Who's behind the billboards in support of Putin in Beirut?

Russian President Vladimir Putin has appeared on billboards across some Beirut neighborhoods, particularly in the city’s southern suburbs, as part of a campaign supporting his candidacy in Russia's presidential election on March 17.

“A new multipolar world,” ”Encroaching on the religious beliefs of others cannot be seen as freedom of expression,” “Moral values, family and cultural identity.” These were but some of the slogans and quotes appearing on such billboards.

Behind this unusual advertising campaign is a “Lebanese-Russian Cooperation Bureau” called Roslivan.

Roslivan was in charge of a previous campaign in July 2023, which portrayed Putin as a “protector and defender of religions.” The bureau was also involved in the distribution of the Sputnik vaccine for the Coronavirus, in Lebanon. Russia’s Sputnik News states that Roslivan “follows the developments in Russia and the positions taken by Moscow.”

Supporting Putin’s candidacy

Speaking to Sputnik on Thursday, Mohammad Nasreddine, director of Roslivan explained that he is behind this “electoral campaign in support of Putin as an independent candidate for Russia.”

“It is a moral support for his candidacy in international politics, away from any Lebanese considerations,” Nasreddine said.

“We are trying to encourage Russian citizens to re-elect President Putin, who brought back Russia to its former glory (...) Russia is on the side of the victims of injustice, whether in Africa or Latin America for example,” said Nasreddine, who stressed that Putin’s stances “constitute a guideline in Russian and international politics.”

Roslivan’s director did not respond to L’Orient-Le Jour’s request for comment. Nasreddine said he espouses Putin’s values and vision of the world. “The presence of a hegemonic system has led the West, led by the US, to impose itself by terrorizing others (...) This is why Putin suggested the notion of a ‘new world,’” he said.

“There is an understandable resentment among many other Lebanese against the US foreign policy which pushes them to defend Putin, even when he behaves in an indefensible manner similar to that of the US in other parts of the world,” political specialist Karim Bitar told L’Orient Le Jour in February 2022.

On social media, the pro-Putin campaign caused a stir. “Abu Ali Putin, candidate in Mount Lebanon,” one X user posted sarcastically. “Congratulations to the Russian people for this great man and greetings to the Lebanese, in particular the inhabitants of Beirut’s southern suburb, the stronghold of the resistance,” wrote another.

“Do those who installed Putin’s posters in Beirut know that any Israeli strike in Syria and any attack on the Lebanese resistance’s commanders (Hezbollah fighters alongside the Assad regime) in Syria cannot be carried out without the approval of Putin himself?” wrote Assaad Abou Khalil, an academic known for being close to the “resistance axis” in the region.

This article was originally published in French in L'Orient-Le Jour. Translation by Joelle El Khoury.