The original post: /r/television by /u/apple_kicks on 2025-09-18 20:51:23+00:00.
Previous post was removed for not featuring the shows title
The news today reminds me of when in 2002 Kremlin used its government resources to shut down a tv comedy show called Kukly that regularly mocked putin. The TV network also hosted news shows that criticised Putin
During parliamentary elections in 1999 and presidential elections in 2000, NTV was critical of the Second Chechen War, Vladimir Putin and the political party Unity 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’s Little Zaches Called Cinnabar, in which blindness causes villagers to mistake an evil gnome for a beautiful youth.[3] This provoked a fierce reaction from Putin’s supporters. On 8 February the newspaper Sankt-Peterburgskie Vedomosti 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.
NTV was forced to close the show down in 2002 after pressure from the Kremlin.[4] www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puppets_(TV_series)
And
On 15 July, the puppet of Putin acted in the Kukly show as Girolamo Savonarola.
On 19 July, investigators of the office of the Prosecutor General of Russia came to Gusinsky’s home, distrained and arrested his property.
In a surprisingly informal deal, the charges against Gusinsky were lifted after he signed an agreement with Mikhail Lesin, Minister of Media, on 20 July. Under the “shares for freedom” transaction or Protocol No.6 (Протокол N.6. Доля свободы) agreement, Gusinsky would discharge his debts by selling Media-Most to Gazprom-Media, which had held a 30% share of NTV since 1996, for the price imposed by the latter, and was given a guarantee that he would not be prosecuted.
After leaving the country, Gusinsky claimed he was pressured to sign the agreement by the prospect of the criminal investigation. Media-Most refused to comply with the agreement. Tax authorities brought a suit against Media-Most aiming to wind it up.
On 26 January 2001, Gazprom announced that it had acquired a controlling stake of 46% in NTV. The voting rights of a 19% stake held by Media-Most was frozen by a court decision. www.wikipedia.org/wiki/NTV_(Russia)