Ukraine war: Vladimir Putin’s warning to ‘traitors’ sends chilling message
- Activists and dissenters face threats and harassment after the Russian leader spoke about the ‘self-cleansing of society’
- A former senior official faced calls for immediate sacking from his current position after he condemned Moscow’s invasion in comments to Western media
Graffiti warnings daubed on the doors of activists in Moscow. A food blogger threatened with up to 15 years in jail for “discrediting” Russia’s army. A call to sack a senior former official for “treachery” for opposing the war in Ukraine.
President Vladimir Putin issued a venomous warning to “traitors” on Wednesday, saying the West would try to use them as a fifth column to destroy Russia, but that Russians would be quickly able to tell the “patriots from the scum”.
Within hours of Putin’s speech, Dmitry Ivanov, a Moscow-based activist, said his mother found a graffiti message on the door to their apartment landing: “Don’t betray the motherland Dima”.
The graffiti bore several of the “Z” signs used to drum up support for what Moscow calls its “special military operation” to disarm and “denazify” Ukraine. The motif is from markings on Russia’s armoured vehicles and tanks.
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What does the letter ‘Z’ stand for among pro-war Russians since the Kremlin invasion of Ukraine?
Ivanov, who has protested against the war, said he had no idea who was behind the graffiti, but that he knew of at least three other people, including activists and a journalist, whose doors had been defaced in the same way on Wednesday evening.