'Ultimate' Putin Cartoon Goes Viral in Russia
A short Norwegian cartoon depicting possible scenarios to explain the mysterious 11-day disappearance of Russian president Vladimir Putin earlier this month, has gone viral, attracting over 900,000 views, almost all of which have come from the former Soviet uniоn.
The cartoon, which is just under a minute long and entitled Where Did Putin Go? imagines the president topless and donning a pair of mirrored sunglasses, as he enjoys various humorous holiday situations, most of which depict him putting the security of the world in danger, or showing off his strength and power.
In the first, he is portrayed travelling - reclining half naked on the back of a tank as it rolls through a derelict landscape with the Ukrainian flag flying in the background. Other scenarios see him supposedly ‘fishing’ - firing nuclear missiles from a submarine under the sea - and also pranking the U.S. president Barack Obama with the North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.
Putin is imagined practising yoga - balancing with his finger perilously close to a nuclear detonator, wrestling a bear, and single-handedly creating the solar eclipse, which cast parts of Europe into darkness last Friday.
Approximately 76% of those who viewed the video come from Russia, according to Norwegian media, with 8% from Ukraine and 4% from Kazakhstan. The video also sparked a furious online debate on YouTube about Russian activity in Ukraine, which Russia continues to deny. The comments below the video were mostly posted in Cyrillic script.
Many of the commentators assumed the video had been made in the U.S., altohugh it was in fact made by three Norwegian cartoonists, and broadcast originally on NRK, the Norwegian government-owned radio and television public broadcasting company - the largest media organisation in Norway. | 
