(FiveNation.com)- According to reports, the Russian embassy in Switzerland threatened legal action against a Swiss publication for publishing a cartoon depicting President Vladimir Putin with a clown nose and rainbow streaks down his face.
The Russian embassy’s press department criticized the newspaper Neue Zürcher Zeitung for using the image in a July 9 piece regarding the contribution of memes and digital messaging to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in a letter uploaded to its website on Saturday.
Reports show that in the piece headlined “Between Superheroes and Villains: The Power of Memes in the Ukraine War,” Putin is seen next to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky as Putin is dressed as a villain with a clown nose and rainbow paint.
In its letter, the embassy stated that it would be far more acceptable to discuss clownery in relation to the recent history of the former Ukrainian comic V. Zelensky.
According to a Swiss news site, the outraged embassy remarked that freedom of expression is incompatible with the ability to distribute insults and fakes.
Due to the memes’ association with the LGBTQ population, Russia also took issue with the rainbow hues connected to Putin.
The Russian embassy stated that Putin was a highly devout Orthodox Christian and promoted the preservation of traditional Christian values in Russian culture. He is not a supporter of the LGBT community.
Speaking of clowns, President Joe Biden recently promised to assist Ukraine “for as long as it takes.”
Reports show the Biden administration and Congress approved a $40 billion supplementary budget in May to aid Ukraine and address the worldwide effects of the war. This amount was higher than what Mr. Biden had requested and exceeded the yearly defense expenditures of the majority of European allies.
The conflict is expected to last for many years, and only six months into the war, even Mr. Biden’s closest supporters speculate that Americans are growing weary of the burden.
If Biden and Congress haven’t figured that out yet, they will in November.
