A FAMILIAR MEME. A NEW CONTEXT.

The Party of Crooks and Thieves

What this meme means

“The party of crooks and thieves” is the phrase Alexei Navalny used in February 2011 to describe United Russia. It became one of the best-known political formulas on the Russian internet, and the picture with the party's logo and a rat is one of its visual variants.

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What the image shows

The picture recognizably imitates the blue “United Russia” lettering at the top, and below it, in large black type, is “The party of crooks and thieves.” In the center is a black-and-white rat standing on a map of Russia colored in the tricolor. The rat is drawn in an outline style with a white belly and black back, and the composition borrows the visual language of propaganda posters to turn a political slogan into a caricature. The author of the image and the date of its first appearance are not indicated in the file, so they cannot be established from the picture itself.

Origin of the phrase

According to news and encyclopedic sources, Navalny used this formula on the radio in February 2011. The specific broadcast in which it was said is named differently across sources. The United Russia party filed a lawsuit and lost the case. The publicity around the lawsuit spread the phrase far more widely than it would have spread from a single interview, and it was this court story that made the formula known to a broad audience.

Spread

In November 2011, the party A Just Russia included the slogan “For a Russia Without Crooks and Thieves” in its election campaign, meaning the phrase moved from a personal assessment into party propaganda. The formula spread among critics of the authorities, including through the internet and slogans at rallies. The expression has remained as a template for political criticism and comes back in discussions of elections and budget questions. Various political forces have used it, and the phrase itself has become a distinct element of political language.

Visual variants

Pictures with the rat form a separate branch of memes. In a political context the rat is often used as a symbol of theft and of feeding off resources, but this reading remains an interpretation, not an official position of the pictures' creators. An illustrative caption might be “Budget for road repairs” under a rat with a map, or “Report on promises kept,” and in this form the joke is clear to a viewer familiar with the topic. It is important to distinguish the text of the slogan, which belongs to Navalny, from the visual solutions that different authors and communities create.

Positions of the sides

United Russia rejected the characterization and went to court, while the party's supporters called the phrase political agitation. Critics saw it as a reflection of real questions about financing and corruption. How accurate the characterization is remains a matter of political debate, not a fact that can be checked against sources. Only the following is established: the phrase belongs to Navalny, appeared in 2011, and became a tool of political polemic used by sides with opposing views.

What to clarify in the catalog entry

It is often said that the phrase was spread by “opponents of the current government.” That describes the general process, but it is more precise to say that Navalny first used it, and from there it spread through critics, the media, and the internet. The year 2011 matches the time the phrase appeared. The picture itself contains no creation date, so the exact date of this visual variant is not known.