It happened in one of the battalions of the Rwanda Defense Army during the war against Uganda..."

"It happened in one of the battalions of the Rwanda Defense Army during the war against Uganda..."

Did you figure out which countries this is about? Of course, Russia and Ukraine. This is how authors of Z-channels try to avoid accusations of “discrediting” the army: they use the names of African countries. This is just one characteristic detail of the very specific language the Z-community uses to talk about the war.

Over the past four and a half years, writer Ivan Filippov has read tens of thousands of posts in hundreds of Z-channels, trying to understand how supporters of the invasion think and what they want.

He sums up the interim results of his research in the book "No Change on the Zzwestern Front. Putin’s Russia Against Putin," published by Freedom Letters.

Meduza is publishing the chapter “Zeroing Out” — about extrajudicial executions at the front.

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Writer Ivan Filippov has been reading and analyzing hundreds of Z-channels since 2022. Now he has published a book — about what Putin’s…

Writer Ivan Filippov has been reading Z-channels for almost five years, trying to understand how their supporters — disillusioned with the official media — think and talk about the war. He writes about his research into the Z-community on the Telegram channel "No Change on the Zzzzzwestern Front."…