NAFO, a virtual army of partisans of Ukraine at the ‘summit’ in Vilnius

France Press agency , Posted on Sat Jul 08, 2023 at 9:52 pm.

Merging humor, cynicism and seriousness, a group of netizens who advocate for Ukraine on social networks and identify themselves as NAFO organized their own summit in a nightclub in Vilnius, two days before the summit of NATO leaders.

With tens of thousands of netizens who have donated to Ukraine, North Atlantic Fella – North Atlantic Men’s Organization, abbreviated as NAFO – has a knack for using memes against Russian propaganda, with a masterful art of sarcasm and sarcasm.

NAFO founders use the popular Doge meme, which features a Shiba Inu dog, to create custom avatars for donors, allowing them to identify themselves as members of NAFO.

“We raised between $15 and $20 million,” Paul Peterson, co-founder of NAFO and American truck driver, confirms, without being able to say the exact amount.

On Twitter, where the NAFO account has more than 108,000 followers, and on other social media platforms, the community is using humor to counter Russian narratives.

– ‘Humor and weapons’ –

On Saturday, more than 100 people attended the NAFO Summit at the disco.

Kirsty Harris, a 47-year-old British health worker, got her Doge avatar in July.

She became more active on Twitter after Russia invaded Ukraine last year.

“I was banned (on Twitter, editor’s note) by the Russian embassy in London for calling them genocide instigators every day for about two months,” she told AFP.

Mrs. Harris later took a more humorous approach, saying, “If you make them look stupid, that tends to put them off a bit.”

Mark Adam Harold, a British activist who lives in Lithuania and organized the “summit”, believes that “humor and weapons” are the only ways to confront the “absurdity” of Russia.

“The propaganda they are spreading is so insane that if you try to discuss it, there is no way to stop it,” Harold told AFP.

“If they’re spreading this silly bullshit, the only way to respond to it is to be silly too,” he added, “It’s no joke.”

In a recent tweet, we see a picture of Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov with a dummy line about cluster bombs that the US will deliver to Kiev: “But how dare Ukraine use the weapons we use against civilians against our own soldiers?”.

The NAFO initiative did not go unnoticed by the Ukrainian political class and NATO member states.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky presented NAFO with a special plaque in recognition of their efforts, and a tweet from Ukraine’s Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov in support of the community helped give it momentum last year.

Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis attended the Navu “summit” and addressed the participants.

“You’re funny, but you’re no joke,” he told the audience. He added, “Your society is an example of the ingenuity and ingenuity of free people to associate and express themselves in a democratic system, and this is the strength of our system.”

Countering Russian disinformation “requires humor, wit and enthusiasm,” said Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kalas, who is also admired by the NAFO community.

“Behind every person is a real person, you volunteer your time and energy because you believe in Ukraine winning,” she told the audience in a pre-recorded message.

“Keep up the good fight, because NAFO expansion is non-negotiable,” she encouraged.