Russian Embassy Threatens Swiss Newspaper After Publishing Putin Clown Meme – According to reports, the Russian embassy in Switzerland threatened legal action against a Swiss newspaper for publishing a cartoon depicting President Vladimir Putin with a clown nose and rainbow streaks down his face.
According to the Washington Post, the embassy’s press department criticized the newspaper Neue Zürcher Zeitung for using the image in a July 9 article considering the role of memes and digital messaging to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in a letter posted to its website on Saturday.
The article headlined “Between Superheroes and Villains: The Power of Memes in the Ukraine War,”shows Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky depicted in a Captain America-like suit with Ukrainian colors and symbols while Putin is next to him in a clown nose and rainbow makeup.
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“If we are speaking about clownery, it would be much more appropriate to touch on this topic in the context of the recent past of the former Ukrainian comedian V. Zelensky,” the embassy said in its letter.
According to the Swiss news outlet Swissinfo, the “extremely outraged” embassy added, “We believe that freedom of expression is in no way compatible with the ability to distribute insults and fakes.” According to the Swiss outlet, Putin’s picture was first shared on Twitter.
Due to their apparent association with the LGBTQ population, Russia also took issue with the rainbow hues connected to Putin. According to the Washington Post, the embassy stated that Putin “is a deeply religious Orthodox person and advocates the preservation of traditional Christian values in Russian society (and he is plainly not a supporter of the LGBT community)”.
