Kremlin on New BBC Talk Show Starring ‘Vladimir Putin’: The Real Putin Is Not a Fan
TOUGH CROWD
The Kremlin has responded to the hype surrounding a new BBC talk show hosted by a 3D animation of the Russian leader, and it seems Vladimir Putin is not impressed. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Thursday that the producers of Tonight With Vladimir Putin were never granted permission to use the Russian president’s image. “I can say one thing: Putin has not read books about himself and he doesn’t watch himself as either a cartoon or a caricature. In this case, he has his own position: He believes that it’s not he who should look like the caricatures, but the caricatures should look like him,” Peskov was quoted as saying by Russia’s TASS news agency. The BBC raised eyebrows when it dropped the first preview for the show earlier this week, billing it as “Britain’s newest chat show.” In the clip, “Putin” is shown outside Buckingham Palace saying he was familiar with the “forbidden delights of the West” long before his peers, but his “greatest victory” would be claiming the “number one chat show in the U.K.”