(h/t Origuy)
A street mural by a Russian pensioner, of a girl in a dress with the colors of the Ukrainian flag and a bomb falling onto her, fell afoul of laws passed by the Russian government effectively criminalizing opposition to the military campaign in Ukraine https://t.co/tD9WUqmQvn
— Reuters (@Reuters) December 14, 2022
BOROVSK, Russia, Dec 14 (Reuters) – Over 20 years, Russian pensioner Vladimir Ovchinnikov gained a following for his street murals in the small town of Borovsk, some 70 miles (115 km) southwest of Moscow, many of which depicted the plight of victims of Stalinist-era repressions.
But on March 25, just over a month after Russia sent tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine, Ovchinnikov created a new work, one that would place him in serious legal jeopardy.
He painted a girl, in a blue and yellow dress, the colours of the Ukrainian flag, with a bomb falling onto her from above. Beneath her, in block capitals, he wrote: “STOP”.
The mural fell afoul of new laws passed by the Russian government effectively criminalising opposition to the military campaign in Ukraine…
The mural was painted over and Ovchinnikov ordered to pay a 35,000 rouble ($554) fine for the new offence of “discrediting the Russian army”, which carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison.
In response, he painted a new piece, writing the word “bezumiye” (“craziness” in Russian), spelt with a Latin letter Z, which has become a symbol of what Moscow calls its special military operation in Ukraine. The police promptly painted over it.
It triggered a game of cat-and-mouse between Ovchinnikov and police in Borovsk, a town of 12,000 people
In place of the painted-over mural, he drew the words “pozor” (shame), “fiasco”, and “basta” (enough), each with a Latin Z. Each in turn was painted over by the police…
after nearly a year of invasion, president zelensky tells a joke about the war.
a pretty good one, actually. pic.twitter.com/P8EiTKweCt
— ian bremmer (@ianbremmer) December 14, 2022
Bice is an American pit bull terrier with a sensitive job in Ukraine — comforting children traumatized by the war. Some of the children witnessed Russian soldiers invade their hometowns and beat their relatives. Some have lost relations on the front lines. https://t.co/NHZTwN7Imc
— The Associated Press (@AP) December 12, 2022
Equal billing –
Standard or Military issue ????#UkraineRussiaWar? pic.twitter.com/lkZz9FeVhY
— Ukrainian News24 (@UkrainianNews24) December 1, 2022
#Russian propaganda accounts are now openly praising @elonmusk for blocking #Ukrainians from @Twitter pic.twitter.com/DqKUK2yqLq
— Ukraine Front Lines (@EuromaidanPR) December 14, 2022
I think that at this point Russia's actions in Ukraine more reflect internal Russian politics than any sort of coherent strategy.
— Steve Metz (@steven_metz) December 17, 2022
Open Thread: For All The Cat Lovers Out There
WaterGirl
The Zelenskyy joke is sadly funny.
Jay
Jay
lowtechcyclist
Gotta agree with that last tweet. If Putin were to back down, all the Russian soldiers sacrificed in this war would be meaningless. I don’t think it would immediately cause him to lose power, but his grip on power would certainly be shakier. So he’s got to keep at it as if things are going well, and setbacks have been minor.
scav
Essentially the same thing could be said about Twitter’s actions in general, only with the internal politics being entirely the internal Muskian psychodrama. Whole lotta acting out going on.
Ruckus
vlad’s only goal in Ukraine is to save face.
Which of course he has zero idea how to do.
So he’s going to kill Ukrainians until he runs out of ammo or they are all dead, have no place left to live (or take over, he doesn’t care which).
He is an extremely shitty excuse for a human being, only interested in his own ego. A somewhat smarter and a lot shittier version of Shit For Brains. He is the epitome of a useless, worthless, asshole of a human being and the wold would be a better place if he was no longer inhaling/exhaling in it.
Geminid
@Jay: I have to give Turkiye and its stubborn President some credit for the continued grain shipments. With his country’s naval and air strength in the Black Sea region, Erdogan was in a position to insist that shipments continue and he apparently did.
OzarkHillbilly
This from the AP article on Bice hit home:
When one’s children become adults there is an inversion of the parent/child roles and it’s hard, really hard to accept.
I know I can’t, but I still want to protect them, to reassure them, to comfort them, to hold them tight and keep them safe.
zhena gogolia
@WaterGirl: he is a master comedian
James E Powell
Like the US in Afghanistan after Osama bin Laden’s death.
Or the US in Vietnam almost the whole time.
Parfigliano
Fuck em: They know whats going on. Good Russian=dead Russian.
Parfigliano
@Ruckus: Trump family friend. Never forget