On May 13, a post titled, 'Russia ARMY has something to say!' emerged on Nate Pann, gaining over 170,000 views in just one night. The writer started out with a brief introduction of the Russian ARMY fandom, claiming that the fandom has over 70,000 members and is growing every day.
The post continued, "We want to ask a couple of things to the people who are reading this. First, we want to explain how many fans there are in Russian ARMY, who we are, and how much we love BTS. Do you guys love BTS as much as we do?
"BTS has more than 70,000 Russian fans and we are growing every day. We see comments asking who BTS is on Korean sites, and this is very surprising. We don't understand how a group that's gained international popularity is not getting accepted in its own country.
"Though we are international fans, we take into consideration the artists' job, quality of music, as well as their sincere hearts towards their fans. This is why our fandom is so big. What do you guys care about?"
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The post goes onto talking about the two big controversies that BTS has faced since their comeback: 'Sajaegi' (bulk buying) and V's behavior.
The writer wrote, "It hurts our hearts and makes us angry when we see that BTS is being suspected of 'sajaegi.' BTS has a really large volume of CD sales. Before doubting this truth, please turn your attention to the international fans. We are very large in number, very large. I'm saying that there are more of us than what you guys might think.
"There are fans from not just Russia but from all the other countries that I've stated above, and we buy a great number of albums altogether. In addition, we buy at least two albums per person, only because this is the sole way we can support our beloved BTS. Have you guys ever thought about that?
"The controversy surrounding V is the same. Who is the one saying that what V did was wrong? V.I.P? I have never heard anyone from Big Bang fandom say such a thing. Russian fans keep a very friendly relationship with other groups' fandoms. All fandoms were shocked by the hate comments that V received. We are really curious to see who is saying all this."
From the nearly 2,000 comments that the post received, top commenters were seemingly approving of the post's content, writing, "ARMY, you are the best! Thank you," and, "Hul ??? I didn't think that you guys would come ??? thank you really ?? Russian ARMYs and other international ARMYs, thank you everyone."
However, as you scroll through the comments, you can see the fierce dispute between a large portion of K-netizens who continued to ask for the actual receipt versus international fans/English-speaking fans who continue to defend BTS.
One K-netizen commented in English, "You guys are really just pressing the down buttons (unlike button) if you 'think' anything is offending, and don't care about the feedback that others are giving. Well, let's end it like this, you go ahead and love BTS all you like, but stay out of this matter and never say a thing about BTS not being involved in 'sajaegi.'
"You guys are ignorant enough to neglect the truth and believe what only fits your taste. You give useless pictures as proof, but you don't even know what we are looking for. You constantly argue about your love for BTS, but honestly, who cares? I know I don't..."
Other comments included, "If you just bring the receipt instead of album pictures, then this issue would get solved. Why are you not showing it and just writing bullshit in English kekekeke it's not like other fans are going to believe that they are not doing 'sajaegi' just cause you write a post," "I can't believe how many likes this post is getting," and "Leave, foreign fans."
Currently, the views on the post is continuing to increase exponentially with the first ten pages on the comment section filled with Korean netizen comments similar to the ones above. What are your thoughts? Are you on the Russian ARMYs' side or K-netizens'?
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