Meet Zoich, a symbol of Russian malcontent and here’s why he’s not a mascot in the Sochi Games.
For the record, the Russian blue frog is not a real critter. Zoich is a critter meme, a critter critic of things that V Putin doesn’t want criticize. Zoich was created as a tongue-in-cheek wanna-be mascot for the Games. His whole appeal is based on being anti-corporate.
If you look closely at Zoich you can see he has Olympic rings as eyes and a head with the imperial crown and a ski pole in his mouth. Even the name Zoich is a distant cousin of the Cyrillic and Latin letters for 2014.
Zoich’s creator is Egor Zhgun, a Moscow cartoonist, animator and popular blogger. Here’s how the Russian news service RT.com describes him.
Zhgun is known for his sharp-witted graphical comments on all sorts of things which make a buzz on the net, from presidential elections to major sport events to the launch of the new season of the series House MD. His works, usually made as mock movie posters resembling those of real-life blockbusters, have won his blog a grateful audience of more than 20,000 subscribers.
Zhgun posted a Youtube video championing Zoich. Check it out:
