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Teenagers in Russia and the former Soviet Union have been dressing up as furry animals in a viral trend that a senior Russian politican has claimed is part of a “dehumanisation project” launched by the West.
Footage on social media shows young people donned in masks and paws crawling around on all fours while growling and meowing as they pretend to be four-legged creatures, sometimes coming into physical contact with strangers.
The teenagers, known as quadrobers or kvadrobers, have prompted a crackdown from police and politicians, with Russian parliamentary chairman alleging the craze has been instigated by Brussels and Washington.
Writing on Telegram, Vyacheslav Volodin said: “Washington and Brussels are losing their dominance. In order to continue ruling the world, they are implementing the ‘Dehumanisation’ project.
“Offering to try themselves in the role of animals, fictional characters, mythical creatures. Such manifestations only at first look like a game and a joke. Behind this lies a serious program of rejecting humanity and everything human.”
Russian senator Natalia Kosikhina said she feared “tragic consequences” from the trend and suggested it would “traumatise the psyche” of Russia’s children in an interview with state-run RIA Novosti news agency.
She is calling for a ban on the movement in Russia.
Quadrobics shot to the headlines in Russia when one of the country’s pop stars, Mia Boyka, called out a young fan in her crowd, asking her whether she was a “cat or — God forbid — a quadrober”.
Another Russia singer Egor Kreed backed the movement on TikTok, saying we “all impersonated cats and dogs when we were kids”, adding he was against “publicly condemning people for their hobbies and choices”, according to The Moscow Times.
The craze has led to fears over crime.
In Uzbekistan, police are searching for at least one teenager who bit a passer-by while dressed as a dog. In a statement, the Uzbek Interior Ministry said a “child who witnessed the incident was very scared”.
Lamenting the emergence of the quadrober trend in the central Asian nation, a spokesperson said: “This has been the case among young people in Kazakhstan, Russia, and Ukraine. Unfortunately, similar unacceptable actions have also been seen in the city of Tashkent.
“These circumstances contradict the rules of conduct in society, and such behaviour is completely unacceptable.”
They added: “Experts believe that the quadrobics can lead to the child taking on the aggressive actions of animals, injuring himself and others, and can lead to damage to the child’s not yet fully formed psyche, as well as to his isolation from society.”
The Uzbek authorities have threatened to fine the parents of teenagers caught acting out th etrend just under 1.9 million Uzbek soum (around £112).
The ministry even warned it may carry out a “special psychological examination” of the child to “determine how the quadrobics affects the mental and emotional health of the child”.
