A bridge to Russian-annexed Crimea was the president’s snub to the West. But a cat stole the show and is now is a Kremlin-backed superstar.
By Amie Ferris-Rotman Amie Ferris-Rotman Moscow reporter for the Washington Post. Email Bio Follow March 7 at 5:00 AM TAMAN, Russia — Mornings are spent walking amid the latest construction work. Lunch is a bowl of hand-peeled jumbo shrimp, fed one by one. By evening, Mostik settles down in one of his favorite huts, with hard hats and piles of paperwork for company.
“The case of Mostik is an unsophisticated example of Russian propaganda aimed at humanizing the Russian annexation of Crimea,” Ukrainian lawmaker Viktor Yelensky told The Washington Post. “We don’t know what’s the bigger attraction — the bridge or the cat,” said Mostik’s veterinarian, Alexandra Lukyanova, who gives him a monthly checkup at her clinic in Taman, a tiny port town straddling the Black and Azov seas, and where the Russian side of the bridge begins.
Special-edition metro tickets picturing the bridge were issued in Moscow and St. Petersburg, and billboards of beaming construction workers popped up across the country, carrying the messages “This is my land!” and “This is for my children!” When Putin inaugurated the bridge in May, in a flashy event showcasing his authority, Mostik rode four trucks behind him. Videos showed the cat on the dashboard of a Russian-made Kamaz, luxuriating in a strip of sunlight.
They say Mostik is his own master, but an investigation this year by the Russian media outlet Proekt said he is part of the Kremlin’s PR machine. According to the report, Mostik’s image is promoted by Danila Gromov, the son of Putin deputy chief of staff Alexey Gromov.
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