Vladimir Putin has been suffering humiliation after humiliation lately. After Ukrainian President Zelensky accused him of being a Green Screen Wonder, he had to prove that he’s still alive with a public appearance. The Kremlin has also had to clean up after former British PM Boris Johnson’s missile-threat accusations, and rascally Russian saboteurs are blowing up bridges to hamper Putin’s ongoing Ukraine invasion.
Then there’s The Internet. It seems that Putin is very upset about search results from Russians, and mysteriously, the nation’s most predominant search engine (Yonder) has shut down any results that refer to the president as a “bald f*cker.” This news arrives via Daily Beast from the independent Meduza news site. Here are some other key terms that suddenly got scrubbed in reference to Putin:
The site also had mechanisms in place to stop images of Putin appearing in the results for specific, unflattering phrases too. They reportedly include “bunker grandfather,” “master thief,” and “dick in a spacesuit.” The results for queries including “what do pedophiles look like,” “when he dies” and “strange creature waving” were also said to have been filtered to ensure pictures of Putin wouldn’t show up.
“Dick in a spacesuit” is one that I wouldn’t have guessed, and I’m kind-of wondering why “shirtless dick on horseback” isn’t on the list. After all, the most recent G7 summit produced mockery from world leaders (including Boris Johnson and Canadian PM Justin Trudeau) regarding Putin’s “toxic masculinity” and “bare-chested horseback riding display.” Yep, Putin’s getting little respect on the Internet, either, but that’s probably to be expected after invading Ukraine (and keeping the bloodshed going for almost a year) for the heck of it.
(Via The Daily Beast)