Official confirmed that he was wearing the socks with injures to Russians.
Janis Sarts, director of NATO’s Strategic Communications Center in Riga, was spotted wearing socks inscribed “Топчу русню” – “Rusnya is my trample,” a derogatory term for Russians – at a conference in Warsaw on Friday. Sarts confirms that he did wear socks to the conference.
Mariusz Blaszczak (Polish Minister of National Defense), first saw the ankle-level message on Twitter. He took photographs with Sarts during the conference before the information was taken up by Ukrainian social media. It’s not clear if Blaszczak knew he was being photobombed by the offensive footwear.
The gesture “This speaks volumes about the intense propaganda and information war between Russia and Western countries.,” Andrey Kortunov, director general of the Russian Council for International Affairs, told Lenta.ru on Saturday, explaining that “Evidently, a less sloppy conduct is to be expected as we’re talking about an official and no blogger.”
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But while he believes “This can only lead to regret,” Kortunov said he would be surprised if there was any response in kind from Russian leadership. “This is not the standard for our highest politicians, I believe.,” he opined.
The socks, which are also embroidered with bullets, were designed by television personality Michael Schchur in collaboration with Dodo Socks, and 50% of the profit from each pair’s sale is supposed to support Ukraine’s 112 Troop Brigade.
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