Vladimir Putin Cartoons #16

Vladimir Putin is a great character for political cartoonists! We have lots of brilliant cartoons about Russia's evil president and we have four of the best cartoonists in the world to discuss the cartoons!

Vladimir Kazanevsky has probably won more awards at international cartoon competitions than any other cartoonist in the world --he's Ukraine's most noteworthy cartoonist and he recently had an exhibition in Paris of his cartoons about the war in Ukraine. Vlad is a longtime contributor to CagleCartoons, he's a refugee from his home in Kiev, living in Slovakia now.

Rick McKee drew for many years for the Augusta Chronicle in Georgia; he draws the comic "Pluggers" and we've syndicated Rick for 20 years.

Emad Hajjaj draws cartoons for the Alaraby Aljadeed Alghad Newspaper in London. Emad is the best known Arabic language cartoonist to American readers; he's the star cartoonist of Jordan and he joins us fro Amman. We've syndicated Emad's work for nearly 20 years.

Bill Day draws for Florida Politics.com; he's worked for many years as the cartoonist for the Memphis Commercial Appeal and the Detroit Free Press. We've also syndicated Bill for 20 years.

Your host is cartoonist Daryl Cagle, the founder and CEO of Cagle Cartoons.

Here are some of the cartoons we discuss in the Caglecast, along with a partial transcript. See complete archives of the cartoonists' work at Cagle.com and see full transcripts and this and all of the past Caglecasts at Caglecast.com.

Vladimir Putin Cartoons!

[00:00:00] Daryl Cagle: Hi, I'm Daryl Cagle and this is the Caglecast where we're all about political cartoons. And today we're talking about Vladimir Putin. And we have four great cartoonists that we're talking to. Our first cartoonist today is Vladimir Kazanevsky, who's probably won more awards at international cartoon competitions than any other cartoonist in the world.

[00:00:24] Daryl Cagle: He's Ukraine's most noteworthy cartoonist, and he recently had an exhibition in Paris of his cartoons about the war in Ukraine. Vlad is a longtime contributor to Cagle cartoons, and he is a refugee from his home in Kiev, living in, Slovakia now. And Rick McKee drew for many years for the Augusta Chronicle.

[00:00:43] Daryl Cagle: He draws the comic, Pluggers and we've syndicated Rick for 20 years. Emad Hajjaj draws cartoons for the Alaraby Aljadad Alghad newspaper. I think Emad is the best known Arabic language cartoonist, certainly to Americans. We've syndicated Ahmad's work for nearly 20 years also, and Bill Day draws for Floridapolitics.com.

[00:01:06] Daryl Cagle: He's worked for many years as the cartoonist for the Memphis Commercial Appeal and the Detroit Free Press, and we've also syndicated. Bill for 20 years. I mean, uh, this is, this is a 20 years group. Gentlemen, it's very nice to have you all here. It's good to be here. Very nice to have you. It's good to be here, Daryl.

[00:01:24] Daryl Cagle: Well, let's start off with Vlad. I'll show a couple of each of your cartoons, Vlad, this is, an impressive one. Are these all of the, the Russians fleeing from the Russian bear and Putin? Or is this everybody in the world fleeing from the grip of the Russian bear?

[00:01:41] Vladimir Kazanevsky: Uh, yes. It's well known that, uh, the bear is a symbol of, Russia for many centuries.

[00:01:49] Vladimir Kazanevsky: And, when, Putin announce, mobilization, many, many young Russians come out from Russia. And, uh, rebuilt, uh, great empire after it. It's, stable is the, that, uh, Russia will destroy after our victory. Ukrainian victory.

[00:02:10] Daryl Cagle: Well, We wish you all the best and, I should say when, the war first started and bombs were going off near Vlad's apartment, he, left and is, uh, living near the border in Slovakia.

[00:02:23] Daryl Cagle: And, you still have your sons in Ukraine and Ukraine to us on television looks terrible. But, you're telling me that life is getting back to normal in Kiev and you've been back to visit, and, uh, you wanna tell us a little bit about how you're doing and how you see things in Ukraine?

