Naked Putin with little Lukashenko on his lap, with a gold chain around his neck, sitting on a golden toilet. Instead of a scepter, he holds a toilet brush in his right hand and a small blood washer in his left. The entire statue sits on a massive marble plinth with the inscription “Naked Assassins”.
The association Kaputin, which is behind its creation, depicts various demonstrations with the statue, which are defined against the Putin regime and expose it in all its nakedness. The mannequin with all its individual elements refers to various aspects and consequences of Putin’s rule, some elements have increased over time, others have decreased.
»Tsar« toilet brushes
The mannequin had its premiere in April 2021, when activists from the krutin group exhibited it in front of the Russian embassy in Prague, whose fence they also “decorated” with golden toilet brushes. At that time, they had no idea what the year 2022 would bring.
“The idea arose as a result of the video of the Russian oppositionist Alexei Navalny. He obtained very detailed information about Putin’s secret luxury palace, where, for example, one toilet brush cost 15,000 euros. The toilet brush then became a symbol of resistance to Putin’s regime, which is why we incorporated it into our mannequin together with the golden toilet,” explains the author of the concept, Otakar Van Gemund, how the idea originally came about.
The president is naked!
The bloody washing machine in the left hand refers to theft by the Russian occupiers, who often send various household appliances from the occupied territories of Ukraine to their families in Russia. Little Lukashenko, sitting on Putin’s lap, is holding a hockey stick in his hands, which caricatures the attempts of the two leaders of their regimes to sway the public by appearing in hockey games where they let their opponents win on purpose or out of fear.
The entire installation is completed by a female body wrapped in plastic, which draws attention to the crimes committed by the Russian army against the Ukrainian population. Otakar Van Gemund explains what the statue is supposed to represent: “It shows what a ridiculous wretch Putin really is and that he’s just faking his power. It is an allusion to the emperor’s new clothes, which illustrates that we must not fear Putin, that his power is fed only by our fear. He is more vulnerable than he appears”.
The author of the sculpture is Barbora Zichová, who studied puppet scenography at DAMU. The sculpture is made using the lamination method, where paper is glued to each other in layers using glue. The sculpture took over two months to make.
The last parade through Prague
The statue will become part of the celebrations on November 17, and before going to auction, it will go around Prague for the last time as part of a parade. Subsequently, the auction will be announced and will last until December 20. It will take place on the Twitter account of the Kaputin association in the form of an ordinary post, where interested parties can then submit their bids in the comments. The starting price is not low at all, it will start at 10,000 euros.
The head of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, Mark Milley, said today that after the incident in Poland, he wanted to contact his Russian counterpart Valery Gerasimov by phone, but the attempt was unsuccessful.
According to Milley, US President Joe Biden made it very clear that it depends on Ukraine when, how and whether to start negotiations with Russia. But the general also expressed the opinion that Ukraine will not win the war anytime soon. “The likelihood of a Ukrainian military victory – defined as kicking the Russians out of all of Ukraine, including Crimea, which they claim – is not high from a military point of view,” he said according to Reuters.
Polish President Andrzej Duda met tonight with the head of the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) William Burns, who is in Warsaw after visiting Ankara and Kyiv. This was announced on Twitter by the head of the Polish National Security Office, Jacek Siewiera.
“The discussion concerned the overall security situation, the context of recent events appeared. There is a lot of work now on the line between Poland and the United States,” wrote Siewiera, who heads the office helping the head of state to carry out security and defense tasks.
According to US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, the United States has not found anything that contradicts Poland’s preliminary estimate, that the missile that landed on Polish territory last night is part of Ukrainian air defense. At the press conference, Austin said he had full confidence in Polish investigators.
US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin stated that the NASAMS air defense systems provided to Ukraine have a 100% success rate. Norwegian air defense systems were delivered to Ukraine in early November. Systems of the same type are also used to protect the capital of the USA, Washington.
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Drone for Ukraine
The author of the concept himself admits that he is the amount is high, however, he is convinced that there will be interested parties. The Kaputin association wants to donate the entire proceeds to the purchase of weapons for the Ukrainian army, which they would like to purchase specifically the new Czech-made Bivoj combat drone.
“This prop has fulfilled its purpose in interventions in public space, so it can now go into a private collection as a memento of the end of a dictator and war criminal. At the same time, it can hit Putin directly on the battlefield by helping finance his military defeat. There will be no shortage of interested parties”, adds Van Gemund.
Tags: Aid Ukraine Auction statue naked Putin toilet purchase drone
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