In times of peace, the tradition is called Maslenitsa. Then the Russians burn out the winter and celebrate that the heat is coming by eating fatty food.
Burned Putin doll outside the Russian embassy in Stockholm
The holiday, also called pancake week, today has a new meaning. At least if you ask Alexey Karichwho had been involved in planning the demonstration outside the Russian embassy in Stockholm.
Karich has lived in Sweden for two years, and to Dagens Nyheter he talks about the doll, representing the President of Russia Vladimir Putinwhich they hung up outside the embassy and then set fire to.
– Now we took this holiday, which is still celebrated in Russia, and turned it into a protest against the war. We set fire to Putin and you can see the result, he says while pointing to the remains of the Putin doll.
“Want to show our opposition to the war”
On a sign they have written “War criminal”, i.e. war criminal, and the demonstration is one of several waiting around Europe.
– I don’t think we are alone in the idea of burning an effigy of Putin. We are many Russians who want to show our opposition to the war, he tells DN.