More ambitious than their earlier one.
Quite likely, but even paranoids may face real coups. Members of the inner circle have to be speculating on what happens post-Pooty, and positioning themselves to come out on top, or at least survive.
Highly recommended:
Wow, that really puts it in perspective, doesnât it?
I donât think there was a master plan behind Z. It started as the various division markings (similar to how the military will use Greek letter designations), and for what ever reason âZâ caught on. The Russian meme makers glommed on to it as cool looking and lots of images of tanks and APCs with the marking. Once that got made as a symbol for the war, it just snow balled.
So who ever is making Russiaâs general propaganda probably started it.
Flechette rounds are really nasty stuff, practically designed to cause infections and scar for life.
Galeev argues that someone in the Russian government must have promoted the Z meme, because the authorities have zero tolerance for any grassroots social movements. The Z meme, he says, cannot have been any kind of organic or spontaneous phenomenon, because such things are impossible in Russia.
I think that map projection that was used there makes Russia look disproportionately big. Cylindrical projection is notorious for this.
The chainâs opening in Moscow (when the USSR still existed) can be marked as the beginning of post-Soviet Russiaâs engagement with the global economy, for better or worse. Its pull-out (along with that of other global brands) marks a return to the old isolation, very much for the worse.
Coming soon: Z-Burgers (now with extra sawdust!)
Victory BurgerZ
Sprinkled with sunflower seeds.
We all age in 20 years, but that picture of him versus one from this year is pretty stark.
Sweden follows Finland in confirming it will apply to join Nato
(The Guardian likes to update articles and repost them to the same URLs, which means that the previews are out of date and Discourse warns you that the article has already been posted in the thread.)
Yeah, I read that whole thread. Though I counter âhow do you control memes floating around the Internet?â Unlike a protest/support gathering, you donât need a form. See their meddling in the 2016 election to see how fast and furious their memes can spread.
But I still donât think there is a huge conspiracy. They heads of propaganda either picked the symbol because it was so prevalent on images coming back from the war after being tasked with creating some propaganda for it - or it someone somewhere made an offhanded comment in a post, people ran with it, and the official propaganda machine picked up what was already there and ran with it, including all of those well produced videos we saw shortly after.
Iâll agree that the official channels is what drove the big physical displays we saw, and that it isnât âinitiative from the bottomâ (great band name) that propagated it so widely.
I feel like if this was the plan to use âZâ as some sort of iconic symbol from the start, then ALL of the various units would have been painted with it. There would have been flags and patches as part of the âZ Campaignâ. I am 98% confident they posed a purpose for front identification at first, and then it got turned into a symbol
Take Americaâs iconic raising the flag at Iwo Jima. Dude who snapped it had no idea how good it would turn out and how it would be one of the most iconic and replicated photo in the 20th century. It appeared ânaturallyâ, and then the propaganda machine used it to its fullest extent.
His talk about it being weird to use Latin letters as a sign of supporting Russia I sort of agree with. But again, looking at it from their view, I think because it is a Latin letter, it is exotic, cryptic, and gives a sense of something bigger.
Like Greek letters used in America. There is a reason Fraternities and Sororities use it to create a sort of âsecret societyâ vibes. The are US military designations using Greek letter (Delta being the most well known). And we use it in science and math, which to the average person seems a little mystical and gets people all thinking about occult knowledge (As seen with the Covid naming conspiracies. :/) But still, you wouldnât make a âCode Name: Project Gâ It would be âProject: Gammaâ. It sounds cooler.
YMMV.
I mean, this is a huge deal. 850 stores, 1.2+ Billion loss? Corporations donât do things because it is the right thing to do morally - not unless it also makes economic sense. Other big name brands are pulling out. It is pretty clear that the economists and others at these companies see Russiaâs collapse is eminent and they are getting out while the getting is good.
Russia is basically a video on Americaâs Funniest Home Videos where someone kicks at a dog, misses, and falls flat on their ass. 
Thatâs already a thing, where I live. (Havenât visited, so canât vouch for the sawdust)
(From Yelp)
such a centralised, bottom-down country as Russia
Top-down, surely. But being Russia, do not assume they cannot go any lower! Botton-down may be correct! 
