70,000 Santas Invade Moscow
Putting our silly little Santacons to shame, 70,000 Santas invaded Moscow on Sunday as part of a pro-Kremlin publicity stunt in honor of the Battle of Moscow. English Russia has some photos of the mass santactivist convergence.
Ahead of July’s Group of Eight summit in St. Petersburg, much was made of the fact that the Kremlin had gone so far as to hire a U.S. PR firm to tidy up its image. That turns out to have been small potatoes. On Sunday, 70,000 activists from the pro-Kremlin youth group Nashi descended on the city in Santa suits and snow princess costumes, the best example, to date, of how just farcical the government’s image-making can get.
The parade of Grandfather Frosts appears to have been aimed at diverting attention from two other rallies — a Saturday event organized by The Other Russia, a liberal coalition, and a Sunday gathering honoring journalists slain in Russia since 1991. That Nashi billed its march as a 65th-anniversary commemoration of the Battle of Moscow rang hollow, given that the battle ended Dec. 5, almost two weeks before Saturday’s “anniversary.”
Thanks to Niall Kennedy for the tip!






pingback by Laughing Squid » 70,000 Santas Invade Moscow
on Monday, December 18th, 2006 at 2:35 pm
[...] Speaking of Santas, 70,000 Santas invaded Moscow on Sunday as part of a pro-Kremlin publicity stunt in honor of the Battle of Moscow. photo credit: English Russia tags: Santa (T) , Moscow (T) Comments RSS feed | Trackback URL [...]
comment by Santa de Nada
on Wednesday, December 20th, 2006 at 3:17 pm
holy shiite.
I thought I was at the point where no Santa news could surprise me any more. How truly bizarre
thats nearly 2x the size of burning man
comment by Yuri
on Wednesday, December 20th, 2006 at 5:50 pm
Seeing this event described as “70,000 Santas” is ironic, given that those were actually 70,000 Santa-haters. The distinction might be lost on non-Russians, but the members of this event claimed to be dressed in costumes of Ded Moroz and the same group has actually staged anti-Santa demonstrations in Russia, seeing Santa as an unwelcome sign of Westernization. The differences between Santa and Ded Moroz are subtle, but the easiest one to spot the slightly different hat (not pointed).
comment by mick4recycle
on Tuesday, December 26th, 2006 at 1:59 pm
st Nickolas=santa=russian patron saint
didnt the russian revolution start with a march
for st nick?
comment by santamanda
on Friday, December 7th, 2007 at 12:49 pm
i don’t see any of those santas carrying their trusty bottles of pine-sol… nor any pants-free santas… nor handing out any free pornography… nor even any naughty and nice stickers! our santas beat their santas.
comment by Paul
on Wednesday, April 9th, 2008 at 12:52 pm
That’s insane. But I’ve got to agree with SantaManda, I’d rather go to a pub crawl with crazy fun Santas instead of political activists.