Why Z is for Putin

IN CYRILLIC, THE letter “Z” is written “З”. But since Vladimir Putin launched his latest invasion of Ukraine on February 24th, the Latin form has proliferated inside Russia. Just days after the invasion, Maria Butina, a Russian spy-turned-politician, filmed a video of herself drawing Z on her coat. “Keep it up, brothers,” she declared. “We’re with you forever.” The governor of Kemerovo, a coal-mining region in Siberia unofficially called “Kuzbass” (“Кузбасс”’ in Cyrillic), decreed that its name would henceforth be rendered in a Cyrillic-Latin mix as “КуZбасс”. Ivan Kuliak, a Russian gymnast, plastered a Z on his uniform when he took the podium beside a Ukrainian competitor at the Gymnastics World Cup in Qatar on March 5th, causing the International Gymnastics Federation to start disciplinary proceedings against him. Why has the letter Z become a symbol of support for Vladimir Putin’s war?

As Russian forces assembled along Ukraine’s borders early this year, sharp-eyed observers of open-source intelligence noticed curious characters painted on the side of Russian tanks. Among them were the letter V, the letter Z inside a box, and a plain letter Z itself. The mysterious runes generated myriad theories: perhaps Z was shorthand for “zapad”, which means “west” in Russian (the direction Russian forces would be marching); maybe it indicated the Kremlin’s desire to take out Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky. Military analysts instead reckon that the letters correspond to particular parts of the Russian forces involved in the invasion. With more than 100 battalion tactical groups of between 600 and 1,000 troops from as far away as the Russian Far East operating in Ukraine, such markings may help to distinguish between them and their foes on the battlefield.