Anti-terror cartoons tell Russian children to behave

Russia`s FSB security service has created an unexpected Internet hit by launching a series of black humour anti-terror cartoons advising children to report suspicious bags and individuals to the police.

Moscow: Russia`s FSB security service has
created an unexpected Internet hit by launching a series of
black humour anti-terror cartoons advising children to report
suspicious bags and individuals to the police.

"Little boy found a bag in the street, took it and
walked on, the bag was ticking and then it stopped," a rhymed
voice-over to one clip said. "We won`t show you what happened
to the boy."
After the demise of the first little boy, the clip
shows, and praises, an older boy for reporting the bag to the
police.

The animations also advise reporting an unlocked
basement that could hide "enemies" and warn against phoning
school with a bomb prank. "The boy will get three years, not a
moped," the voice-over says matter-of-factly.

A stern instruction to follow police instructions with
local security service numbers against a backdrop of a dreary
grey FSB building follows every animation.

The five short clips were aired last week on
television channel V1 in the southern city of Volgograd and
quickly spread all over the Russian Internet.

Some viewers compared them with Soviet propaganda that
invited people to spy on their neighbours, others immediately
came up with ironic spinoffs.
"Grandmother waited for little girl from Triumfalnaya,
stirring polonium in a pot. FSB grandfather got to the little
girl first, nailing her to the hardwood floor," one comment
said.

The spoof referred to opposition rallies on
Triumfalnaya square and the substance that killed former FSB
officer turned Kremlin critic Alexander Litvinenko in London.

The clips were created five years ago on a state
tender from the FSB and the Krasnoyarsk region administration
in Siberia, said Pavel Stabrov, a producer at Studio Gorod
which created the series.

"We were asked to create very simple rules of conduct
for children," he told AFP, "we chose simple rhymes and simple
animation style." The studio however is annoyed that media is
calling the FSB as the original authors. "We might sue the
media if they don`t indicate the right authors," he said.

PTI

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