In just two days, a 50-second video titled "The Arrest of Vladimir Putin: A Report From The Courtroom" has been watched almost 2 million times on YouTube and republished to dozens of Russian blogs and websites.

Viewers have left more than 18,000 comments, including calls that the producer be awarded an Oscar for film editing.

The startlingly realistic clip, in the style of a Russian television news report, purports to show "former" Prime Minister Vladimir Putin being hauled into a Moscow courtroom to face charges including large-scale corruption and participating in a terrorist act with the purpose of intimidating the public and influencing the government.

The charge apparently refers to the 1999 apartment-building bombings that rocked Moscow and other Russian cities in the run-up to Putin taking over the presidency in 2000.

A sour-looking Putin sits in a cage and answers the judge's questions as cameras capture the scene.

WATCH: Russian Vladimir Putin "appears" in court on corruption charges



The audio of Putin's voice was taken from a televised report on Putin participating in the 2010 Russian census.

Overall, the video is a tribute to the possibilities of computer fakery and viewers can't help but be reminded of high-profile Russian court cases such the one against former oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky.

In fact, the judge in the video of the Putin "trial," Viktor Danilkin, was the presiding judge in Khodorkovsky's most recent trial in 2010.

So far there has been no official response to the video, either from Putin's office or from prosecutors.

-- Central Newsroom

The Week Ahead is a detailed listing of key events of the coming week affecting RFE/RL's broadcast region.
 
Now on Twitter! Daily updates at @The_Week_Ahead.


MONDAY, February 13:

Armenia: NATO Special Representative for the Caucasus and Central Asia James Appathurai visits Yerevan.

Ukraine: Speaker of the Ukrainian parliament (Verkhovna Rada) Volodymyr Lytvyn pays an official visit to Luxembourg (to February 14).

UNESCO: World Radio Day.


TUESDAY, February 14:

Georgia: Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili delivers his annual state of the nation address in the parliament.

Iran: Iranian opposition to hold silent rallies in Tehran and other Iranian cities.

Macedonia: Macedonian Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski to meet German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin.

Russia: Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov begins his visit to The Netherlands (to February 15).

Kosovo: Serbs in northern Kosovo are scheduled to vote in a referendum (to February 15).

Ukraine: Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and his Ukrainian counterpart Kostyantyn Hryshchenko hold a meeting in Nizhny Novgorod.

World: Valentine's Day.


WEDNESDAY, February 15:

Azerbaijan: Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev to visit NATO headquarters in Brussels to meet with the NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen and to address the North Atlantic Council.

Russia: Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov visits Austria, meets with the Austrian President Heinz Fischer (to February 16).


THURSDAY, February 16:

Afghanistan: The Third Ministerial Conference of the Paris Pact Partners on drugs from Afghanistan to be held in Vienna.

CIS: Dubai hosts the second Russia & CIS Executive Summit on oil and gas (to February 17).

Georgia: Tbilisi hosts a Georgian-Azerbaijani-Turkish business forum.

Georgia: Georgian Orthodox Church Patriarch Catholicos Ilya II to visit Jerusalem.

EU: The situation in Russia and death penalty Belarus to be discussed in a plenary session of the European Parliament in Strasbourg.

Moldova: First meeting of the Moldovan parliament's spring session to take place in Chisinau.

Pakistan: Islamabad to host a trilateral summit of presidents of Afghanistan, Iran, and Pakistan (to February 17).


FRIDAY, February 17:

Russia: Seventh International Sretensky Orthodox Film Festival opens in Obninsk (to February 22).

Russia: Sochi hosts the Valdai Discussion Club Middle East section’s conference titled “Transformation in the Arab World and Russia’s Interests” (to February 18).


SATURDAY, February 18:

Latvia: A national referendum on making Russian a state language alongside Latvian to be held.


SUNDAY, February 19:

Turkmenistan: National Flag Day.

Belarusian youth activists say police have "detained" some stuffed animals used in an antigovernment protest in Minsk, in an echo of similar recent protests in Russia.

