Russian TV censors South Park — again

An episode of the cartoon series South Park was cut by a Russian cable television station because it appeared to mock Russia's prime minister, Vladimir Putin.

The Russian news agency RIA Novosti said the channel, 2X2, deleted the 80-second-long scene from an episode of the U.S. program's 2005 ninth season that aired Tuesday. It shows the character Kyle phoning Putin and asking his help to launch a dying whale to the moon. Putin thinks Kyle is former U.S. president George W. Bush making a crank call.

Yevgeny Strelchik, a spokesman for Russian broadcast regulator Rosskomnadzor, told The Associated Press he knew nothing about the incident and that the decision to cut the scene was an internal choice at the channel.

In recent years, 2X2  has come under attack from Russian Christian and Muslim groups for showing animated U.S. shows such as South Park and Family Guy, which they assert are immoral and irreligious and encourage extremism.

The channel was given a warning by the regulator last year and it temporarily stopped broadcasting 12 cartoon shows, including South Park. In September, its licence was extended for another five years.

After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the tight reins on news and information in Russia were loosened, and in the 1990s, open satirizing of government officials was popular. But with the arrival of Putin, there was a shift away from satire, and critics complain that his administration leaves little room for public dissent.

Oleg Kuvaev, creator of the popular Russian animated cartoon Masyanya, said on his website that cutting the South Park scene only attracted more attention to the channel.

"It's stupid to cut things this way, because the result is reverse — a mediocre scene attracts more interest," he wrote.