March 25, 2026

"Mehh": Fined For Reposting Government Video


"Mehh": Fined For Reposting Government Video
A ram up close. stephen jones from uk, Wikimedia Commons.

On March 21, Mediazona reported that a resident of Mytishchi, Moscow Oblast, was fined for reposting a video of sheep with the letter "Z" painted on them. The man was charged with "discrediting" the army for a recording originally posted by Dagestani authorities.

Adil Nurmanov was fined R30,000 ($366) for reposting a video from the public account "Lentach" on VKontakte. In the recording, we see a herd of sheep painted with the nationalist symbol "Z"  marching along while the song "Vpered, Rossya!" ("Forward, Russia!") by Oleg Gazmanov, plays. The court ruling from February 13 stated, "The video recording features an audio soundtrack by the People's Artist Oleg Gazmanov titled 'Russia' ... while the rams emit sounds characteristic of their species." 

According to Mediazona, the description of Nurmanov's post matches a recording originally posted by the Dagestani Ministry of Agriculture in June 2022. The news and memes account "Lentach" reposted the video with the caption "Contest for the most original caption to this video! The results will be announced in the courthouse closest to you." Dagestani authorities later deleted the post.

On June 21, 2022, "Lentach" posted, "There used to be a video here before that one of our subscribers got fined for reposting. That is why we took it down." The page accompanied this caption with an image of Shrek reading, "Oops."

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