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‘A Special Gesture Operation’: Russian Internet Reacts to Trump’s Inauguration

“Why did he Sieg Heil?” @lpr_tw / X

Just like the day after Donald Trump’s election triumph in November, the Russian internet is overflowing with memes and humor. 

Elon Musk, especially, seems to have made a real splash.

We’ve collected some of our favorites:

Let’s start with the reactions to Elon Musk’s gesture that closely resembled a Nazi salute at Capitol One Arena, something which Musk himself has denied

— “Doctor, if I turn my hand up a little, it’s not a Sieg Heil, right?”

—“No, it’s still a Sieg Heil.”

“Not a Sieg Heil, but a special gesture operation,” a play on Moscow’s parlance for it’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

“It’s not a Sieg Heil if you’re rich enough.”

Here, Musk is edited to look like Alexey Milchakov, the leader and co-founder of the far-right, neo-Nazi Rusich Group, a paramilitary organization that has been involved in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine since 2014. Milchakov, who has openly admitted to being a Nazi, has been linked to atrocities in both Ukraine and Syria and is a suspected war criminal. 

“The crazy grandpa is president again. He’s talking about gender and one of his officials is Sieg-Heiling. Guess the country.”

“Stop stealing our jokes.”

“So that’s why Melania wore the hat!”

“Melania Trump-Shapoklyak,” a play on Old Lady Shapoklyak, a villain from the Russian children’s series Cheburashka.

A misleading Telegram message preview reads, “Donald Trump has ended the SVO (Special Military Operation).”

“Come on, fix my life.”

“The media has published an uncropped version of the photo of Mikhail Khodorkovsky at Donald Trump’s inauguration.”

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