As Russian newspapers steer clear of mocking top officials, cartoonists have turned to the Internet to post cartoons satirizing Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.
“There is no political cartooning where there is no political battle, and where most publications depend on the authorities,” said Viktor Bogorad, one of the few cartoonists to regularly lampoon Putin and Medvedev.
Drawings by the 61-year-old Bogorad are published in Vedomosti, a business daily newspaper, and the Moscow Times, an English-language daily primarily read by expats. Both publications are owned by Sanoma, a Finnish media group.
His Medvedev is snub-nosed and cheery, while Putin is haggard and haunted-eyed. In a recent Moscow Times cartoon, he was portrayed as Napoleon.
“To find anything that has to do with political satire one has to go on the Internet, where freedom remains for the moment,” said Bogorad, whose drawings were passed around clandestinely in pre-Internet Soviet times.
Even mocking regional government officials has become impossible, he said.
“When did we last see a cartoon of the governor [of St Petersburg]? It’s simply unthinkable for the local press,” he said.
Unlikely to see their work in print, cartoonists post their drawings on sites such as www.Umorist.ru, www.kremlingremlin.ru or www.caricatura.ru to comment on Russia’s political news and the country’s leaders.
One cartoon posted on Kremlingremlin.ru shows Putin sporting a tie decorated with the Soviet flag and holding up a hand puppet of his successor, Medvedev.
In the same vein, cartoonist Vladimir Molchanov portrayed Putin looking into a mirror with Medvedev reflecting back at him.
The prime minister is widely regarded by observers as Russia’s most influential politician even after quitting the presidency in 2008 after the two consecutive four-year terms allowed by the Constitution.
He presided over a crackdown on humor. The satirical puppet television show Kukly, or Puppets, which was wildly popular in the 1990s, closed down soon after Putin became president. It included a grotesque Putin character.
Political satire still exists, but has become secretive, said Viktor Shenderovich, who created Kukly and saw it shut down in 2002 after the channel that aired it, NTV, moved under control of the state.
“Satire has moved underground in Russia. Its existence is impossible under Vladimir Putin’s authoritarian regime,” Shenderovich said.
In a parallel scenario during the Soviet era, cartoonists such as Bogorad worked in underground circles while officially approved cartoonists mocked ideological enemies in the satirical magazine Krokodil.
Cartoons mocking Putin were thin on the ground at an exhibition titled Russia and the United States: Political Cartoons Yesterday and Today held in St Petersburg recently.
“Unfortunately, one no longer sees political cartoons in newspapers,” said Evgeny Artyomov, director of the St Petersburg’s Museum of Political History, which hosted the exhibition. “The attitude of the authorities toward satire reflects the level of democracy in the country.”
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese