So, I've heard other discussion here that explains it differently. Russia has various military districts in which its military is organized. The Western one is the one most prominently deployed right now. The Russian for west is: Запад (romanized: zapad). The idea is that the Z's represent troops and equipment from the Запад region. V's have also been sighted, alleged coming from the Eastern military district: Восток (romanized: vostok).
The problem with this is that the Russians don't use the romanized version of their language. They use the Cyrillic alphabet. There's no reason they wouldn't simply use: З and В.
About the only thing I could think of that might explain this is an eye chart. Huh? I've got astigmatism. I see blurry, so I often miss the difference in similar looking letters. My brain fills in the empty space in c's and I see it as an o. From a long distance, my brain might fill in the missing line on the З and interpret it as a В, so for clarity, they picked the roman letters Z and V which are easier to distinguish at a distance. Does this matter? Not really. You don't need two markings to distinguish between friend and foe here, just one symbol to say "Russian, not Ukrainian."
TLDR: I don't think these Zs mean what we think they mean.
The zapad explanation is the only one that makes any sense. "Z and not Z" is a joke.
I love how some folks who, intelligently, question why the Roman Z nonetheless have no problem accepting the theory that the Russians are making an English language pun on the word Nazi.
So, I've heard other discussion here that explains it differently. Russia has various military districts in which its military is organized. The Western one is the one most prominently deployed right now. The Russian for west is: Запад (romanized: zapad). The idea is that the Z's represent troops and equipment from the Запад region. V's have also been sighted, alleged coming from the Eastern military district: Восток (romanized: vostok).
The problem with this is that the Russians don't use the romanized version of their language. They use the Cyrillic alphabet. There's no reason they wouldn't simply use: З and В.
About the only thing I could think of that might explain this is an eye chart. Huh? I've got astigmatism. I see blurry, so I often miss the difference in similar looking letters. My brain fills in the empty space in c's and I see it as an o. From a long distance, my brain might fill in the missing line on the З and interpret it as a В, so for clarity, they picked the roman letters Z and V which are easier to distinguish at a distance. Does this matter? Not really. You don't need two markings to distinguish between friend and foe here, just one symbol to say "Russian, not Ukrainian."
TLDR: I don't think these Zs mean what we think they mean.
It's merely to avoid confusion with the number 3
The zapad explanation is the only one that makes any sense. "Z and not Z" is a joke.
I love how some folks who, intelligently, question why the Roman Z nonetheless have no problem accepting the theory that the Russians are making an English language pun on the word Nazi.
Keq
Awesome post but still bizarre the not z's thing works in English.