Salon has passed on a wire service report about a Russian journalist arrested for making fun of Vladimir Putin:
The article was published by Vladimir Rakhmankov, editor of the online newspaper Kursiv in the central city of Ivanovo, said Andrei Galchenko of the regional prosecutor’s office.
The piece poked fun at Putin’s recent state of the nation address that called for economic incentives to boost the country’s plummeting birth rate. Russian media reported that the publication suggested that animals at a local zoo increased their mating, heeding Putin’s call.
Rakhmankov could not be reached for comment Wednesday. His article could not be seen, because the Web site has been shut down.
Galchenko said the investigation was launched because the article “contained phrases of an insulting nature aimed at the president.”
If convicted of insulting a representative of the authorities, Rakhmankov faces up to 12 months of corrective labor or a fine, Galchenko said.
The suspect has been summoned for questioning, Galchenko said.
The AP story then offers this context:
Since coming to power six years ago, Putin has reined in major independent television channels. Critics accuse his government of curtailing freedom of speech.
“This case illustrates the outrageous lengths that authorities will go to silence critical voices,” said Ann Cooper, the head of the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists.
Pravda, on the other hand, talked with Rakhamankov, who saw things this way:
The author is convinced that his piece is a harmless satire on the president’s address. Rakhmankov thinks the conflict is due to his complicated relations with the regional governor, Mikhail Men.
On the radio station Ekho Moskvy, the author of the website vladimir.vladimirovich.ru,* Maksim Kononenko, noted that “the phrase ‘phallic symbol’ has been used many times over in reference to Putin.” He thinks the Ivanovo prosecutor is trying to please the president.
In the opinion of Sergey Dorenko, a commentator at Ekho Moskvy and author of a book about Putin, Rakhmankov’s article contains nothing insulting about the president. Indeed, in his view the author intended to praise Putin with his article.
At any rate, no complaints about the Kursiv article have issued from the Putin adminstration.
Tip O’Neill used to say that all politics is local. Not strictly true, of course, but local conditions do play a role, don’t they?
__________
*The site is a relentless spoof of “Vladimir Vladimirovich™ Putin.”
