Russian pranksters strap giant wooden penis to anti-Putin satirist’s car
This is a story that involves Vladimir Putin, a Stephen Colbert-style satirist operating under a Twitter alias, and a giant wooden penis.
Since 2010, the satirical Twitter feed @KermlinRussia has gained over 700,000 followers by mocking the official Kremlin account that was first used by former president Dmitry Medvedev. @KermlinRussia’s voice is that of a childish and stupid “Persident of Ruissia,” poking fun at government corruption and incompetence. A typical tweet: “As punishment for missed deadlines, Putin will make Yakunin [a Russian official] buy several palaces in Sochi and live in them.”
For a long time, the two authors of @KermlinRussia remained anonymous, occasionally granting a rare interview via Skype. Then last year they decided to come out with a bang, revealing themselves in Russian GQ to be a pair of photogenic twenty-somethings named Arseny Bobrovsky and Katya Romanovskaya. Now known simply as “the Kermlins,” they are Russia’s most well-known political satirists (possibly Russia’s only well-known political satirists, when it comes to viciously lampooning Putin’s government), and enjoy a certain amount of celebrity.
As of yet, the Kermlins haven’t faced much serious retribution—until last week, when Katya Romanovskaya, fresh from a trip to France, woke up to discover that someone had chained a gigantic wooden phallus to her car… [READ MORE]
















