Democrats have started to circulate the hashtag #gradonachalnikgop to continue shaming the Republican Party’s alleged ties to Russian oligarchs, showing also though that the left may be running out of witty Russian nicknames.
Hashtags like #MoscowMitch and #RussianRand caught on for their alliteration and easy to understand references, but some on Twitter were confused by #GradonachalnikGOP. Still, some liberal users piled on.
“The Republican Party is so Gradonachalniki,” @RESISTFORTYFIVE_69420 tweeted. “That morally bankrupt party is very (Russian: Градоначальник) was —in the Russian Empire of the 19th and early 20th century— an official with the rights of governor who controlled a gradonachalstvo (a city with the adjacent land), independent of the provincial subdivision, with its own administrative unit due to its special significance or geographical location.[1]“
Other hashtags that haven’t taken off quite as well include #RasskazovoRepubliRATS, #ZashchishchayushchiysyaZepublicans and #CheburashkaChuck, oddly aimed at Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley.