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In a lot of ways, the internet is the Wild West of entertainment and information.
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Compared to some of the more established forms of media – like television, movies, print
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news media, and books – the internet is still in its infancy.
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One form of creation seemingly native to the internet is the art of the meme – a typically
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funny unit of shared cultural information endlessly modified and repeated by its audience.
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From the image macros of yore to the modern phenomenon of deep-fried madness , it's
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clear that the internet loves a good meme.
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Vladimir Putin, on the other hand, is not a fan.
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That's right – the 67-year-old KGB agent turned prime minister turned President of
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the Russian Federation has shown the world his inner boomer by declaring war on memes.
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Well, not all memes – some legislation passed by Russian parliament last year gives the
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Russian authorities sweeping powers to fine, arrest, and even jail citizens who post “disrespectful”
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content about Russian state officials online – including, of course, President Vladimir
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Putin.
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This law even extends towards internet memes judged to be seditious on an extremely flexible
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set of criteria.
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Who would have guessed a man known for often assassinating his critics, like Boris Nemtsov
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and Anna Politkovskaya, wouldn't be able to take a joke?
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Though interestingly, an inability to take joking criticism has actually been a running
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theme in Putin's political career.
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After coming to power, one of his first acts was to ban a satirical television puppet show
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called Kukly for previously depicting him as an angry, profane gnome.
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The anti-meme legislation of 2019 feels like a natural extension of that same attitude
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towards any kind of critical jokes.
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The legislation was introduced by Russian Senator Andrei Klishas, on behalf of the United
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Russia Party – led by, of course, Vladimir Putin.
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The law comes on the tail of Putin's national trust ratings dropping to 33%, a thirteen
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year low for the controversial President.
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The legislation has numerous critics in Russian parliament – such as lawyer Sergey Shvakin,
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who joked “Soon we'll be telling jokes about the authorities in whispers in the kitchen”
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on his Facebook profile.
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Opposing Russian politicians also haven't minced words, saying that the laws are a form
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of blanket censorship meant to stamp out any form of criticism.
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Even Sergei Ivanov, a member of parliament from the typically Putin-aligned nationalist
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LDPR party, said of the new laws, “If we stop calling a fool a fool, he won't stop
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being a fool.”
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However, seeing as Putin has the final say on what gets signed into law, none of these
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criticisms really mattered beyond paying lip service to the opposition.
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What exactly happens if you defy Putin's internet censorship laws?
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Well, for your first offense, you could be fined as much as 100,000 rubles – which
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is about $1,323.
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For your second offense, you can be fined double this, and potentially face fifteen
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days inside a Russian jail.
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That's enough to discourage anyone from posting their favourite meme at Putin's
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expense, even if it does seem like an insane overreaction on the government's part.
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This opens up a few interesting questions: First of all, what is a meme, really?
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Secondly, why might a world leader willing to poison people with polonium be afraid of
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some stupid internet jokes?
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And finally, what specific memes does Putin deem worthy of suppression?
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Thankfully, these are all questions we can answer here.
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Though if anyone working for this channel dies mysteriously in the next few days, well,
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you know who to ask about that.
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So, memes, let's get to the bottom of this ubiquitous internet trend.
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It might interest you to know that the concept of the meme actually predates the internet
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as we know it by quite some time.
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The expression was first coined by well-known scientist and academic Richard Dawkins – of
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The Selfish Gene and The God Delusion fame.
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Memes, in their most basic sense, are ideas that spread – they can be actions, ideologies,
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words, behaviours, and media.
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Almost anything can become a meme.
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From the musical stylings of the band Smash Mouth to a stock image of a distracted boyfriend
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to urban legends about hook-handed mental patients.
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While this might seem like we're overthinking the latest memes trending on Reddit's front
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page, the idea is essentially the same as it was for Dawkins.
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In his own words, “Memes are to culture what genes are to life.
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Just as biological evolution is driven by the survival of the fittest genes in the gene
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pool, cultural evolution may be driven by the most successful memes.”
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And from here, you begin to understand why someone like Vladimir Putin has an aversion
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to internet memes making fun of him.
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Putin hates memes for the same reason Chinese President Xi Jinping banned comparisons between
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him and the popular cartoon character Winnie the Pooh, and Spain attempted to ban images
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that “infringe the honour of a person”: Memes spread.
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And just like Dawkins said, a meme – in the sense of a cultural idea – that spreads
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far enough has the power to hijack a cultural conversation.
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While this might not even occur to a normal individual like you or me, Putin has a good
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reason to be concerned about this.
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And that's because of a surprising fact about Putin and his inner circle: They're
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marketing geniuses.
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That's right.
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You may associate Putin and his government more with raw, brutal strength than public
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relations prowess, but that's only because that's exactly what they want you to think.
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Everyone's seen the ridiculous photo ops of Putin riding a horse shirtless , or doing
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judo , or swimming with dolphins.
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These images became memes in and of themselves, but that was by design.
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While most people may see and share these images and videos under the assumption that
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they're hilarious – which, to be fair, they are – they're also playing into Putin's
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hands.
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That's because, while they make Putin look a little silly, they also make him look strong.
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Putin and his team have taken great pains to project an image of strength, leadership,
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and masculinity for Vladimir Putin, using everything from heavily engineered photo ops
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to extremely unsubtle messages in Russian pop music.
