In late 2019, many Internet users started noticing that the Russian state media was increasingly describing gas explosions as “gas pops” in news coverage — even when the incidents caused major damage to life and property. In fact, the number of “gas pops” mentioned in news reports jumped from a few dozen stories in early 2017 to thousands of such reports by January 2020. Meduza’s sources in the presidential administration and Russia’s security agencies say this is the result of a targeted policy to introduce more “favorable information conditions” meant to avoid a public panic when reporting gas explosions.
Meduza: Why Russian media started reporting major gas explosions as adorable ‘pops’
This handout photograph released by The Russian Emergency Situations Ministry on Jan. 2, 2019, shows officers taking part in a rescue operation two days after a gas explosion rocked a residential building in Russia's Urals city of Magnitogorsk.
