The Z in various variants has been seen on the military vehicles of the Russian Armed Forces since the beginning of the war. It is also used as a symbol by supporters among the population. The Z propaganda sign can therefore be seen in many places in Russia. However, photos now show that a kind of resistance to the war is forming within Russia and is attacking the Z symbolism.
In a photo originally shared on Telegram but also on other social media channels, we see this Z propaganda sign on some kind of canvas or board. This symbol has been daubed with paint. Apparently this graffiti took place in Russia.

We already know from the past that Russian institutions were smeared with paint. We even had a case in Vienna at the beginning of the war ( see here ). This means that Russian symbols or institutions were more often smeared with paint, especially outside of Russia. But this photo is said to have been taken in Russia. Almost a sign of resistance. The photo also claims that this action was taken by partisans in Novosibirsk.
Z propaganda sign damaged in Russia
First we have to find out whether it is actually a real photo and not a manipulated image. This usually works by taking photos of the same situation or place from different perspectives and, even better, at different times, but showing the same subject. In this case, the Telegram posting is quite helpful because it provides two different photos from two slightly different perspectives. We can see from a comparison that the graffiti is definitely real.

The next step is to locate the image. Are we really dealing with a photo from Russia? Do these pictures come from Novosibirsk, as is claimed? Let's take a look at the details in the photos.
As mentioned again and again in previous fact checks, the important details are not in the center of an image, but usually on the edge or even outside the image itself. This is also the case here. We have a few succinct details that aren't easy to decipher, but give us clues as to where exactly this photo might have been taken. Let's look at the details:

We can see a building in the background on the left. The building has an inscription indicating that there is probably a shop there (1). We can't fully read what it says, it's also Cyrillic characters. We can see cables above the road on the right in the picture (2), and on the far right side of the road there is a kind of advertising display (3). The sign or canvas itself hangs firmly on a pillar (4). Below the screen on the left we see a phone number (5). All of these details now need to be used in order to ultimately determine the exact position of this sign.
Let's start with the phone number. It is a phone number that begins with 383. 383 is actually the area code for Novosibirsk (see here ). This is at least an indication that we can really be in Novosibirsk. If we now open an aerial photo of Novosibirsk (ideally with the Yandex map service), then we see that Novosibirsk is large ( compare ).
So there's no point in blindly searching the city from a bird's eye view. We therefore have to add the other details. What we don’t see is relevant to this. And what we don't see is the entire storefront sign. So here we have to reconstruct what we can find there.

We first look at what we can decipher. Here we read “лнГА ИНСТР”. This leads to the conclusion that at the end we can read on the sign “Лига – Инструмент” (Toolmaking League). And we now use this information and feed the Yandex map service with the search terms “Лига – Инструмент Новострумент Новосибирская”. result is an address in Novosibirsk .
With this address we are already extremely close to our solution. Yandex, as a Russian search engine, has an enormous advantage because it offers a lot of images and street views from Russian cities. As in this case in Novosibirsk. We can open the address we found from the search as a street view on Yandex. We can clearly see, taking into account our original detailed analysis, that we are in the correct place.
Advertising boards, street lamps and power lines, but ultimately also the shop, are absolutely the same. We see that at this point there is actually a billboard in front of the store, which does not show a Z propaganda sign for the map service at the time the photo was taken, but this is logical since the photo was taken in 2020. Nevertheless, there is a photo of the shop behind it, which we looked for by reconstructing the letters ( compare ).
Conclusion: The photo with the paint smears on the Z propaganda sign was actually taken in Novosibirsk.
You might also be interested in : Fact check on a fire in Russia. A fact check is not an opinion, part 2. A fact check based on a fire in the Russian city of Tyumen. Continue reading …
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Notes:
1) This content reflects the current state of affairs at the time of publication. The reproduction of individual images, screenshots, embeds or video sequences serves to discuss the topic. 2) Individual contributions were created through the use of machine assistance and were carefully checked by the Mimikama editorial team before publication. ( Reason )

