Russians can no longer (legally) photoshop make up on Vladimir Putin, a trend that has become popular in Russia since the Kremlin passed a law banning “gay propaganda” in 2013. In one of the controversial images, Putin has red lips, heavy eye shadow, and very long eyelashes. The above image has been widely used during protests against anti-gay laws, but protestors will now have to go without it.
According to The Moscow Times, the ban was issued by a regional court on May 11, 2016 after a man named A. V. Tsvetkov posted several photoshopped images of Putin on the Russian social media network Vkontakte between June 2013 and October 2014.
The court ruled that the photos showing Putin in full on drag “hints at the Russian president’s allegedly nonstandard sexual orientation.” Plus, it labeled the photo and 4,073 other images as “extremist” materials. A photo of Putin, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, and the head of the Russian Orthodox Church (Patriarch Krill) dressed as Nazis was also banned after being deemed inappropriate.
Kremlin press secretary Dmitry Peskov told a state-run news service (Tass) that the courts decided to ban the images for the following reason:
“Our legislation has, so to say, a certain code defending a citizen’s honour and dignity, including those of the president. Individuals need to be guided by these norms.”
In the end, the court chose not to slap Tsvetkov with any criminal charges, but he was instead ordered to receive psychiatric care. His Vkontakte account has also been deleted, but the image continues to be shared on Russian social media despite the court ruling.
(via The Guardian andThe Moscow Times)