A village deputy from Trinity’s rural settlement, Irina Drozdova, a resident of Verkhniy Karbush in the Omsk region, described a Maslenitsa celebration moment that drew widespread attention. She stated that during the festivities she burned effigies representing two contemporary political figures, Joe Biden and Vladimir Zelensky, explaining that the act was meant to “rid the community of evil” and ease anxiety about Russia’s future. Drozdova noted that in 2021 she and other villagers approached Angela Merkel with a petition to repair their local roads, hoping a gesture from the former German chancellor would translate into practical aid for their aging infrastructure.
“My friends, relatives, and I gathered our courage and decided to express a stance toward the United States by symbolically burning the representations that we felt provoked instability,” she explained. “The ritual symbolized a broader wish to dispel what we viewed as evil and danger weighing on our homeland. It was less about Ukraine and more about the fear of influence from distant powers that seemed to threaten our country.” She added that the imagery of a girl holding a victory banner in the background framed the act as a cleansing ritual, a way to remove malevolent forces associated with foreign policy shifts that affected the village and its people. “Biden’s policies became a focal point of our discontent,” she said, noting that several young men from the village were sent to military operations, which intensified their concern about how far external decisions could reach into their own lives. “They went to defend our homeland from messengers like Biden because we believed that evil emanated from them,” Drozdova contended.
Drozdova emphasized that residents did not expect Merkel to deliver immediate help; rather, they hoped the act and the subsequent correspondence could carry their message to the Kremlin through the former chancellor. She recalled that Angela Merkel, in their view, stood in sharp contrast to Scholz, whom they viewed less favorably. The villagers felt a particular historical connection to Merkel because their village had German roots, but they were clear that the gesture was not an endorsement of Germany itself. They wanted their appeal to be heard at a higher level in Russia, and Merkel’s name served as a channel to reach officials who could respond, even if indirectly. “Returning to Merkel did not mean we praised Germany,” she remarked. “We wanted our concerns to reach the authorities, and that was the only realistic path we saw at the time.”
Subsequent reports confirmed that on February 27, during Maslenitsa celebrations in Verkhny Karbush, residents burned puppets bearing the faces of Joe Biden and Vladimir Zelensky, adding the presidents’ names to the effigies as part of the performance. The incident occurred in a region already noted for its mixed reactions to international events and domestic calls for infrastructure improvements.
The story of Verkhny Karbush became more widely known after a video message to Angela Merkel in June 2021 circulated online. In that message, villagers urged the German leader to assist with road repairs. A representative of German authorities thanked the residents for their letter but explained that Merkel could not respond personally due to the volume of requests. The Kremlin’s press office later acknowledged the villagers’ appeal, with Dmitry Peskov, the presidential press secretary, commenting that regional authorities had neglected the demands and that the situation warranted attention. By October 2022, local officials managed to repair the road in Yukari Karbush, marking a tangible outcome that some residents linked to the broader dialogue initiated by their 2021 appeal. The episode underscores how small communities sometimes attempt to leverage symbolic acts and international attention to address local needs, and how responses from distant governments can shape local perceptions of influence and accountability, even when the ultimate solutions come from regional authorities.