Russian officials designate separatism meme from Ukraine as ‘terrorism’
The Russian authorities have designated a Ukrainian meme as a terrorist organization. On Tuesday, the news outlet Fonar reported that the Federal Security Service has identified the “Belgorod People’s Republic” as a subdivision of the Forum of Free States of Post-Russia, which Russia’s Supreme Court banned last November. The “BPR” emerged online as a joke after Russian officials in Belgorod started reporting Ukrainian artillery strikes and cross-border raids in 2022. The meme plays on the so-called “people’s republics” in Donetsk and Luhansk, the two proxy entities Russia sustained in eastern Ukraine after 2014 and later annexed outright.
In August 2022, during a live town hall with Belgorod Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov, one resident mentioned being frightened by rumors about the creation of a “Belgorod People’s Republic.” The governor assured the man that this information was false, saying, “You’re reading the wrong sites.” Gladkov encouraged his audience to stick with “official information” or “data from other channels.”
In November 2024, the Russian Supreme Court ruled that the Forum of Free States of Post-Russia and its 172 “structural subdivisions” are terrorist organizations. In early January 2025, the FSB published a list of these subdivisions, which include the foundations “Asians of Russia,” “Free Buryatia,” “Free Yakutia,” “League of Free Nations,” “Free Idel-Ural,” and others.