"During the post-Soviet 1990s, a popular political-satire show called Kukly ran on the Russian independent network NTV. Then-President Boris Yeltsin, for example, was regularly depicted as a feeble drunk. For about a decade, the show featured puppets that lampooned prominent political and cultural figures-until one episode, in which Vladimir Putin showed up as a grotesque, wicked dwarf. Soon after, Putin's administration pressured NTV executives to drop the character, and ultimately the show was permanently canceled."
"The way the Trump administration pressured ABC to pull Kimmel's show is not exactly analogous to what happened in Russia. But to Applebaum and Kasparov, a world chess champion and one of Putin's most prominent critics, the details are ancillary. Applebaum and Kasparov see many of President Donald Trump's attempts to consolidate executive power as classic moves in an autocrat's playbook."
"In this episode of Radio Atlantic, Applebaum and Kasparov discuss how Trump could mute the courts, which are now the most powerful resistance he faces. They debate the best way to fight back against authoritarian forces, for both Democrats and average citizens, and agree on the urgency of this moment: "2026 is the battlefield," Kasparov says, "the most fateful election in American history.""
Kukly was a popular 1990s Russian political-satire puppet show that lampooned leaders, including portraying Boris Yeltsin as a feeble drunk. An episode depicting Vladimir Putin as a grotesque dwarf led to pressure from Putin's administration, the removal of the puppet, and the show's cancellation, marking a turning point in Russian media freedom. Recent controversies over late-night satire in the U.S. prompted comparisons to Kukly after pressure on Jimmy Kimmel's show. Several moves by the Trump administration to expand executive power resemble classic authoritarian tactics, with silencing satire among early steps, while the courts remain a key institutional check and 2026 is framed as a decisive election.
Read at The Atlantic
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