Russian "anti-extermism" law and the echoes of the classic Soviet WWII propaganda
Over at spb_ru, petras_pirt recently posted an image of what appeared to be a St. Petersburg municipal government poster in a subway train car, warning residents to be careful what they say, lest they run afoul of the Russian "anti-extremism" law.
The message is written in a form of a poem, and I'm not nearly good enough translator to preserve the rhyme - so here's a more literal translation.
Extremism is
Not a joke,
even in cyberspace!
With it you can
easily sink
They'll give a real sentence.
Which immediately reminded me of a classic "Don't blab!" Soviet-era poster released in the early months of what my people call the Great Patriotic War.
It even comes with it's own agitprop poem, which uses a very similar color scheme.
Be alert
These days
Even walls are listening.
Blabbing and gossip is a short step
To treason!
The big difference is that "Don't Blab!" was released when the country was at war. Which Russia isn't right now. At least in theory.
I decided to dig around and discovered that the campaign was launched in August 2016 by the St. Petersburg municipal government's Committee on Print and Media Relations. Back in October 2014, they launched a contest for advertising design for a campaign to warn citizens about terrorism and extremism. I guess these are its fruits.
At the time, twitter user Oksana Borisova took a photo of an ad, which quickly went viral all over the Russian-speaking Internet. I just didn't come across it until now.
For those who haven't seen my previous posts on the topic, I put "anti-extremism" in scare quotes for a reason. As its often the case in Russian law (even before Putin's ascension), the law tends to be applied pretty broadly, in whichever way is most politically expedient at the time. It could be used against Daesh recruiting in Chechnya and Dagestan - or it could be used against posts supporting current Ukrainian government a bit too enthusiastically, anti Putin/UR posts, and even allegations of corruption against well-connected companies/officials. And it's not like it's applied consistently against every single person who does those things, but if you are looking to bring a person down, this is just one of the many ways to do it.
The "Don't blab" campaign was, at least on paper, is supposed to make it harder for Nazi spies to get military secrets. United States had something similar at the time (see "loose lips sink ships"). Sure, many of the people who were accused of spying didn't actually spy, but at least you could argue that they served a legitimate purpose. This "anti-extremism" thing is hard to interpret as anything but an attempt to scare people who aren't 100 percent on board with the United Russia agenda. A reminder that, if they want to arrest you, they will find a reason.
The message is written in a form of a poem, and I'm not nearly good enough translator to preserve the rhyme - so here's a more literal translation.
Extremism is
Not a joke,
even in cyberspace!
With it you can
easily sink
They'll give a real sentence.
Which immediately reminded me of a classic "Don't blab!" Soviet-era poster released in the early months of what my people call the Great Patriotic War.
It even comes with it's own agitprop poem, which uses a very similar color scheme.
Be alert
These days
Even walls are listening.
Blabbing and gossip is a short step
To treason!
The big difference is that "Don't Blab!" was released when the country was at war. Which Russia isn't right now. At least in theory.
I decided to dig around and discovered that the campaign was launched in August 2016 by the St. Petersburg municipal government's Committee on Print and Media Relations. Back in October 2014, they launched a contest for advertising design for a campaign to warn citizens about terrorism and extremism. I guess these are its fruits.
At the time, twitter user Oksana Borisova took a photo of an ad, which quickly went viral all over the Russian-speaking Internet. I just didn't come across it until now.
For those who haven't seen my previous posts on the topic, I put "anti-extremism" in scare quotes for a reason. As its often the case in Russian law (even before Putin's ascension), the law tends to be applied pretty broadly, in whichever way is most politically expedient at the time. It could be used against Daesh recruiting in Chechnya and Dagestan - or it could be used against posts supporting current Ukrainian government a bit too enthusiastically, anti Putin/UR posts, and even allegations of corruption against well-connected companies/officials. And it's not like it's applied consistently against every single person who does those things, but if you are looking to bring a person down, this is just one of the many ways to do it.
The "Don't blab" campaign was, at least on paper, is supposed to make it harder for Nazi spies to get military secrets. United States had something similar at the time (see "loose lips sink ships"). Sure, many of the people who were accused of spying didn't actually spy, but at least you could argue that they served a legitimate purpose. This "anti-extremism" thing is hard to interpret as anything but an attempt to scare people who aren't 100 percent on board with the United Russia agenda. A reminder that, if they want to arrest you, they will find a reason.