Vladimir Putin's Truthfully Glam Drag Portrait Made Illegal in Russia

Russia has banned an ultra-glam portrait of Vladimir Putin wearing makeup, the Moscow Times reports. Though it's no surprise his fragile masculinity would push through such a homophobic law, we're saddened to see Putin's best depiction be legally forbidden. The image, which has a Warholian edge to it, features Russia's president with neon yellow hair, plenty of powder, feather duster lashes, heavy blue shadow and a deep red lip--the full mug.

Last week, the Justice Ministry formally added the image to its growing index of banned extremist materials, which now includes a whopping 4,074 entries long. Filed as the index's 4,071st "extremist" entry, it's described as a picture of a Putin-like person with "eyes and lips made up," featuring a caption that reads, "They say there are many of them, but there aren't any among the people I know." Court records say Putin's drag portrait "hints at the Russian president's allegedly nonstandard sexual orientation."

Because the image has been banned, the Moscow Times cannot confidently pinpoint the exact photo, but they've reckoned it looks something like the one pictured above. The poster first became popular in 2013, according to the Washington Post, after Russia passed a law banning LGBTQ "propaganda" directed towards children. Dozens of protestors fighting for gays rights were beaten and arrested.

Another site suggests the illegal image could look more like this, which is equally iconic and features Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, the man responsible for signing an order in 2015 to ban transgender people from driving.

So while President Trump is terrorizing the LGBTQ community with little to no care, at least Americans have the luxurious freedom of depicting him however we so choose, even as a drag queen featured deep in Twitter's graveyard of mildly transphobic, inactive accounts: