Novaya Gazeta Europe traced how the biggest events of 2025 turned into memes and became a way to explain the news faster than any analytical column.
One of the most discussed stories was the case of Larisa Dolina. After the 2024 episode in which fraudsters persuaded the singer to sell her apartment in Khamovniki for 112 million rubles and transfer more than 200 million to “secure accounts,” a court in 2025 voided the transactions and returned the apartment to her. The buyer did not get the money back, and public debate produced the term the “Dolina effect” — a scheme in which a seller reclaims housing through court while the buyer is left without funds. Later, in mid-December, the Supreme Court sent the case back for reconsideration while leaving ownership with Polina Lurie.
In autumn, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan also went viral: his video set to Zemfira’s song “P. M. M. L.” drew more than 2.5 million views in less than a day and launched the sad Pashinyan era trend. Users treated it as a symbol of autumn gloom and male depression.
In winter, memes followed the success of Yura Borisov, the first Russian actor in post-Soviet history to receive an Oscar nomination for a supporting role in Anora. Social media circulated his photo from a GQ dinner, the shot of his relieved exhale at the Golden Globes, and an image of him smiling at Mikey Madison. After that, Borisov signed with UTA and received new film offers.
In January, Elon Musk’s gesture after Donald Trump’s inauguration became meme material, and in February the words “dogovornyak” and “dogovornyachok” spread online amid Trump’s efforts to secure a ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine after his call with Vladimir Putin and an agreement to hold talks in Saudi Arabia.
From May onward, as mobile internet shutdowns spread across Russia, jokes about digital collapse proliferated. In summer, the authorities began aggressively promoting the state messenger Max, and memes seized on a line from its advertising:
“Max even works in the parking lot.”
The roundup also included the “okak” meme, “smart man in glasses download wallpaper,” jokes about the Louvre robbery, the scandal over the symbol for the 500-ruble banknote, and the wave of AI absurdism known as “Italian brainrot.” The paper concludes that by the end of 2025, distinguishing artificial content from reality had become much harder.