This video shows activists from the civic campaign "Tell the Truth" placing a dozen fluffy toys in the snow and setting up placards around them bearing messages urging President Alyaksandr Lukashenka to "free the people!" or asking "Where is freedom of the press?" or declaring "Toys against lawlessness" and "Cops tore my eye out."



The campaign says the stuffed animals, placed near a bus stop on Minsk's Independence Square, were soon rounded up by the police. It adds that the toys "probably won't face charges, though it's clear there was a violation of the law against mass demonstrations."

The protest comes as authorities in a Siberian city clamped down on demonstrations using toys, following two such protests -- featuring Lego figurines, teddy bears, and Transformer toys -- last month.

Known primarily as a sun-drenched tourist hub famous for its seafront promenade and cafes, the port of Split on Croatia's Adriatic coast has just experienced its coldest and snowiest week on record, which almost paralyzed the city and put some 600 inhabitants in hospital with broken bones after they slipped on the town's icebound streets.

Although snow falls in Split every couple of decades, it usually melts right away.

It's no surprise, therefore, that the city's denizens' initial joy at seeing 25 centimeters of snow quickly evaporated as they found themselves struggling to cope with serious transport and supply problems.

One child in urgent need of medical treatment even died when emergency services were unable to make it to her house in time because of the poor weather conditions.

The chaotic situation has had people clamoring for Mayor Zeljko Kerum and the city administration to do more.

However, Kerum himself does not seem to share their sense of urgency

"This much snow is God's will, there's nothing I can do about it," said the populist entrepreneur-cum-politician, who was a surprise winner in Split's 2009 mayoral election.

Kerum's attitude will not have surprised many as the super-rich food-retail magnate has earned a reputation for being blunt and somewhat gaffe-prone.

His subsequent comment that Split's citizens are ill-equipped for snow and ice because they are paying too many taxes will have done nothing to dispel this impression.

Sisterly Solidarity

Now, amid increasingly loud calls for Kerum's resignation and the likely prospect of citizens filing lawsuits against him and the city administration, his sister Nevenka Becic, who chairs the town council, has risen to Kerum's defense, claiming that Split's residents only have themselves to blame for the problems they are experiencing with the weather. 

"All those who were going out, and did not really have the need, are themselves responsible," she said.

"As regards older citizens, they should all have children, and children are by law responsible for taking care of their parents.

"If they don't have children, than they could have nephews or nieces and should have a good relationship with them

"If they don't have nephews and nieces, then they have neighbors with whom they should have good relations."

-- Nedim Dervisbegovic

Reports say a police unit in Turkmenistan this week was named after the father of President Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov.

State-run media reportedly describe it as a gesture to honor Myalikguly Berdymukhammedov's years of service to Turkmenistan's Interior Ministry and "his efforts in educating the younger generation." (It might also help quash the persistent and seemingly groundless speculation that the president is an illegitimate child of former President Saparmurat Niyazov.)

AP says:


The facility reportedly houses a museum dedicated to the elder Berdymukhammedov, who once worked there as a deputy colonel. His former office is said to have been fully been restored to its former state.

Critics might regard it as a high honor for a colonel, which is the rank eventually attained by Myalikguli Berdymukhammedov.

It certainly wouldn't have raised eyebrows under the late Turkmenbashi.

In fact, it's hardly news given the recent direction of Berdymukhammedov's administration. The honor to the First Father comes one year after a statue of the First Grandfather, Berdymukhammed Annaev, was installed at the Turkmen Military Academy. Annaev also had a school named after him in his home province in 2009. The forward of a recent hagiography of Annaev was authored by the president and written by the president's father. (It's bound to be a best-seller in a country where insufficient familiarity with the official narrative can spell doom.)

All of this is not necessarily making headlines, even if it comes as Turkmenistan has stepped up efforts to win friends and investment from abroad. For Ashgabat is most frequently criticized for egregious rights violations, strictures on public debate, and serial economic mismanagement -- not megalomania.

But Berdymukhammedov, who took office after Niyazov's death in 2006, buoyed optimists when he initially strived to distance himself from the excesses of his megalomaniacal predecessor. That makes this current, languid slide into a new cult of personality all the more regrettable.

