RUSSIA: Cops Raid Gallery And Seize Painting Of Putin In Women's Nightie

The BBC reports:

Police in Russia have seized a painting depicting the country's president Vladimir Putin in women's underwear from an art gallery in St Petersburg. The portrait features President Putin combing the hair of Russian Prime Minister, Dmitry Medvedev. Its artist, Konstantin Altunin, has since left the country to seek asylum in France, according to the director of St Petersburg's Museum of Power. Police said four paintings that were seized broke unspecified legislation. Two of the other pictures removed from the gallery poked fun at conservative Russian politicians who led a campaign to introduce controversial anti-gay laws. Gallery owner Aleksander Donskoi claimed he had been given no formal warrant or explanation for the removal of the paintings, which were included in Altunin's exhibition entitled Rulers.

Another of the seized paintings reportedly depicts MP Vitaly Milonov, the author of the ban on "homosexual propaganda," standing before a rainbow. (Tipped by JMG reader Robert)