Muscovites strolling along central Tverskoi Bulvar on Friday risked cardiac arrest as they walked past life-size dummies of a balaclava-clad Islamic State fighter and a hostage in an orange jumpsuit kneeling in a cage. The figures were surrounded by plastic skulls, with a petrol can thrown in for explanatory purposes.
On closer inspection, the terrifying “installation” proved to be a publicity stunt by the pro-Kremlin art group Glavplakat, promoting their latest book titled ?€?AnISILation: Total Obliteration,?€? which the provocateurs promised would reveal the extremist group's ?€?leaders, cruel methods …, the reasons why Russia is fighting IS terrorists, as well as the IS supporters among us.?€?
IS, also referred to as ISIL, is banned in Russia as a terrorist organization.
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According to Glavplakat, supporters of the Islamic State can be found among the ranks of the Russian opposition, which ?€?is waging an information war with [Russia] arm in arm with the anti-Russian forces of the West, marrying 'the fight against the regime' with support for jihadists.?€?
Those clued in on Glavplakat's oeuvre to date were perhaps less surprised than most. The group's previous book ?€?Khodorkovsky: The Book of the Dead?€? set out to provide obituaries for ?€?everyone who stood in the oligarch's way in the 1990s.?€?
Their posters had also advertised a fictional auction of guns, Molotov cocktails and, interestingly, skipping ropes to be held in support of anti-Kremlin protesters put on trial in the Bolotnaya Square case, and proclaimed London the capital of the Open Russia movement founded by Mikhail Khodorkovsky, a former oil tycoon and once Russia's richest man.
Free copies of the new book, which Glavplakat says is ?€?aimed at the general reader,?€? were handed out by volunteers on Tverskoi Bulvar.
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