''Puppets'' () was a weekly

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

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 exposin ...

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

puppet A puppet is an object, often resembling a human, animal or Legendary creature, mythical figure, that is animated or manipulated by a person called a puppeteer. Puppetry is an ancient form of theatre which dates back to the 5th century BC in anci ...

s to represent

celebrities Celebrity is a condition of fame and broad public recognition of a person or group due to the attention given to them by mass media. The word is also used to refer to famous individuals. A person may attain celebrity status by having great w ...

, mainly the major

politician A politician is a person who participates in Public policy, policy-making processes, usually holding an elective position in government. Politicians represent the people, make decisions, and influence the formulation of public policy. The roles ...

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''), is a popular satirical latex puppet show on the French television channel Canal+. The show, which ran daily, was created in 1988 and drew insp ...

. 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 has served as President of Russia since 2012, having previously served from 2000 to 2008. Putin also served as Prime Minister of Ru ...

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 Names The Second Chechen War is also known as the Second Chechen Campaign () or the Second Russian Invasion of Chechnya from the Chechens, Chechen insurgents' point of view.Федеральный закон № 5-ФЗ от 12 января 19 ...

and the political party

Unity Unity is the state of being as one (either literally or figuratively). It may also refer to: Buildings * Unity Building, Oregon, Illinois, US; a historic building * Unity Building (Chicago), Illinois, US; a skyscraper * Unity Buildings, Liverpoo ...

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 Ernst Theodor Amadeus Hoffmann (born Ernst Theodor Wilhelm Hoffmann; 24 January 1776 – 25 June 1822) was a German Romantic author of fantasy and Gothic horror, a jurist, composer, music critic and artist.Penrith Goff, "E.T.A. Hoffmann" in ...

's '' Little Zaches Called Cinnabar'', 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'' () 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 the 17th-century handwritten ...

'' published a letter signed by the Rector of St. Petersburg State University 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 Televisio ...

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 Dmitry Anatolyevich Medvedev (born 14 September 1965) is a Russian politician and lawyer who has served as Deputy Chairman of the Security Council of Russia since 2020. Medvedev was also President of Russia between 2008 and 2012 and Prime Mini ...

''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) is a British caricaturist, ceramicist and one half of ''Luck and Flaw'' (with Peter Fluck), creators of the popular satirical TV puppet show '' Spitting Image''. Roger Law was a pioneer in bringing politica ...

, 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 (), or the Decalogue (from Latin , from Ancient Greek , ), are religious and ethical directives, structured as a covenant document, that, according to the Hebrew Bible, were given by YHWH to Moses. The text of the Ten ...

", 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 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