''Puppets'' (russian: Куклы, lit. "''

dolls A doll is a model typically of a human or humanoid character, often used as a toy for children. Dolls have also been used in traditional religious rituals throughout the world. Traditional dolls made of materials such as clay and wood are found ...

''") was a weekly

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eig ...

n TV show of political

satire Satire is a genre of the visual, literary, and performing arts, usually in the form of fiction and less frequently non-fiction, in which vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, often with the intent of shaming ...

, produced by Vasily Grigoryev and shown on Saturdays on the TV channel NTV. It used puppets to represent

celebrities Celebrity is a condition of fame and broad public recognition of a person or group as a result of the attention given to them by mass media. An individual may attain a celebrity status from having great wealth, their participation in sports ...

, mainly the major

politician A politician is a person active in party politics, or a person holding or seeking an elected office in government. Politicians propose, support, reject and create laws that govern the land and by an extension of its people. Broadly speaking ...

s. It was inspired by the French show

Les Guignols de l'info ''Les Guignols'' (, ''The Puppets''), formerly ''Les Guignols de l'info'' (, ''The News Puppets''), was a daily satirical latex puppet show broadcast on the French television channel Canal+. It was created in 1988, inspired by '' Le Bébête Sh ...

. The show was well loved in

and has inspired spinoffs in other countries. President

Vladimir Putin Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin; (born 7 October 1952) is a Russian politician and former intelligence officer who holds the office of president of Russia. Putin has served continuously as president or prime minister since 1999: as prime min ...

was frequently represented in the show.

Closure

During parliamentary elections in 1999 and presidential elections in 2000, NTV was critical of the

Second Chechen War The Second Chechen War (russian: Втора́я чече́нская война́, ) took place in Chechnya and the border regions of the North Caucasus between the Russian Federation and the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria, from August 1999 ...

and the political party

Unity Unity may refer to: Buildings * Unity Building, Oregon, Illinois, US; a historic building * Unity Building (Chicago), Illinois, US; a skyscraper * Unity Buildings, Liverpool, UK; two buildings in England * Unity Chapel, Wyoming, Wisconsin, US; ...

backed by him. In the puppet show ''Puppets'' in the beginning of February 2000, the puppet of Putin acted as Little Zaches in a story based on E.T.A. Hoffmann's ''

Little Zaches Called Cinnabar ''Little Zaches Called Cinnabar'' (german: Klein Zaches genannt Zinnober) is a 1819 satirical fairytale fantasy novella by E. T. A. Hoffmann. Plot summary Out of pity the good fairy Rosabelverde, bewitches the ugly little child Zaches who re ...

'', in which blindness causes villagers to mistake an evil gnome for a beautiful youth. This provoked a fierce reaction from Putin's supporters. On 8 February the newspaper ''

Sankt-Peterburgskie Vedomosti The ''Vedomosti'' (Russian: Ведомости) is Russia's oldest newspaper. It was established by Peter the Great's ukase dated 16 December 1702. The first issue appeared on 2 January 1703. Petrine Vedomosti Following along the lines of th ...

'' published a letter signed by the Rector of

St. Petersburg State University Saint Petersburg State University (SPBU; russian: Санкт-Петербургский государственный университет) is a public research university in Saint Petersburg, Russia. Founded in 1724 by a decree of Peter the G ...

Lyudmila Verbitskaya, the Dean of its Law Department Nikolay Kropachyov and some of Putin's other presidential campaign assistants that urged the prosecution of the authors of the show for what they considered a

criminal offence In ordinary language, a crime is an unlawful act punishable by a state or other authority. The term ''crime'' does not, in modern criminal law, have any simple and universally accepted definition,Farmer, Lindsay: "Crime, definitions of", in Ca ...

NTV NTV may refer to: Television * NTV (Bangladesh), a Bengali-language satellite television channel in Bangladesh * NTV (India), Telugu regional channel * NTV (Kenya) * NTV (Mongolia), a television channel based in Mongolia * NTV (Newport Televis ...

was forced to close the show down in 2002 after pressure from the Kremlin. The only Russian president that didn’t appear on the show was Dmitry Medvedev.

''Spitting in Russian''

On January 1, 2010 the programme ''Spitting in Russian'' was broadcast by BBC Radio 4. Presented by

Roger Law Roger Law (born 6 September 1941, in Littleport, Cambridgeshire), is a British caricaturist, ceramist and one half of ''Luck and Flaw'' (with Peter Fluck), creators of the popular satirical TV puppet show ''Spitting Image''. Roger Law was a pi ...

, co-creator of ''

Spitting Image ''Spitting Image'' is a British satirical television puppet show, created by Peter Fluck, Roger Law and Martin Lambie-Nairn. First broadcast in 1984, the series was produced by 'Spitting Image Productions' for Central Independent Television ...

'', it recounts how Russian programme-makers came to London to learn the art of making political puppets, and how the programme came to an end.
BBC Radio 4: ''Spitting in Russian''

Legal controversies

The show's producing team was involved in several legal controversies. Viktor Shenderovich, a satirist and a writer for the show, has claimed that an unnamed top government official required NTV to exclude the puppet of Putin from the show.Sherendovich about NTV, TV-6, TVS
/ref> Accordingly, in the following episode, called "

Ten Commandments The Ten Commandments (Biblical Hebrew עשרת הדברים \ עֲשֶׂרֶת הַדְּבָרִים, ''aséret ha-dvarím'', lit. The Decalogue, The Ten Words, cf. Mishnaic Hebrew עשרת הדיברות \ עֲשֶׂרֶת הַדִּבְ ...

", the puppet of Putin was replaced with a cloud covering the top of a mountain and a burning bush.

References and footnotes

{{reflist NTV (Russia) original programming 1990s Russian television series 2000s Russian television series 1994 Russian television series debuts 2002 Russian television series endings Russian satirical television shows Russian television shows featuring puppetry Political satirical television series Cultural depictions of Vladimir Putin Russian political satire Television controversies in Russia