Image depicting Russian president with painted eyes and lips has been banned by the justice ministry in Moscow 
 
 A picture depicting Vladimir Putin in full makeup has been banned in Russia. 
 
 The picture is cited on the Russian justice ministry’s list of banned “extremist” materials – a list that is 4,074 entries long. No 4,071 states that the poster, depicting Putin with painted eyes and lips, implies “the supposed nonstandard sexual orientation of the president of the Russian Federation”. 
 
 It’s unclear exactly which image the ministry is talking about – but it is believed to be similar to one used on signs during protests against Russia’s anti-gay laws. It turns out there are quite a lot of photoshopped images in circulation that depict Putin in drag. 
 
 Gordonua.com (@Gordonuacom) В РФ признали экстремистским плакат с накрашенными Путиным и Медведевым https://t.co/HhJvROd6Bl 
 
 Photoshopping makeup on to images of Putin has been common since Russia passed a law banning gay “propaganda” in 2013. 
 
 According to the Moscow Times, the ban came as a result of a verdict by a regional court in May 2016. A man named AV Tsvetkov uploaded the image alongside others that portrayed Putin and the prime minister, Dmitry Medvedev, in Nazi uniforms. Court documents say he also shared racist images. The court banned about a dozen of the pictures he uploaded between June 2013 and October 2014. As well as this, his Vkontakte profile was deleted. 
 
 A quick search of the Russian social media site shows some users are sharing similar images of Putin despite the ban. On Twitter, users were similarly amused. 
 
 🏳️‍🌈LGBT+Proud🏳️‍🌈 (@LGBTPlusProud) Russia has just banned Putin in drag pics! You can be put in prison. 
 
 
 
 R E T W E E T ! ! ! ! ! ! pic.twitter.com/csmWLVuPk6 
 
 Xeni Jardin (@xeni) This 'Putin as a gay clown' image is now illegal in Russia, so please do not share it, nope https://t.co/fsWFyqCihR pic.twitter.com/qcX9BYZq97 
 
 The Kremlin press secretary, Dmitry Peskov, told the state-run news service Tass that he had not seen the image. Claiming Putin was “quite resilient to these vulgarities”, he said: “Our legislation has, so to say, a certain code defending a citizen’s honour and dignity, including those of the president. Individuals need to be guided by these norms, so unfortunately, I can say nothing.” 
 
 Earlier this week, Putin defended China’s censorship of the internet. He said: “Callous quasi-freedom on the internet does not exist anywhere any more.” 
 
 

 
 
 A protester holds up a sign showing Russian President Vladimir Putin wearing lipstick during a protest against Russian anti-gay laws in 2013. A similar image has been declared “Internet extremism.” (Denis Doyle/Getty Images) 
 
 Russia has banned a picture depicting President Vladimir Putin as a potentially gay clown. 
 
 Russian news outlets are having trouble reporting exactly which image of the Internet's many Putin-gay-clown memes is now illegal to share. Because, you know, it's been banned. 
 
 But the picture was described last week on the Russian government's list of things that constitute “extremism.” 
 
 Item 4071: a picture of a Putin-like person “with eyes and lips made up,” captioned with an implicit anti-gay slur, implying “the supposed nonstandard sexual orientation of the president of the Russian Federation.” 
 
 The Moscow Times thinks it probably looks like this: 
 
 A Russian court has banned an image suggesting Putin is gay & sentenced the culprit to compulsory psychiatric care. https://t.co/rUlOO5r6lp pic.twitter.com/hbkDHcndY5 — The Moscow Times (@MoscowTimes) April 5, 2017 
 
 That poster became popular in 2013, after Russia passed a law banning propagandizing to children about “nontraditional sexual relations,” and gay rights protesters were beaten and arrested. 
 
 But gay Putin memes have proliferated as Russia has cracked down on both sexual liberties and online speech in recent years. 
 
 Thus, another news site thinks the banned image is this one: 
 
 В РФ признали экстремистским плакат с накрашенными Путиным и Медведевым https://t.co/HhJvROd6Bl — Gordonua.com (@Gordonuacom) April 5, 2017 
 
 (The other man in that picture is Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, by the way. He's more commonly associated with sleeping memes than sexuality issues, though in 2015, he signed an order banning transgender people from driving.) 
 
 A Kremlin spokesman told Russia's state-run news service, Tass, that he hadn't seen the Putin-clown picture, though he was sure it didn't bother the president. 
 
