First, they came for “Puppets.”

The weekly Russian satire known as “Kukly” — or “Puppets,” in English — lampooned Russian leaders by rendering them as giant latex caricatures. Not long after its 1994 launch, the show and its producing channel, NTV, flourished. At the height of its popularity, more than half of Russia’s TV viewers tuned in to its episodes, many of which featured a puppet version of former KGB officer turned politician Vladimir Putin.

In one sketch described in a 2000 Salon story, “Kukly” shows Putin’s puppet double as “a Japanese robe-wearing playboy being serviced by a bevy of painted-up prostitutes (i.e., his political cronies).”

The show’s head writer, Viktor Shenderovich, claimed Lenin as his inspiration, since it was he who dubbed politicians “political prostitutes.

See Full Page