-- Central Newsroom

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin appears to have an unlikely supporter in his camp ahead of Russia's March 4 presidential election -- or does he?

A video lauding Putin's leadership has gone viral, which is not so remarkable. But that it features a male singer with distinct Tajik features has some -- considering the intolerance suffered by Tajik migrant workers in Russia under Putin's watch -- wondering whether his ode is genuine.

A message accompanying the video uploaded to YouTube describes the singer only as "Tolibjon Kurbankhanov from Tajikistan." Nobody seems to know any more about him, but the lyrics in his song make clear that he considers Putin a "godsend" who saved Russia and ensured stability.



With landmarks of the Russian capital such as the Kremlin and the White House serving as a backdrop, the artist hails Putin as the "best sportsman" and "son of the nation." He lauds Putin's economic policies, alludes to his former career in the KGB by describing the prime minister and former president as an "agent," and calls on voters to make the right choice in the upcoming polls.

Each chorus begins with "VVP" -- the initials of the prime minister's full name, Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin. VVP, as the listener learns, came to power at the beginning of the new century and millennium, when the country was amid "crisis" and the nation was "suffering." Everything changed for the better, according to the tune.

The music video has become quite a hit on Russian websites, and found its way to more serious media, such as the Ekho Moskvy radio station's website, prompting many different comments and reactions along the way.

Going After The Minority Vote?

Putin has been very active on the issue of migrant workers and immigration in Russia, recently addressing a session of the Federal Migration Service with his proposals for tightening immigration law, including language tests and cracking down on the use of fictitious registration addresses.

Following his lead, legislation on language tests is working its way through the Russian parliament.

On February 7, during a meeting with campaign representatives, Putin gave his support to lawyers who want to impose criminal liability on multiple offenders of immigration rules.

"Otherwise this process will never end," Interfax quoted him as saying. "The person will know that he will go to prison instead of his home country."

Considering that nearly one in seven make the trek to Russia every year for seasonal work, such legislation would affect many Tajiks.

This has led some to question whether the singer Kurbankhanov is indeed Tajik, or whether the song might have been planted by Putin's campaign team as a way of attracting minority votes.

According to Muhammadnazar Mirzoda, the head of an officially registered NGO called the Tajik Diaspora in St. Petersburg, Kurbankhanov is indeed a Tajik citizen, is 28 years old, and resides in Ufa, the capital of Russia's Republic of Bashkortostan. RFE/RL has not independently verified Kurbankhanov's identity or his ethnicity.

He's Down With VVP

Not everyone seems to be convinced that it matters, or that the song by Putin's Tajik admirer will yield any benefits for the prime minister or his presidential campaign. And some say it will have the opposite effect.

Prominent Russian blogger Aleksandr Plyushev has dubbed the video the "best anti-Putin video in history." 

And well-known Russian anticorruption blogger and opposition figure Aleksei Navalny, who himself is known for his nationalist leanings, has also weighed in.

In a February 6 post on his blog, Navalny wrote that "I don't know whether this video has been paid for by Putin's election camp, but in any case I suggest that it be distributed wherever possible."

Based on the number of hits "VVP" is now getting, it looks like Kurbankhanov is poised for stardom.

-- Farangis Najibullah

Antigovernment protesters in Syria have expressed their outrage at the veto by Russia and China of a resolution in the UN Security Council condemning the regime of President Bashar al-Assad.

At a demonstration in Ras al-Ain, in addition to the usual Syrian flags, demonstrators also waved a flag of the Chechen Republic Ichkeria, the secessionist government that fought two wars with Moscow in the 1990s and continues an insurgency today.

The resolution was drafted by Arab League countries and submitted to the Security Council by Morocco -- with Western backing -- after Arab League monitors witnessed Syrian Army snipers killing unarmed protesters.

The Arab League's plan called for Assad to step down and be replaced by his deputy until elections can be held. Russia said it put too much blame on Assad's regime for the deaths in Syria.

-- RFE/RL Newsroom