[00:02:39] Daryl Cagle: Uh,

[00:02:40] Vladimir Kazanevsky: yes. I, I visited, uh, Kiev City 10 days ago, and, I lived in Kiev City two weeks. And, I have seen many people, Uh, look like happy people because it's spring with some and they made barbecue. Restaurant are walking, medicine is are walking, transport are walking. And yes, it, it is a real terrible war, but, Ukrainian people is strong.

[00:03:08] Vladimir Kazanevsky: Strong.

[00:03:08] Daryl Cagle: Well that's great. And, we're gonna show a bunch of your cartoons in just a minute. This is Rick McKee. Rick, one thing I appreciate about your work is that, you take every opportunity to draw lots of teeth.

[00:03:23] Rick McKee: I do like teeth. Yeah. I like drawing monsters. I think, you know, when I was a little kid, I always liked drawing monsters. and this one is from, uh, 2014. So this is a kind

[00:03:32] Rick McKee: of an older one. This was, uh, I think right after the, Russians annexed Crimea and Obama was getting hit in the media for the perception of being weak.

[00:03:43] Rick McKee: So, Putin's got his bear with all the teeth and uh, Obama's got his bear, which is less intimidating,

[00:03:50] Daryl Cagle: I think in retrospect. Obama really. Was weak and, regrettable that he didn't do more at the time. Yep. Seems that way. Here's a more recent one of yours. I should say that this podcast is, an audio and a video podcast, and most people hear just the audio on the podcast platforms.

[00:04:10] Daryl Cagle: So I need to describe all of these cartoons in words Here you've got, the Frankenstein Monster Ukraine War, taking a bite on, Putin. Putin says a year old. it's a great cartoon. Another opportunity for teeth. Yeah, more teeth.

[00:04:28] Rick McKee: I was in my teeth phase.

[00:04:29] Daryl Cagle: That seems like a career log phase, an excellent phase.

[00:04:33] Daryl Cagle: Yeah. All right. Well, Emad here is a couple of yours. To introduce you here is, Putin at his famous long table, which is, one of his destroyed tanks and dead soldiers. Very nice looking cartoon. Thank you.

[00:04:45] Emad Hajjaj: actually you know, we cartoonists we love to, find key features in any character and, just represent the character.

[00:04:52] Emad Hajjaj: To that feature. when I saw the table for the first time, I, I thought it would be a good thing to start. And it looked to me like a big weapon. It looked to me like a big rocket. This is one variation, of man cartoons I did about Putin's big table. So we see it here, has a big, uh, green Russian tank with the letter Z on it destroyed.

[00:05:14] Emad Hajjaj: And we'll find Mr. Putin sitting there, trying to look, that he's in control, but he's not

[00:05:20] Daryl Cagle: You, are drawing from Amman, Jordan, and, uh, your cartoons appear in an Arabic language paper that's published in London.

[00:05:28] Daryl Cagle: what is the view of Ukraine War? in the Middle East, is Russia universally seen as the evil aggressor as it is most of the world? I think, uh,

[00:05:39] Emad Hajjaj: let me phrase it like this. We here live in a war zone in the Middle East, very troubled region follow war in Lebanon, Palestine, Iraq, and I did the cartoon about this once.

[00:05:50] Emad Hajjaj: That it is really, really annoying feeling sometimes. To see the war pops up in a distant place. The Middle East sometimes some people here will make a joke about it. Oh, at last it's out outside the, the Middle East. But of course, war is a very awful thing, very terrible thing for me as a cartoonist. My family and me live part of our lives as refugees, and I know how difficult it is for refugees.

[00:06:16] Emad Hajjaj: How, how the suffering, how, how it is difficult to change their places. And the war is a very, very terrible thing. And let me express my false solidarity with the Ukrainian nation in this horrible thing that we are living. That's why when I started drawing about Putin, I was already drawing about his, horrible, uh, deeds in Syria.

[00:06:38] Emad Hajjaj: He was bombing cities and schools and hospitals, and he did the same in Ukraine. So it was for me, uh, it, it was going on the same continuous theme about Mr. Putin. Now with his big table.

[00:06:51] Daryl Cagle: It does take attention away from the Middle East, when the world is quiet and the Middle East is always, having terrible troubles.

[00:06:59] Daryl Cagle: Unfortunately, we're, we're used to the Middle East, dominating the news, and now we don't get much Middle East news at all. The, the rest of the world has gotten worse.

