Russia threatens Swiss newspaper over Putin caricature
Russia has threatened Swiss newspaper Neue Zürcher Zeitung with legal action after it published critical reports and a caricature of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
In a letter to NZZ editor Eric Gujer published on Saturday on the Russian Embassy in Switzerland’s press service website, it said it was “outraged” by publication of an “insulting caricature of the President of the Russian Federation” and reserved the right to take legal action for defamation and slander.
"We believe that freedom of expression is in no way compatible with the freedom to disseminate insults and fakes," the Russian embassy wrote.
The reason is reportedly an article in the NZZ edition of July 9 entitled "Superheroes and villains show their clout on the Internet", in which the paper looked at the propaganda war on social media by both sides that has been part of the Ukraine war on the ground. The article was accompanied by a photo of Putin with a red clown nose and rainbow streaks on his face that had originally been published on Twitter.
Swiss newspaper NZZ has not so far issued any comment.
Since sending troops to Ukraine, Russia has been taking unprecedented domestic action against the media and opposition. The country has declared several organisations "undesirable" and described them as a "threat". If foreign organisations, foundations or companies are deemed "undesirable", Russians with links to such organisations face heavy fines or prison sentences of up to six years.
In compliance with the JTI standards
More: SWI swissinfo.ch certified by the Journalism Trust Initiative
Contributions under this article have been turned off. You can find an overview of ongoing debates with our journalists here. Please join us!
If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.