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In Photos: FSB Veterans' Group Releases Hyper-Militarized, Pro-War 2024 Calendar

ozon.ru

As Russia's invasion of Ukraine nears the two-year mark, an unofficial calendar for the Federal Security Service (FSB) offers an extreme vision for 2024.

From President Vladimir Putin's biceps rippling under a tight black T-shirt to a Russian soldier storming the U.S. Capitol, limits to this calendar's imagination do not exist.

In its other images, which heavily romanticize the Russian military, soldiers can be seen holding children, women and Cheburashka.

The calendar's content offers a glimpse into the hyper-militarized, pro-war imagery that has shaped many Russians' outlooks, and comes amid historic lows in relations with the West over the war in Ukraine.

The calendar, which is sold by an FSB veterans' support charity, retails for 5,228 rubles ($57.92) on Ozon, one of Russia's largest online marketplaces.

Photos of the calendar pages were first published by British media.

"The idea for ​​the calendar belongs to Nikolai Guryev, chairman of the Special Operations Command C Combat Veterans Support Fund," Roman Korsuvorov, the deputy chairman of the Krasnodar region's FSB border guard veterans group, told the bloknot-rovorossiysk.ru news website. 

Guryev himself said the image of the U.S. Capitol under assault was not meant as a direct threat.

"I wanted to convey to the audience that we have a strong country and a strong leader," Guryev told the outlet of his idea. "That this won't end well for the United States, and this is what could happen to this wonderful country because of those who run it so incompetently."

See more photos from the calendar here:

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