 “Kremlin says Putin skilled at brushing off ‘vulgarities’ hurled against him,” reads the state-sanctioned headline on that interview. 
 
 The Kremlin has also become fairly adept at controlling what people say about each other on the Internet. 
 
 Russia passed its first “Internet extremism” laws in 2013, according to the Moscow Times — a year after Putin returned to the presidency and began restricting civil rights. 
 
 A year later, the paper reported, Putin signed a law imposing prison sentences for people who give so much as thumbs-up to a forbidden online post. Those include an article about a theoretical coup, which landed a philosophy professor in detention. 
 
 In 2015, Russian authorities began shutting down websites of Putin critics, and restricting nearly all anonymous blogs, The Washington Post reported. And Russia's Internet censor has long allowed public figures to file court complaints if they run across a meme that misrepresents their “personality.” Like this one, maybe. 
 
 Sad I can't wear my "Putin" bracelet to the airport tomorrow because of TSA...#sad pic.twitter.com/m4qrUnRjzR — carly✨ (@youngcarly2121) March 25, 2017 
 
 Last year, United Press International and other outlets reported on a single mother sentenced to community service for reposting a cartoon of Putin looking at a map with a knife in his hand. And a former naval captain from Rostov who reposted an antiwar report about Ukraine got a two-year suspended sentence and one year of probation for inciting hatred and animosity. 
 
 The Post reported on evidence of a government plan to block online announcement of an antigovernment rally in Moscow last weekend, after arresting hundreds at the last protest. 
 
 The Post's Moscow bureau chief, David Filipov, recorded cellphone videos of the atmosphere in Russia's capital on March 26 as tens of thousands of protesters rally against corruption. (David Filipov, The Washington Post) 
 
 The saga of the banned Putin clown actually began years ago, when a man posted a slew of offensive images to a Russian Facebook clone. 
 
 They included openly racist and anti-immigrant posts, according to Radio Free Europe. The man was convicted last year, his social media account was shut down, and he was placed in psychiatric care. 
 
 A year later, many of the images he shared were added to the government's thousands-strong blacklist of “extremist materials” — with the potentially gay clown listed right above a picture of Putin and Medvedev as Nazi soldiers. 
 
 More reading: 
 
 A man is on trial in Russia — for talking about yoga 
 
 Russian official wants to investigate whether U.S. moon landings actually happened 
 
 The book that will haunt Vladimir Putin as long as he’s in power 

 Story highlights Images of Vladimir Putin in makeup have been shared online since 2011 
 
 Prison and fine among punishments for those distributing, retweeting or sharing images 
 
 Moscow (CNN) It is now illegal in Russia to distribute any images that depict President Vladimir Putin wearing makeup and implying he is gay. 
 
 The Justice Ministry in Moscow has included one of them among a registry of "extremist materials," along with others such as anti-Semitic and racist pictures and slogans. 
 
 The punishment for offenders who distribute, retweet or share the image is 15 days in prison or a fine of 3,000 rubles ($53). 
 
 Protesters have used such images of Putin to oppose Russia's anti-gay laws. 
 
 Images of Putin, often with rouged cheeks and eye shadow, have been online since 2011 -- and have had much wider circulation since 2013 in protest over what became known as Russia's gay propaganda law. They are widely known online as the "gay clown" meme -- although not all the images resemble clowns. 
 
 The law, which describes homosexuality as "non-traditional sexual relations," bars the public discussion of gay rights and relationships anywhere children might hear it. It has been fiercely opposed by gay rights groups in Russia and beyond as well as by other human rights groups and the political opposition in Russia. 
 
 Read More
– A list of "extremist" materials banned by the Russian justice ministry recently got its 4,071st entry: a Photoshopped image of Vladimir Putin wearing makeup, the Guardian reports. According to CNN, a simple retweet of the image could net the sharer 15 days in prison or a $53 fine. But there's a bit of a hitch. The "Putin gay clown meme" has been getting increasingly popular in recent years, and it's unclear exactly which image is now banned by the Russian government. The government describes the banned image as showing Putin "with eyes and lips made up" to depict "the supposed nonstandard sexual orientation of the president," the Washington Post reports. Since Russia passed a law banning public discussion of gay rights or relationships, there hasn't been a shortage of such images online. Even Russian news organizations can't seem to agree on exactly which image of Putin as a "potentially gay clown" is officially banned. Despite taking the time to ban the image, the Kremlin's press secretary says these kinds of things don't hurt Putin's feelings as they would a normal person, adding that the Russian president is "quite resilient to these vulgarities."