Meaning of vatnik | Babel Free

Definitions

1. A Russian style of quilted jacket.
2. An unintelligent Russian patriot.
   derogatory
3. A supporter of Vladimir Putin, Russian nationalism, or the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022; a Putinist.
   Internet, broadly, derogatory, neologism
4. A soldier in the Russian armed forces involved in the invasion of Ukraine.
   Internet, broadly, derogatory, neologism

Equivalents

Examples

“Two models each for men and women are featured at prices ranging from 100 to 140 rubles, more than the cost of a 'vatnik.' (The ruble is nominally valued at four to $1.)”

“Vatnik, originally a name of a warm cotton-padded Russian jacket that is still used sometimes in rural areas, has a broad meaning of all people with imperial Russian ideology.”

“A vatnik basically refers to a Russian who is not too bright and who loves him some Putin.”

“To mock the audience and depict the Russian man as a vatnik [uneducated hurray patriot] or a gopnik [in English: chav] seems totally inappropriate to me.”

“At first, vatniks were pro-Russian citizens, in the view of some, Sovietized lumpenproletariat, who supported the separation of Crimea and close ties with [Russia].”

“[…] many pro-Maidan FB-users whose posts I analysed saw themselves as nothing less than the standard-bearers of civilization: 'The work on vatniks requires huge efforts, but this is what distinguishes civilization from barbarism' (FB-user 15, Kyiv).”

CEFR level