Media | Russia threatens a Swiss newspaper with legal action over a caricature depicting Putin

Russia has threatened a Swiss newspaper with legal action published by the paper Vladimir Putin because of the caricature, the Russian embassy in Switzerland says on its website.

The newspaper Neue Zürcher Zeitung published on July 9 of the articlewhere the paper examined the propaganda war between Ukraine and Russia on social media.

Originally published on Twitter was attached to the article picturewhere Russian President Putin is dressed as a red clown and has rainbow makeup on his face.

Russian The press service of the Swiss embassy took a stand on the caricature by publishing it on its website a letter criticizing the publication decision. The letter is addressed to the editor-in-chief of the newspaper Neue Zürcher Zeitung To Eric Gujer.

The letter states that the embassy is very dismayed that the newspaper published an offensive cartoon depicting Putin.

According to the embassy, ​​it would have been more appropriate if the pellet-themed caricature had been made of the president of Ukraine From Volodymyr Zelenskyi. Before his election as president, Zelenskyi worked, among other things, as a comedian.

“If we are talking about clowning, it would be much more appropriate to discuss the topic in connection with the recent past of former Ukrainian comedian Zelenskyi. “You can easily find videos of highly controversial ‘performances’ in which the President of Ukraine is involved and which contain excessive vulgarity,” the embassy wrote in its letter.

The rainbow makeup placed on Putin’s face in the caricature also caused outrage. In its letter, the embassy describes Putin as a devoutly religious Orthodox who is “clearly not a fan of the LGBT community” and supports “preserving traditional Christian values ​​in Russian society.”

“Apparently not everyone likes this in Western countries, where the ideas of the LGBT community are actively and forcefully promoted from the school desk.”

LGBT is an often used acronym for sexual and gender minorities, which comes from the English words lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender i.e. lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender.

Embassy also criticized the magazine’s way of calling Putin a war criminal. The embassy described it as unfounded and a direct insult.

The magazine is also accused of keeping silent about “real war crimes”. According to the embassy, ​​the journalist who wrote the article “probably is not even aware of the real war crimes committed by Ukrainian neo-Nazis”.

At the end of the letter, it is stated that the embassy “reserves the right to contact Swiss law enforcement authorities in connection with this and any future publications defaming and insulting high-ranking Russian officials.”

In addition, the embassy hopes that the editor of the magazine would “from now on be more careful in the selection of material to be printed”.

Jyväskylä university researcher, docent of Russian history Simo Mikkonen can see that the embassy wanted to take a stand on Putin’s caricature because the message of the picture is completely at odds with the values ​​represented by Putin’s Russia.

“From Russia’s point of view, a certain limit has been crossed in the picture, for example when Putin was put on his face with rainbow symbols. The background behind this is the effort to build a confrontation between Russia and Western countries, according to which the Western countries are in decline and they promote perverted values ​​from Russia’s point of view. Official Russia has spoken against Western values ​​for a long time,” says Mikkonen.

Mikkonen believes that nothing will be achieved with the embassy’s statement that would affect the activities of the Swiss media regarding news related to Russia. He sees that the purpose of the statement is rather to communicate to the home audience about Russia’s role as a defender of its values ​​and citizens.

“They know that these statements will not lead to anything. It can be seen that Russia wants to show its home audience that look how things have turned out in Switzerland, this is how Putin is treated there. And at the same time, it can be shown that what has been done to eradicate it.”

Although Mikkonen believes that the statement is meant to appeal to the home audience, he also sees in it an effort to influence parties who are of the same mind regarding the politics represented by Russia.

“In addition to the home audience, the message is also intended for those who share the same values. Russia can no longer win Western countries over to its side, but even in Western countries there are, for example, far-right circles that do not necessarily strongly disagree with Putin. In the direction of these groups, one might want to show what Russia thinks about things,” he says.