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"Putin – khuilo!" (Ukrainian: Путін - хуйло, 'ˈputin xujˈlo', Russian: Путин - хуйло; [ˈputʲɪn xʊjˈlo], a commonly used English translation: Putin is a dickhead) is a Ukrainian- and Russian-language slogan deriding Russian President Vladimir Putin. The slogan was originated in Ukraine in 2014 having grown from a football chant first performed by FC Metalist Kharkiv ultras in March 2014 on the onset of the Russian annexation of Crimea and military intervention in Ukraine. The phrase has become very widespread throughout Ukraine among supporters of the Ukrainian government and more generally those who do not like Russia or Vladimir Putin in both Russian-speaking and Ukrainian-speaking areas of Ukraine.
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Language and meaning
The vulgar term (Russian mat ) хуйло́ is variously transliterated as huilo, huylo, khuilo, khuylo, or xujlo. Its core is хуй (khuy), literally "dick" in both Russian and Ukrainian. In combination with "-lo" it may be translated as "dickwad", "dickhead", "prick". The words are identical in Russian, Ukrainian, and Belarusian. In West Slavic, the word does not exist, although Polish and Slovak does have chuj; Polish transliterates хуйло as chujło.
In May 2014, media outlets reported that the Russian profanity khuilo had been added to the Urban Dictionary as a synonym for Vladimir Putin.
The expression, for the reason of circumventing censorship, may be abbreviated as "птн x̆ло" (ptn kh̆lo). (The letter x̆ is an overlay of the Cyrillic letters х, у and й, a well-known joke about "a new Russian letter".) Another abbreviation containing a similarly suggestive meaning is "ПТН ПНХ" (PTN PNKh), which stands for "Путин, пошёл на хуй" (Putin, poshol na khuy, which is similar to "Putin, go fuck yourself", which could be rendered in English as "PTN GFY").
History
The chant has its origins in "Surkis Khuylo!", a football chant that was initiated by the ultras of FC Metalist Kharkiv some time in 2010, during the height of a feud between two Ukrainian oligarchs, Oleksandr Yaroslavsky, then-owner of "Metalist", and Hryhoriy Surkis, then-president of the Football Federation of Ukraine who had strong historic and family ties with FC Dynamo Kyiv. The Kharkiv fans, who sided with their club president, chanted "Surkis Khuylo!" to express their dislike of the Football Federation president in vulgar and profane form.
The first recorded public performance of the "Putin khuylo!" chant and the song that grew from it took place in March 2014 in Kharkiv when the local fans chanted it during their street march. The recording was soon posted to YouTube where it went viral. Various groups of Ukrainian ultras of all major Ukrainian clubs except one have been historically holding strong pro-Ukrainian, sometimes nationalistic, political views and on the onset of the Russian annexation of Crimea and military intervention in Ukraine combined with Russia-incited anti-Ukrainian violence in the East and South of Ukraine, when the city of Kharkiv was in turmoil, the football fans immediately and unequivocally sided with Ukraine in its conflict with Russia. Soon the song that vulgarly derided Putin gained much wider popularity, spreading among other clubs, such as the fans of Shakhtar Donetsk (Donetsk) and Dynamo Kyiv (Kiev), who were formerly feuding but sang the song together. During the Russian intervention and partial occupation of Ukraine, the ultras of various Ukrainian clubs set aside their rivalries and chanted the song in joint street marches. The chant continued to grow in popularity and became "a nationwide cultural meme" according to The Guardian. Alexander J. Motyl reported, "A shorthand, more modest version of the lyrics has even entered the popular discourse. If you want to express your views of Putin, all you need do is say 'la-la la-la la-la', and everything's quite clear."
Artemy Troitsky identified the melody of the chant as coming from the song "Speedy Gonzales", a hit for American singer Pat Boone in 1962.
In June 2015 Russian Federal Security Service started criminal prosecution and investigation of activist Daria Poludova for using the song in social network VK.
In mainstream rock music
Several Ukrainian mainstream rock music bands included or adapted the chant into their music. A metal remix, released on April 21, 2014 by AstrogentA, added instrumentation and reworked the video of the March 30 protest chant to depict its spread throughout Ukrainian football clubs. The Ukrainian band Teleri received international attention following the May 6, 2014 release of a song and a video titled "Putin Hello!" Their song uses a double entendre, substituting the objectionable word "khuylo" with the English word "Hello!" Alluding to the "Putin Khuylo!" chant, the video features band players wearing Ukrainian football club colors and posing as ultras marching and chanting "Putin Hello" as the refrain of the song. The band members asserted, tongue-in-cheek, that the linking of their song to an offensive anti-Putin chant was a misunderstanding and insisted that the only people who found the chant objectionable were Russians unfamiliar with English.
Hromadske.TV aired a live performance of the song by Lemonchiki Project on May 29, 2014. The rock band Druha Rika performed the song at their concert on June 13, 2014. Other rock adaptations were made by Mad Heads and Haydamaky. The Kyiv Post reviewed nine video versions of the song and two other related songs.
International reception
In October 2014, Belarusians joined visiting Ukrainians in a performance of the chant by "nearly the entire stadium" at a UEFA Euro 2016 qualifying match in Barysaw, Belarus resulting in more than 100 Ukrainian and 30 Belarusian football fans being detained and questioned, reportedly on suspicion of using "obscene language". Seven, all Ukrainian, were sentenced to five days in jail for obscene language, while one was given 10 day sentence for allegedly wearing a swastika.