[00:07:09] Emad Hajjaj: Yes, it is. It is also, it's my, my problem as a cartoonist. Uh, you see, I, I deal with, uh, editors and they sometimes will, they, they will ask for, uh, ask me to draw cartoon about, local issues, to do something about, uh, uh, Syria, Iraq.

[00:07:24] Emad Hajjaj: Well, I want sometimes to know something about the Ukraine. And, uh, I should say this young to be frank and, straight with you. Unfortunately, I think the majority, at least in in Jordan, most of the frustrated people, frustrated Arab, uh, will, will be in favor of Mr. Putin. we are shortsighted, Yet there is many, many people here are with, with Ukraine.

[00:07:47] Emad Hajjaj: I am one of these people who support Ukraine people, but it's not a popular, opinion here. Most of the people here, let me say, they believe, that, Russia will make a balance in the world and that will bring justice to Middle East. And this is, I believe it, it's totally wrong.

[00:08:04] Emad Hajjaj: And, what we need is, ending all kind of world, all kind of violence, all kind of big nation, just swallowing small nations. This has to stop.

[00:08:16] Daryl Cagle: And it's interesting to me this third world notion about, Russia being a, a balancing force and, The eagerness to do business with Russia, looking at the West leaving as an opportunity.

[00:08:27] Daryl Cagle: it doesn't seem like there are enough horrors that, Russia can perpetrate to get it through people's heads. Uh, it's very disturbing to see the third world reaction to Russia.

[00:08:38] Emad Hajjaj: We had to note something that, uh, the, the worst part of this world, Daryl, is, that media part. fake news part that, let me call it. Uh, and unfortunately it's, it's making some effect, big effect in many, many sector of people, and some people do believe, some kind of prop propaganda.

[00:08:57] Emad Hajjaj: I know, I know this because I, I'm engaged somehow with discussions every day with the, the people who on my page, on Facebook and Twitter and on another social media platform. And I spent lots of time just to try to figure out what is. Really happening, and you'll discover that many people are discussing fake news, rumors, uh, or, fake photos.

[00:09:21] Emad Hajjaj: and, unfortunately it's very, very popular here in our region, Arabic region. You should, you should, you should know that there's a high level of literacy and there's, uh, big frustration because we don't have peace. We don't have political justice in our regions. We feel frustrated, about the west, about the United States.

[00:09:43] Emad Hajjaj: They are not being objective with us. and that's why we find, uh, many of them adopting the Russian narrative or the Russian, uh, way of, looking at this war,

[00:09:54] Daryl Cagle: I'm gonna show a couple here from Bill Day Hey, here you've got Vladimir Putin pointing at his third nipple, Ukraine.

[00:10:01] Daryl Cagle: I gotta say I don't quite understand the third nipple. I I saw that James Bond movie, where the bad guy, was it? Scaramonca? The Man with the Golden Gun has a third nipple and, James Bond. puts a third fake nipple on himself. that's the only third nipple reference I know. What's, what's going on here?

[00:10:20] Bill Day: I don't remember exactly uh, what was going on at the time, cuz I drew this so long ago. But, um, I think I was trying to say that he, they own the Ukraine. He owns the Ukraine, it belongs to him.

[00:10:31] Daryl Cagle: Very good. Uh, here's another one of yours. I noticed too that, Putin and, uh, the Ukraine War kind of gets American cartoonist drawing more in an international style.

[00:10:42] Daryl Cagle: I mean, this could have been a world cartoonist and of course, Putin is a monster that fits into many situations.

[00:10:48] Bill Day: Basically I'm having him as a, gasoline pump. we're, we were trying to cut off the oil, the gasoline oil, uh, for Putin.

[00:10:55] Bill Day: So that's what, that was the time I was drawing it.

[00:10:58] Daryl Cagle: Okay, well, I've got some bigger batches of your stuff. Here's a couple of mine, Putin with his buddies, Modi and Xi Jinping. and, uh, here is Putin with all the countries he wants to, uh, devour and digest and reconstitute the U S S R.

