Journalist Faces Charges For Mocking Putin

Russian President Putin (file photo) (ITAR-TASS)

May 24, 2006 -- Prosecutors have opened a criminal case against a journalist in a central Russian region for publishing an article that allegedly mocked President Vladimir Putin.

Andrei Galchenko of the regional prosecutor's office said the investigation was opened after Vladimir Rakhmankov, chief editor of the online newspaper "Kursiv" in the city of Ivanovo, ran an article headlined "Putin As Russia's Phallic Symbol."

(AP)