On April 18, the Russian Olympic Committee revealed new mascots of the Russian Olympic Team. According to an official version, the mascots are intended to “support” Russian athletes and to “unite and inspire” fans.
The mascots were designed by the notorious design firm “Art. Lebedev Studio”. The firm is well known for being involved in multiple government contracts (website design, graphic design etc). The price of its services is a few times higher than average ones in the Russian market. At the same time, the low quality and speed of its work as well as skills of its employees cause media scandals on almost a regular basis. This does not harm the firm’s ability to get new government contracts because its founder Artemy Lebedev is believed to be linked to the so-called “liberal” part of the Russian elite. We can only guess what kid of links is this: friendship, personal sympathy or some kind of “business interests”.
The studio’s confidence in its advantage and the constant support from the “liberal part” of the political elite led to the creation of the following symbols:
These mascots are an example of obvious sarcasm. These derisive images dishonor the Russian athletes and the Russian population, and demonstrate a disrespect for the society.
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Nonetheless, this could be just a view of the Artist. The art director of this project is Egor Zhgun. He’s well known as a hater of the concept of the powerful Russia, President Vladimir Putin and a strong supporter of the “liberal democratic order”.
As the Artist, Zghun became known thanks to his hate videos about Russia:
One can understand his position. Somebody may even support this “creative” view at the Russian sport and population.
However, it appeared that government officials from the Russian Olympic Committee share the attitude of this Artist. They chose this design studio, the art director and approved the final result.
They explain the decision claiming that a grieved two-legged cat and the bear 6-spheres would draw attention of the youth and foreign audience. They are right. These mascots already drew attention of the youth. But it’s hard to describe the reaction as a respect. The audience is astonished and discouraged.
At this point, the blame lies with the Kremlin-not just Putin alone, but he certainly is not beyond reprimand-and their weakness in allowing these traitorous nobodies to have such an influence in a country where only 2-3% affiliate with them.
xm…….. it looks like a retarded kid design them.