That explanation seemed to have provoked a sharp exchange on Monday in the United Nations Security Council, where the Ukrainian ambassador, Sergiy Kyslytsya, said that the “Z” actually stood for “zveri,” which means beasts or animals in Russian. The Russian version, from the Cyrillic alphabet, is more rounded, like a 3.Īfter weeks of speculation about what it meant, the Russian Defense Ministry said on Sunday that it came from the preposition “Za,” the first word in the Russian phrase “Za pobedu,” or “For victory.” Oddly for a nationalist symbol, the Z being used is the version from the Latin alphabet. The symbol has also been deployed as a threat: Anton Dolin, a prominent film critic who left Russia over his opposition to the war, posted a picture on Facebook of a giant white Z that someone had spray-painted on his apartment door, which he called an effort at intimidation. The Russian head coach and some fellow Russian gymnasts publicly defended him, even as the sport’s international governing body opened a disciplinary proceeding. On Saturday, for example, the Russian gymnast Ivan Kuliak wore a Z on his uniform at a competition in Qatar that also included Ukrainian gymnasts. No doubt some of the displays reflected genuine support. Similar videos have cropped up during previous Kremlin campaigns, the only difference being the addition of the T-shirts.Ĭritics on social media did not miss the opportunity to point out that Hitler mobilized thousands of black-shirted supporters, as well, and some manipulated the letter Z to make it resemble the Nazi swastika. The state-run RT television network also spread the symbol.Īnother video online showed what looked like a youth flash mob in a factory or meeting hall, wearing black T-shirts with a Z and dancing in formation amid a sea of Russian flags. “Do your work, brothers,” she said in an apparent reference to the Russian troops in Ukraine. Now a member of the State Duma, or Parliament, she posted a video of herself drawing a white Z on the lapel of her suit jacket. Maria Butina was deported from the United States in 2019 after being sent to prison for working as an unregistered agent for Russia. The fact that some of the usual suspects lined up added to the sense of government coordination. “There are always people receptive to this kind of message.” He noted that there was a small army of propagandists paid to spread the meme on social media to give it the false appearance of popularity. “This is definitely a state-induced meme,” said Vasily Gatov, a Russian-American media analyst based in Boston.
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