[00:11:14] Daryl Cagle: this is one of those cartoons that no editor's gonna print. I was gonna ask you, you know, sometimes this is, sometimes we draw cartoons just for ourselves. And, I'm guilty of that too. But, um, I'm very tolerant of it when you guys draw cartoons just for yourselves. Have you noticed that? Sure.

[00:11:30] Daryl Cagle: Yeah,

[00:11:30] Emad Hajjaj: I do that too.

[00:11:32] Daryl Cagle: All right. So Bill, here you've got, uh, Putin and he is, uh, vampire Putin in his, uh, teeth are, his fangs are hammers and sickles.

[00:11:44] Daryl Cagle: This is an international cartoonist trope. They draw a whole lot of vampires internationally and, uh, we don't really do that very much in America. I think that's, cuz we draw a lot of devils that you don't see around the world in international cartoons as much as vampires. Here you've got Octa-Putin. He's got all of his arms but two cut off, so six chopped off arms as he's. Grabbing Ukraine and Crimea. What's ...

[00:12:10] Bill Day: Well, I think I, I'm trying to remember exactly, um, I cut off the arms because, following the collapse of the Soviet Union, he didn't have any arms left.

[00:12:17] Bill Day: So Russia itself grabbed Crimea and he's now poised to grab Ukraine.

[00:12:22] Daryl Cagle: So this is a 2014 cartoon you know, that's pretty sophisticated to figure out. That's why his arms are chopped off.

[00:12:29] Bill Day: Well, at the time it made sense.

[00:12:29] Daryl Cagle: Okay. Here you've got, uh, Putin flexing his muscle and he's not, uh, doing very well as the muscle droops,  "Vladimir Schwartzenegger"

[00:12:41] Bill Day: You know, falling oil prices has hurt, Russia, especially their economic system. Cause We have sanctions against them, but they don't seem to be working very

[00:12:49] Daryl Cagle: well. They don't, it's, interesting how well Russia does, with all of the sanctions that we thought would do so much more.

[00:12:55] Daryl Cagle: Here's a cartoon no one would print. you guys know whenever you draw Hitler, nobody prints it. Any, any kind of Hitler metaphor. You put a swastika in a cartoon that just doesn't get printed anywhere. You know that

[00:13:08] Bill Day: I do now. Yeah, well, that, that doesn't keep it from drawing. Um, no. Trump either, does it?

[00:13:13] Daryl Cagle: They don't like to print Trump. They'll, they'll print a few Trumps, but they won't print Hitlers. They also don't like to print bodily fluids, you know, uh, we get lots of blood in cartoons, about the Middle East blood in Ukraine. Cartoons that don't get printed. Maybe it's different around the world.

[00:13:27] Daryl Cagle: You see a lot of blood and Hitler cartoons in the Middle East, don't you? Emad?

[00:13:31] Emad Hajjaj: Yes. Uh, I guess yes, the, the case is different in our region there's, uh, different standards, uh, the way you look at cartoon, what is, what, what you find suitable in a place will not be the same in another, But, uh, let me say frankly, even in Arabic newspapers, good Arabic newspaper, now they have some something that matched the Western, uh, standards in journalism.

[00:13:55] Emad Hajjaj: they're not accepting, uh, very graphic cartoons as they used to be in the past. That bloody scene of cartoons that have lots of, graphic scenes in cartoon are not printed anymore. let me say even, Hitler, Hitler or Nazi stuff sometimes is rejected from Arabic newspaper.

[00:14:11] Emad Hajjaj: not because, maybe, maybe some newspaper will be hesitating to publish it for other reasons. some Arabic cartoons still use LER in cartoons about Israel Israeli, uh, struggle. And many newspapers now don't publish these stuff. Some of them do.

[00:14:28] Emad Hajjaj: if you ask me, I, don't use this. I rarely use these, uh, samples, Nazi samples unless there's something very horrific happens or, uh, an idea that, uh, I want pep to be, I had to do it this way. But if you ask me, cartoonists, uh, should have all freedom to represent their ideas.

[00:14:47] Emad Hajjaj: These are dictators, whether Hitler or Saddam Hussein, or Franco, whatever it was. These are very bad people. It's our right as cartoonists to be portray them and throw them in many ways. and I think it's, uh, start of our freedom as cartoonists is to portray. them the way we want.

