On October 22 at 17:00, a discussion on the topic "Informants: the Language of Society" will take place as part of the project "How has the Russian language changed in the 2020s?"

We will talk about new repressive laws in Russia, political persecution, informing, surveillance, influence, and international connections. Among other things, we will discuss newspeak and words that have entered common use: доносительство (informing), патриотический стукач (patriotic snitch), народный активист (people’s activist), иностранный агент (foreign agent), реестр нежелательных организаций (registry of undesirable organizations), перечень экстремистов и террористов (list of extremists and terrorists), фейки о российской армии (fake news about the Russian army), судебный принтер (judicial printer), глубинный народ (deep people), отрицательный рост (negative growth), параллельный импорт (parallel import), импортозамещение (import substitution), токсичный бизнес (toxic business), страна-изгой (pariah state), санкционка (sanctions economy) and others.

Speakers:

• Ivan Filippov — writer, war propaganda analyst, designated as a “foreign agent” in Russia.

• Evgenia Chirikova — coordinator of the media project Activatica, listed in Russia as a “terrorist and extremist”.

• Alexey Karikh — representative of the Anti-War Committee in Sweden Russians Against War, the organization is recognized as “undesirable” in Russia.

Join us to understand contemporary newspeak and ask your questions.

Free entry.

📍 Venue: Albatross Cultural Space, Kanavaranta 7 F, Helsinki (entrance to the right of the ship propeller, second floor).

For those who cannot attend in person, an online broadcast will be available: https://youtube.com/live/2gx-dmwihGo

The project is organized by Suomi–Venäjä-seura in partnership with Initiative FoReDi, with the support of a Juhlarahasto grant.

The goal of the project is to improve the understanding of changes in the Russian language among Russia experts living in Finland. Based on the series of discussions, a Russian–Finnish dictionary of new words and expressions will be compiled.