In Russia's war against Ukraine, the Latin letter Z has become the emblem of Putin's troops and supporters of the invasion.
The last letter of the Latin alphabet, which doesn't even exist in Cyrillic, was emblazoned on tanks advancing on Ukraine. Kremlin patriots soon adorned their profiles on social networks with it, and you can see it on cars and clothes - like on the jersey at the World Cup in Doha the third-placed Russian gymnast Ivan Kuljak, who therefore has to reckon with a procedure.
Some Russian military vehicles also bear the V (which also does not exist in Cyrillic), as well as the letters A, X, and O. The Russian Defense Ministry's statement that Z stands for "victory" ("za pobedu", with z like a soft S is pronounced) and V for "The strength lies in the truth" ("Sila v prawde") only sounds partially convincing.
But the Z makes one think of the noble film hero Zorro, who fights the oppressors of the people and carves his initial into them, explained the patriotic television journalist Konstantin Krochmal on YouTube.
Like Zorro, the Russian troops, supported by units from Donbass, Belarus and Chechnya - the Ukrainian Defense Ministry says Belarusian and Chechen units bear the distinctive O and X marks respectively - stand for restoring justice.
In addition, the Z symbolizes the fight against a zombie world that has gone mad due to false information – meaning Western information, of course.
Under state direction, the Z is recreated as a car or person formation all over the country, recently even by the employees and patients of a children's hospice in the Volga city of Kazan.
Drone photos of such actions are circulating on the internet.
Of course, the soldiers, who can only destroy and who want to cure a fantasized Ukrainian fascism with Putinism, seem more like zombies themselves.
And her Z, which makes war opponents like the author Masha Gessen think of the swastika, revealingly resembles the rune sign of the Wolfsangel, the emblem of some SS units.
It is the ominous sign of the new Russian totalitarianism, which is why strangers daubed it on the doors of Pussy Riot feminist Rita Flores, cinema critic Anton Dolin and theater scholar Marina Davydova.