Protest can be expressed not only in actions but also through many other methods. We’ve gathered them for you.
❗️If you want to take part in agitation, please familiarize yourself with the basic safety rules:
— Don’t work with strangers, don’t go to meetings from unverified chats, and don’t share your plans in them.
— Don’t engage in agitation in your own area or near your home.
— Plan your route to avoid cameras (including dashcams) and cover your face as much as possible so that the cameras don’t recognize you.
— Wear neutral, inconspicuous clothing that makes it hard for people to recognize you and avoid crowds.
— Do the pasting and graffiti at night, return home using a complex route, and stay alert.
— Completely turn off your phone, don’t use your car, keep contacts for human rights defenders on hand.
Here are some more useful instructions:
1. Graffiti and leaflets: A guide on how not to get caught.
2. Stickers: A guide on where and how to effectively stick them.
3. Price tags and stores: A guide on safety and creativity.
1. Ribbons
Green ribbons are a symbol of the anti-war movement, which has spread widely on social media and beyond. People tie them in all accessible places across Russian cities.
Join us too! Tie a ribbon somewhere in the city — on poles, fences, trees. Remember, ribbons are not a crime. Even if you’re stopped because of a ribbon, badge, or writing on your clothing — they have nothing to charge you with. There’s no such article in the law.
2. Leaflets and Stickers
An important task for the anti-war movement is to break through the propaganda’s information blockade. One way to do this is through leaflets and stickers. We’ve prepared several templates that you can print and distribute.
Important: printing leaflets is not a crime. However, try to print them on your own printer (be sure to share with friends) or find a verified printing house.
You can distribute them in many ways:
— Stick them on informational boards.
— Drop them into mailboxes in your or others’ entrances.
— Put them under car windshields.
— Stick them on propaganda banners with the “Z” and approval for the war.
— Attach them to bags while walking or traveling in the subway.
— Mail them to acquaintances or random addresses without a return address through the Russian Post.
You can even make stickers yourself — it’s very simple: you can order blank labels and write anti-war slogans with a marker.
If you have a printer and the ability to print more leaflets and posters — do it and share with friends.
3. Graffiti
Graffiti is an effective and simple method of agitation. They can be applied unnoticed, and hundreds of people will notice them. How to make graffiti?
1. Plan where and when to do the graffiti. It’s best to apply it at night — but in a place where many people walk during the day. Sidewalks, facades of buildings facing pedestrian streets, and arches leading to courtyards work well.
2. Clean the surface you’re going to apply graffiti to, if possible. This will make the drawing smoother.
3. Apply the graffiti. You can do this with spray paint, car paint, green paint, chalk, acrylic paints in tubes or cans. You probably have something at home, and if not, you can buy inexpensive paint at a store or pharmacy.
Bonus: You can carry chalk or a permanent marker and discreetly apply anti-war messages wherever convenient.
4. Posters and Banners
Hang banners and posters in your windows, on balconies, on bridges, and in other places in the city.
You can make them from old sheets and paint, colored tape, or green paint!
5. Banknotes
Another interesting method is to apply anti-war slogans on banknotes. You can always say that they looked like that before they got into your hands.
6. Toys and Children’s Items
You can use toys and children’s things for anti-war agitation. About 300 children were killed during the war in Ukraine, and thousands became refugees. It’s important to remind everyone of this.
You can attach leaflets with anti-war messages to children’s items and toys and leave them in prominent places in the city.
— Toys can also be attached with anti-war posters or embroidered with messages, and then left in public places.
7. Anti-war Price Tags
Anti-war price tags are one of the few ways to reach an audience that is most vulnerable to propaganda. By replacing something ordinary with something unusual, we show that there is no corner of our country untouched by war.
You can download templates via the link.
In mid-April, St. Petersburg activist and artist Sasha Skochelko was detained for replacing price tags with anti-war ones. Such initiatives are not criminal, and we ask you to sign the petition to protect Sasha and follow the safety precautions:
— Don’t leave price tags in stores near your home or where you frequent.
— Don’t stand directly under cameras.
— Wear inconspicuous clothing, including a mask.
