The mystery of the vanishing Z
Russia's symbol for the SMO has disappeared in Russia
There are no Zs in Moscow. You won’t find them in St. Petersburg, either.
A friend in Ufa reports a conspicuous lack of Zs in Bashkiria’s capital. An old acquaintance who resides in Tatarstan tells me his town is Z-less.
If you drive for two hours across Novgorod Oblast you won’t pass a single Z-bedecked billboard.
I’ve spent 3 months looking for Zs in Russia and today I am ready to report my findings: It’s easier to dig up a truffle than sniff out a Z in this country. And you probably can’t train hogs to geolocate Zs.
Yes, there’s an occasional bumper sticker, and if you wander the halls of municipal buildings and government offices you might find a Z pinned to a long-neglected announcement board. But for whatever reason, Russia has been scrubbed of nearly all Z-flair.
Even recruitment posters for contract service in the Russian military (I’ve seen them in every city, town, and village I’ve visited over the past 90 days) are conspicuously Z-less.
The conflict in Ukraine will enter its third year in February 2024 and Russia will hold a presidential election a month later. But you could go a week in Russia without encountering the Latin-script letter selected by Moscow to represent Russia’s Special Military Operation.
I suspect this means something; exactly what we may never know.
But I have a few anecdotes to share with you that might help us unravel this riddle.
There’s a small town of 2,500 people located about 30 km from my village manor. According to a local, of the 17 mobilized men from this town, 2 were killed and 1 went missing. Three are still fighting in Ukraine. The rest are wounded.
The 51-year-old taxi driver who drove me 30km from aforementioned small town to my even smaller village disclosed to me that his application to join Wagner had been rejected because he had diabetes. He said the Russian army was plagued by incompetence, grift, and treachery.
My village neighbor recently revealed to me that he had a 65-year-old friend (and veteran of the War in Afghanistan, Soviet Union Edition) who was fighting on a MoD contract in Ukraine. This gentleman of advanced years periodically calls my neighbor to talk about the situation in the Northern Military District—mostly about the lack of ammo, leadership, and goals.
When pressing my relatives, friends, acquaintances, and on one occasion a total stranger, about their thoughts on the conflict in Ukraine, there were several reoccurring comments:
“I initially supported the SMO but now I don’t understand what it is accomplishing.”
“Shoigu is a rat.” (paraphrase)
“Wagner is (was?) Russia’s most professional and competent fighting force; Prigozhin was (is?) popular.”
“I don’t care about elections.” (When asked if they thought that the war’s incomplete status would affect the election)
There’s a Z made of wood on my neighbor’s banya door. But it predates the SMO by several years and represents structural integrity instead of a Not-War that nobody in Russia understands or wants to be reminded of.
"They were careless people, Tom and Daisy- they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made."
F Scott Fitzgerald
Interesting how Tom and Daisy are similar to the US/ DOD and the Russian MOD.
Riley is only giving half the story behind the symbol absence. The SMO has already basically been won, the Ukrainian Army has been de-nazified and de-militarized 11 times over and all that's left is take the industrial zone of Avdeeka which was the whole point of the SMO to begin with. The original thrust on Kiev which de-nazified and de-militarized the VSU 8 times was a fake out to pin down and de-militarize the VSU in Avdeeka by tricking them into lobbing all their artillery ammo and missiles into the center of Donetsk.
This all happened simultaneously with very successful re-groupings in the Kharkov region which baited the Ukrainians into bombing and shelling Bryansk, Belgorod, and the successful re-grouping in Kherson baited them further into regularly blowing up stuff in Crimea. This further depleted Ukrainian stock piles thus further demilitarizing the VSU which had already been destroyed anyway and proving Russias moral superiority. The Wests sanctions were offset by Russia peak oil sales in partnership with it's trusted Partners in Ukraine. The income from the oil sales went to buy awards and new bill board murals for Adam Kadyrov who is a very popular folk hero in Russia, these will replace the Z stuff. So that's the real story about the Z stuff being taken down.
So there you have it, Ukraine has already been de-nazified and de-militarized and all that's left is cleaning up Avdeeka which was whole the point of SMO. Putin is a well known chess player who uses judo tactics and by making the Nazis rich via gas transit fees and goading the West into giving them billions and billions of dollars the Nazis will take the money and buy villas in the swiss Alps, NY city, Tuscany etc and no longer live in Ukraine. Mission accomplished. Than they will fire all their shells, missiles etc at Russia and Donbass and de-militarize themselves. Mission accomplished and thus the Z can go and make room for murals of Adam Kadyrov who is tied for the most popular man in Russia with Ginsburg and Shoigu.