Yuri Bashmet, star soprano Hibla Gerzmava and opera legend Elena Obraztsova - signed the short open letter, and conductor Valery Gergiev was among them.
https://www.dw.com/en/putin-at-the-podium-gergiev-raises-eyebrows/a-17526908
So if you supported Putin in the past and certainly profited from it in Russia, you shouldn´t be surprised if people don´t buy your story about being only an artist…
