Russians Unite in Satirizing the State (gallery)

The Ekho Moskvy radio station has held several contests for its listeners to create political cartoons and collages.  The station, one of Russia’s few mainstream media sources that lets commentators openly criticize the authorities, most recently asked its audience to satirize the rapid devaluation of the Russian ruble.  Russia’s Central Bank has allowed the ruble’s exchange rate to fall to levels below that of the country’s 1998 financial crisis, sending many citizens into a rush to convert their savings to foreign currencies.   The forecast for the future is no better, and there are even signs that Russia is seeing a resurgence of a barter economy.

Ekho Moskvy told contestants to create a collage or caricature based on the statement that “the state is saving the falling ruble.”  Online readers are now voting to pick out the top three of 39 entries, some of which have been translated below.  Two entries from an earlier cartoon contest on the World Economic Forum in Davos are also included at the bottom.  The authors of the artwork are attributed by the online nicknames they used to submit their work, and translations have been provided by theotherrussia.org.

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Political cartoons on the falling ruble:

Velmerk

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Stroga61

Difambik

Realestate

Artem

Sherhan

Juliag

Fura

Luzk

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Cartoons on the World Economic Forum in Davos:

Sandy

Alexalexxx