A collective of artists has located 5000 numbers of Russian secret service agents, military and politicians. With the push of a button, users can simply randomly connect any two of the 5,000 numbers. The motto of the protest action is: “Waste Russian time.”
“Join in the civil intervention against the war. If you’re on the phone, you can’t throw bombs and coordinate soldiers,” reads the appeal on the wasterussiantime.today website.
The artist collective The Obfuscated Dreams of Scheherazade (TODS) has found the phone numbers of 5,000 Russian secret service agents, military and politicians. On a website that has existed since Wednesday, users can simply make a call between two randomly selected numbers and keep their cell phones ringing.
Under the motto “Waste Russian time”, it is also possible for users from Germany to connect two of the 5000 numbers using a button. According to a press release from the TODS collective, “Imagine you want to organize a crime against humanity, but your phone just won’t stop ringing!”
As the title suggests, the aim of the Russian protest action is to make communication as difficult as possible for high-ranking politicians and military officials.
If a connection is established between two of the 5,000 leaked numbers, the user can listen in unnoticed. There is neither the possibility to speak to the Russians nor do they both get anything from the identity of the user.
“First of all, it brings a little more chaos to the Russian government. We can’t go to war. But we can distract and play,” TODS continued in the statement. In an interview with the Süddeutsche Zeitung, the Russian artist collective stated: “The aim is to sow uncertainty and paranoia among the co-organizers of the war. You will ask yourself: Who knows our phone numbers? Are we bugged?”
The action is not legal. Nevertheless, the artist collective justifies their non-violent protest as follows: “We are militant pacifists. We choose nonviolent methods to fight against this war. That is why we have chosen this civil, peaceful intervention.”
