Putin Art

[John Dunn]

It is not entirely inappropriate: in Italy there is the crime of 'vilipendio', i.e. insulting the dignity of the President of the Republic (as well as, inter alia, certain state institutions and religious confessions).  In so far as it relates to the President this law is rarely, if ever, applied, though one argument that I have seen for retaining it is that the Head of State lacks other legal remedies against defamation.

But I wonder if by concentrating on the Putin/Medvedev painting we are not missing the point.  The police action followed a complaint by Vitalij Milonov, who is one the main initiators of the laws relating to the propaganda of non-traditional sexual orientations and who is likely to have taken as much, if not more offence at the way he was depicted .  Mocking Milonov and his counterpart in the State Duma, Elena Mizulina, has become something of a national sport recently: even Al'fred Kokh, whom some may remember for his role in helping to dismember NTV in 2001, has got himself involved.   This is fine, except that the deputies are fighting back, and there may be further action to come from the various law enforcement agencies.

John Dunn.   
________________________________________
From: SEELANGS: Slavic & East European Languages and Literatures list [SEELANGS at LISTSERV.UA.EDU] On Behalf Of Alina Israeli [aisrael at AMERICAN.EDU]
Sent: 01 September 2013 17:55
To: SEELANGS at LISTSERV.UA.EDU
Subject: Re: [SEELANGS] Putin Art

Considering the punishment any comparison of Putin with an elected leader elsewhere is inappropriate. The Russian law is equal to lèse-majesté (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L%C3%A8se-majest%C3%A9<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L%25C3%25A8se-majest%25C3%25A9>), which only four out of 10 European monarchies still have on the books, hence Putin should be compared to a monarch, preferably of Asian variety.

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