Russia’s Censorship Agency Maintains List Of Words No One Must Call Putin – OpEd

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The Cyberpartisans (t.me/s/cpartisans), Belarusian hackers who routinely break into Russian government sites, has found a Roskomnadzor document listing all words the Kremlin doesn’t want anyone to call Putin or link to his person or his policies. Zona.Media has now republished that four-page list (zona.media/article/2023/02/10/bzdlo).

Among the terms that the Russian censors don’t want tied to Putin in any way are words that talk about his sexual proclivities or that are otherwise obscene and are explicitly directed at him. Zona.Media publishes the full list of these terms in Russian.

The document also shows that Putin wants to block any talk about his health.  According to the text of that document, Roskomnadzor has been collecting hundreds of such references over the last year and producing a weekly report about what diseases Putin is thought to have and what his prognosis is.

This list apparently has been the basis of both attacks on individuals and media outlets both informal and formal and can be expected to be the basis of more in the future as the list expands and the number of Russians choosing such language to characterize their president increases as well.  

Everyone is aware that Putin is a small man in all senses, but these documents are the latest sign of just how far his paranoia has now penetrated his regime – and consequently of how Orwellian the current system in Russia is not only fascist but Orwellian as well.

Paul Goble

Paul Goble is a longtime specialist on ethnic and religious questions in Eurasia. Most recently, he was director of research and publications at the Azerbaijan Diplomatic Academy. Earlier, he served as vice dean for the social sciences and humanities at Audentes University in Tallinn and a senior research associate at the EuroCollege of the University of Tartu in Estonia. He has served in various capacities in the U.S. State Department, the Central Intelligence Agency and the International Broadcasting Bureau as well as at the Voice of America and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Mr. Goble maintains the Window on Eurasia blog and can be contacted directly at [email protected] .

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