Dr. Ian Garner Profile picture
Mar 8 6 tweets 3 min read
Quick thread: The big Russian Z campaign is still flopping. These poor local government employees have been voluntold into this photo op, one of the top hits on Insta. They don’t look elated to be there.
Here are the top #за (#za) hashtags on Instagram, which is still being widely used despite last week’s official block. None of the tags relate to the campaign.
Here are the top 30 or so #za posts. Just 2 have anything to do with the campaign, and 1 of those looks suspiciously full of bot replies.
One of the big tags being pushed, #зароссию (For Russia) has barely 80,000 posts.
Even Russians who are using the Za hashtags aren’t going in for the imagery. They’re adorning themselves with flags and national colours.
So, as I said yesterday, the Z campaign is really not taking off. And it’s not going to, no matter how much the government pushes it.

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More from @irgarner

Mar 8
Thread: You’ve heard about the Russian media machine, but it’s only now you’re starting to be aware of what it’s like to be trapped in the maddening world of the Russian infosphere.
"Ukrainians are oppressors, they are the cradle of Russian civilization, but they want to destroy Russia. They are our brothers but we must destroy them. We are fighting a war but it’s not a war. Support our boys, our boys need you. Our boys could die, but nobody is dying."
This is a world of mirages and contradictions. Narratives are created, disseminated, and flattened in minutes and hours. The state media forces contradictory messages into eyes and ears at a hundred miles an hour.
Read 8 tweets
Mar 7
Big Thread: Why the pro-war “Z” campaign you’ve been seeing has proven to be another Putin regime propaganda flop.

What is this campaign? You’ve seen the “Z” pop up everywhere on cars, in “spontaneous” demonstrations, and in that weird fascisty macho video.
This is an astroturfing campaign. It’s supposed to be grassroots, but it comes from big state-sponsored accounts & sources.

The “Z” refers to the letter marked on Russian vehicles in Ukraine and also to the first letter of the word “Za” (За), which means “For”.
The Z logo is usually accompanied with hashtags: #ZaRossiyu, #ZaMir, #ZaNashikh, #ZaSpravedlivost: For Russia, For Peace, For Our Boys, For Justice. (I know they make no sense, but bear with me).
Read 19 tweets
Mar 6
Kremlin is astroturfing a new social campaign around the letter “Z” (“For…the motherland/our army”).

Did nobody tell them creating a campaign around the first letter of the enemy leader’s name is the dumbest idea ever?
Once again: Russia is very, very bad at running social media campaigns. They can destroy but not create.
I’ll write more about the imagery and techniques used in - and the reception of - the “Z” campaign tomorrow.
Read 4 tweets
Mar 5
It feels like every Russian who can is trying to leave. Suitcases are packed. People are panic buying remaining air tickets. People are walking across the borders. I’ve never seen anything like it.
Of course many of the people left are those with family to look after or who cannot afford to leave. It’s upsetting to think of.
Maybe this is 1917 all over again. The wealthy quitting Russia en masse as a new historical era dawns.
Read 4 tweets
Mar 4
Putin is going full Juche:

Booking.com doesn't work? Book with Ostrovok!
Want that Merc? Lada's still producing (for now)!
Fancy a KFC? Mm, Teremok's open!
Miss your H&M pants? Shop O'STIN!

Everything will be 🇷🇺, but everything will be sadder and crapper.
Thank the dear leader for these beneficent gifts, Russians, for the West only aimed to poison your mind with imperialist NATO propaganda anyway. That's what you get when you wear Swedish clothes and drive a German car.
These messages are flooding social media right now. People - for now - are okay with it, but I sense they're going to get tired of this pretty quickly.
Read 4 tweets
Mar 3
Big Thread: Russian propaganda is tanking, but Ukraine has been hitting home runs for a week now.

Here's how they're doing it by turning Putin's own favourite propaganda themes against him.
Putin's spent 2 decades building a World War 2 cult in Russia. You all know what this looks like: huge military parades on Victory Day each year, blockbuster state-funded WW2 movies, history education in classrooms, constant WW2 documentaries on state TV...
...adulation for surviving veterans and their families, the "Immortal Regiment" parades in which ordinary Russians carry their veteran parents' photographs through Russian towns each year.
Read 16 tweets

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