— Try not to draw attention from others.
— Don’t leave too many price tags in one store.
— Don’t just come to leave a price tag, and don’t use loyalty cards.
8. Silent Picket
Another form of protest is a silent picket. You can attach the agitation material to your clothing or bag while walking or traveling on the subway. Be careful!
9. Toy Picket
You can hold even safer pickets — toy pickets. Here’s an example:
Use regular toys, make little figures out of clay — be creative! Toys can be left in public places.
10. Damaging Propaganda
The authorities are trying to carry out a public campaign in support of the war and even attract the broad public with new symbols (Z and V). We suggest countering this visual propaganda in any way possible.
For example:
Tear down leaflets, Z letters, and other pro-war agitation. But evaluate the risks!
11. Leaving Books with Anti-war Notes in Public Places
Activists have come up with an interesting campaign: they leave books in public spaces with anti-war postcards inside. Join in!
12. Making Anti-war Messages on Trees
It’s hard to erase them, and they don’t harm trees.
13. Placing Anti-war Signs or Laying Flowers at Monuments
An action with laying flowers was announced by the “Feminist Anti-War Resistance” on March 8, but people still bring flowers to monuments and memorials.
We call on everyone in Russia to lay flowers at the monument to those who died in the Great Patriotic War — such a memorial exists in almost every Russian city.
Let’s remember all those whom the war, unleashed by Putin and his circle, has killed and continues to kill. Let’s remember the war crimes, all the destroyed houses, schools, and kindergartens in Ukraine, and those who survived but whose lives were completely ruined by the war. Let’s keep this memory together.
14. Distributing Leaflets about Independent Media
Due to censorship and blocking, it’s become even harder to get truthful information about the war. For many, the TV remains the only source of news, through which the authorities broadcast propaganda at full capacity.
Now more than ever, it’s important to distribute links to independent media — you can do this using homemade leaflets, here’s an example:
15. Agitation in Dating Apps
— Create an account in Tinder. For example, create an account for Putin, who “is looking for someone who will love him after all the atrocities.” In the description, you can talk about Bucha, the maternity hospital in Mariupol, and the countless war crimes committed by Russian soldiers in Ukraine.
— Choose a large city with a population of millions. Be sure to hide your exact location in the settings.
— Swipe right, and agitate!
Important: Create an account not with your phone number. You can use a virtual SIM card for this.
16. Yandex Maps and Navigators
Traffic jams are a great place for agitation. Write anti-war messages in navigator messages, ask why gasoline prices have gone up, or why you can’t buy foreign cars.
17. Participate in Pickets
We remind you of the metro pickets and actions in the districts initiated by “Vesna.”
1. If you have metro in your city — go out any convenient day at 19:00 to the nearest station with an anti-war poster. Don’t stand too long — during rush hour, 15 minutes are enough for hundreds of people to see you.
2. If there’s no metro in your city, go to the busiest places in your area every day at 19:00 with posters. Engage in discussion with passers-by and tell them the truth about the war.
Be cautious, avoid the police, and wear masks. Study important tips and print posters — you can make them yourself or find them in our archive.
18. Use the “Brave Partisan” Bot
The bot was created by “Media Partisans,” and it tells you about dozens of different protest types and gives instructions with detailed steps.
19. “Women’s Truth” Home Printing Newspaper
Independent media in Russia have been almost completely destroyed: journalists have been driven out of the country, and websites have been blocked. In such a situation, the anti-war movement needs to create alternative sources of information, which will be spread in a decentralized way.
“Feminist Anti-War Resistance” launched the independent newspaper “Women’s Truth” in early May. It is aimed at the older generation, who are most vulnerable to propaganda, and is suitable for home printing.
We want to support our allies in the anti-war movement and urge you to download, print, and
distribute the newspaper!
You can download all issues here: first, second, third, fourth.
Be creative, invent new forms of protest, and share your photos with us through the bot: @picket_against_war_bot. You can view the photos in the “Vesna” channel “Visible Protest”: @nowarmetro.
Follow “Vesna” on social media to stay updated with the new materials!