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Russian pop duo Singing Together released the hit song “A Man Like Putin”, with
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lyrics like: “I want a man like Putin, who's full of strength.
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I want a man like Putin, who doesn't drink.
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I want a man like Putin, who won't make me sad.”
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With lyrics that flattering, it's a little hard to believe that someone from the Putin
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team didn't have a hand in the writing process.
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What we're saying here is: Putin and his associates have been using memes for decades
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to project the idea of Putin as a strong, feared leader, and to some extent, this campaign
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has worked like a charm.
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So, it stands to reason that if a robust meme campaign can help keep Putin in power, an
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equally strong meme offensive can take him down a peg.
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Because memes, by nature, have a tendency to spread, it benefits the Russian government
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to introduce legislation that gives them carte blanche to nip potentially harmful memes in
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the bud.
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You're probably wondering: What kind of memes can put you in the crosshairs of the
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Russian government?
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Importantly, none, if you live outside of Russia.
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However, if you're a Russian citizen, you'd be surprised by the sheer number of memes
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considered defamatory or even extremist by Russia's internet censorship laws.
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In fact, Russia actually has a list of over 4,000 different images deemed to be “extremist”,
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and grounds for both censorship and even criminal investigation.
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We obviously don't have time to go through all of them, but let's take a look at some
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notable examples, and case studies of people prosecuted under these restrictive laws.
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First, the strange case of Maria Motuznaya, a 23-year-old Siberian internet user whose
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choice of memes landed her in some serious hot water.
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The scene of the supposed crime was VKontakte, or VK, Russia's most popular social media
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website.
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Maria wasn't exactly a hardcore revolutionary – she just thought she was posting a few
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funny memes three years ago, many of which she wouldn't even have posted now.
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Still, this juvenile decision had suddenly landed her with the threat of six years in
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prison under charges of hate speech.
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The same can be said for nineteen-year-old Daniil Markin, whose VK meme posting habits
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were deemed similarly illegal under Russia's internet censorship laws.
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What were the two memes that ended up dunking these two Russian citizens into hot water?
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One was of a group of nuns smoking, with the bottom text reading “Quick, while God isn't
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looking!”
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The other was a traditional image of Jesus Christ, except with the face of the character
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Jon Snow from Game of Thrones photoshopped over it.
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These two images were perceived as being slander towards the Russian Orthodox Church, a powerful
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religious institution with close ties to the Russian government, and by extension, Vladimir
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Putin.
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Posting these memes got Maria and Daniil placed on a list typically reserved for genuine terrorists.
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Of course, with the Russian government's history of making politically inconvenient
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people disappear through jailing and even extrajudicial assassinations, Maria and Daniil
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were left in a state of perpetual fear for their lives and freedom.
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This, incidentally, is precisely the point of the legislation.
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In 2017, 411 criminal cases were raised against internet users for the content of their posts.
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While this doesn't seem like much, it has the wider implication of striking fear into
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the heart of anyone who feels like making some dissenting internet memes.
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But the law covers far more than memes with religious connotations.
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The legislation is so broad that any meme that can be perceived as misrepresenting the
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actions or personality of the subject – even if it's fully and clearly intended in jest
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– are grounds for removal and potentially even litigation.
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One example is a very basic meme made of Russian musician Valeri Syutkin, where a picture of
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Valeri was coupled with meme text of profane lyrics from another artist's song.
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This was apparently too much for Valeri to take, as he sued the Wikipedia-esque website
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where the image was published and won.
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The legislation also gives the Russian government the power to unilaterally block websites without
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any public investigation or due process.
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They also put measures in place to force bloggers to register their blogs under their own legal
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name, essentially making anonymous blogging illegal.
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The meme control laws also have a degree of sinister crossover with some of Russia's
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other controversial laws around homosexuality.
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During Russian human rights protests, a certain image – later referred to as the “Gay
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Clown” meme, depicting Putin wearing heavy makeup against a colourful backdrop – was
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born.
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Naturally, the Russian government attempted to ban the image immediately.
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However, this just resulted in increased proliferation of the image due to the suppression attempt
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drawing national and international attention.
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This is known as “The Streisand Effect.”
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Any memes depicting Vladimir Putin as gay, or committing homosexual acts, are incredibly
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illegal – and a number of variations on the iconic “Gay Clown” image make up a
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surprising portion of the several thousand officially banned memes.
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Others include images of Putin as a standard birthday party clown, images of Putin passionately
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kissing US President Donald Trump , and even a video of Putin declaring himself to be gay
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set to jaunty music, complete with a cameo from the South Korean musician Psy, known
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for his hit song Gangnam Style.
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Pretty much anyone could look at these examples and see something incredibly silly – Definitely
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not the kind of thing a world leader should be wasting his time on.
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But, for all the reasons we've discussed in this video, it's really not that simple,
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is it?
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For the United Russia party, the myth of Vladimir Putin is just as valuable as the man himself.
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When people think of Putin, and of Russia in general, they think of a powerful, unyielding
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force - an image that comes as a result of a carefully cultivated propaganda campaign
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played out over decades.
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The real power of memes, and the reason some of them will get you fined or even arrested
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in Russia, is that they prove that even a random internet user holds the power to bring
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all that expensive state propaganda crashing down.
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Want some more fascinating videos about Russia?
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Check out “Russian Stereotypes” and “How Russia Can Launch Nukes From Beyond The Grave.”
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In the meantime, enjoy your memes!
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While you can…