The Moscow city council wants to deliberately provoke by renaming the square in front of the American embassy in the Russian capital after the separatist “Donetsk People’s Republic” (DPR) in eastern Ukraine. But that’s not all: not only was the mood apparently manipulated, but a typeface developed by Ukrainians was also used. The designers are angry.
The city council issued a decree on Wednesday to change the name. The move will force the US embassy to refer to the DPR, which Washington does not recognize as an independent state, when providing its address.
The initiative for the renaming came from the Moscow City Parliament. The final name was determined through an online poll – but besides the DPR, only “the defenders of the Donbass” and a separatist killed in March were available for selection. The move was therefore intended to anger Washington from the start. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov publicly supported the project.
The vote itself was also a farce. According to Russian online medium MediaZona, Moscow officials were forced to vote to rename the square to the Donetsk People’s Republic Square, city officials said.
Designer angry: “Bullshit propaganda
To officially celebrate the name change, banners bearing the new name were hung in Moscow Square. It is printed in the “KTF Jermilov” font, which was developed by two Ukrainian designers. What they think, they wrote in an Instagram story: “Russian fascists used our KTF Jermilov for their bullshit propaganda without the rights to do that”. The clear message to those responsible: “F**** you!”.
Often annoyed about changed addresses
Provoking diplomats by renaming places and thereby changing addresses is not new. In the US capital Washington, the square in front of the Russian embassy was renamed in 2018 after Boris Nemtsov, a Russian opposition politician who was shot dead in 2014. Moscow reacted angrily to this.
The Czech capital Prague followed in 2020 with the Nemtsov Square in front of the Russian embassy. A path leading along there is also named after Anna Politkovskaya, a journalist who criticized the Kremlin and was also shot. The Russian embassy then used a consulate building for its address for a long time. After the start of the war against Ukraine, the Prague authorities changed the name of the street here too. Since then, it has been called “Street of Ukrainian Heroes”.
Source: Krone
I’m Wayne Wickman, a professional journalist and author for Today Times Live. My specialty is covering global news and current events, offering readers a unique perspective on the world’s most pressing issues. I’m passionate about storytelling and helping people stay informed on the goings-on of our planet.
