Photo: Olga Maltseva
What do you say to a Russian artist who has just painted President Vladimir Putin and Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev in lingerie? Three words: "You better run."
Artist Konstantin Altunin fled to Paris, where he's applying for political asylum, after his paintings were seized from a recently opened Museum of Power in St. Petersburg:
According to the Museum of Power's director Tatyana Titova, a group of more than 10 security personnel carrying machine guns confiscated Altunin's paintings on Monday night and forced the museum to close. [...]
Altunin's painting entitled “Travesty” shows Putin's and Medvedev's heads atop women’s bodies. In another painting, Russian parliamentarian Vitaly Milonov, the initiator of a controversial "gay propaganda" ban introduced earlier this year, stands against a rainbow background.
Albina Kovalyova has the story over at NBC News - Thanks Tiffany!