Russian Embassy In UK Mocks Claims About Putin Propaganda In 'Masha And The Bear' Cartoon

Russian Embassy in the United Kingdom responded on Saturday with irony to a publication about alleged Kremlin's propaganda in popular animated series Masha and the Bear and similarities of the cartoon's main character with personality of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

LONDON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 17th November, 2018) Russian Embassy in the United Kingdom responded on Saturday with irony to a publication about alleged Kremlin's propaganda in popular animated series Masha and the Bear and similarities of the cartoon's main character with personality of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Earlier in the day, UK-based newspaper The Times published an article calling the series Kremlin's "soft propaganda" tool. The publication quoted Prof. Anthony Glees of the University of Buckingham characterizing Masha as "feisty, even rather nasty, but also plucky." According to the professor, she "punches above her slight weight," and it is "not far-fetched to see her as Putinesque."

"An important issue raised by @thetimes today: How UK can find salvation from 'Masha and the Bear'? Launch an Ant[i]-Cartoon Excellence Centre somewhere in the Baltic? Place all cartoonists on EU sanction list? Clearly a decisive - and a very expensive - approach is needed!" the embassy said on Twitter.

Top UK officials, most notably UK Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson, have been regularly using the "Russian threat" narrative to justify increased military spending.

The two main characters of Masha and the Bear are loosely based on the Russian folk story of the same name. To date, the number of subscribers of the English-language channel of the series on YouTube exceeds 4.2 million. Episode 17 "Recipe for Disaster" in Russian is Youtube's most-viewed non-music video (and fifth overall) with 3.3 billion views.