[00:15:06] Rick McKee: But Daryl, wouldn't you say that newspapers in general have grown more timid in the last 10 years or so?

[00:15:11] Rick McKee: I mean, you know, I mean, in the seventies and the eighties and the nineties, cartoonists were drawing, you know, a lot more provocative stuff in the United States, and it just seems like with the collapsing industry editors are more timid and they're, they're afraid to of losing readers. So they, they don't want to.

[00:15:28] Rick McKee: They don't wanna print anything the least fit for ...

[00:15:30] Daryl Cagle: you know, we saw all of the Gannett papers drop editorial cartoons entirely because they didn't like having left versus right in their papers. That's what they said. you know, that's disturbing. We as cartoonists, we like to, have strong views and hit people over the head with our ideas and.

[00:15:49] Daryl Cagle: editors prefer soft little jokes. Another thing we're seeing from editors is that, they are not interested that much in the rest of the world. Cartoons about Ukraine don't get printed much, Cartoons about Putin don't get printed much. there is, uh, local focus.

[00:16:05] Emad Hajjaj: Can I please? Let me say, in our case, in the Middle East, After the, uh, if you remember the Danish, Mohammed cartoons and what came after, like Charlie Hebdo, horrific events.

[00:16:15] Emad Hajjaj: I think in our region, many people became very sensitive. That includes editors too, and they are, they becoming, uh, very sensitive. When you talk about any religion. Uh, if you put any religion, uh, symbol in your (cartoon), it'll be rejected. I'm talking about. The user that, the newspaper that I will for, if you, uh, drew, I use in the past I used to, have a character called Abu Mohamed, which is, uh, I use it just like, it's very, very popular name.

[00:16:43] Emad Hajjaj: Abu Mohamed is just anybody in the streets, and I used to draw that character for a long, long time without any problem. After this cartoon crisis, the Danish cartoons and. many editors will reject that character .... You have to change that name. It's not good. It's a name of prophet.

[00:17:01] Emad Hajjaj: You've gotta find another name. this is one of the most annoying cases that I faced, and I think the reason is people are becoming very sensitive about many things. Cartoons is a wonderful art. Uh, cartoonists tend to have creative way to make people laugh.

[00:17:17] Emad Hajjaj: and, I think it's our right to, not, of course, everybody is against insulting people and their holy things. Nobody can do that. But it's our right as a cartoonist to deal with our visual world. I am, uh, and human being. I see a most. It's my right to draw it in my cartoon. I'm not insulting this Islam, but it's just add the same, you can say the same thing about the churches or the religion is part of our life and he should have the right to draw

[00:17:46] Daryl Cagle: about it really.

[00:17:47] Daryl Cagle: Well, I, I think you make a good point. It's not just editors that are more sensitive about controversial stuff. It's the readers as well. it's not at all hard to get the readers angry. You should, you see the mail we get. And, I think they're more sensitive than they used to be.

[00:18:02] Daryl Cagle: ... more intolerant of views that are different than their preexisting views.

[00:18:07] Emad Hajjaj: If it's the social media who makes people feel like this or the word itself is changing. I don't know. But as you said it, if you look at the cartoons that were published in the eighties and seventies, when I look at my old works, sometimes I ask myself, can I reprint this cartoon?

[00:18:23] Emad Hajjaj: Now? What would happen if I printed? I wouldn't even dare to publish it. Some of my characters.

[00:18:29] Daryl Cagle: Bill, here's another one. You've got, uh, Ukrainian soldiers shooting a missile into the mouth of the vulture, who's labeled Putin. I gotta say, it's awfully easy to draw Putin when you can just write the ... name Putin on anything.

[00:18:43] Daryl Cagle: And that's, Putin.

[00:18:44] Bill Day: this is actually a follow up cartoon for one I did earlier where actually I had the Ukraine as a dove sitting on the beak of a, of a vulture that was Putin. And as it turned out, the Ukrainians, certainly did not become doves. They, uh, are fighting back and.

[00:18:59] Bill Day: clearly, I've shown, the Russians that they are the forced to deal with. and they did not roll over. They did not, throw their arms up. They, they, they're fighting back with great courage.

[00:19:08] Daryl Cagle: Very inspiring to see them fighting back. It is very much so. that was ... So we're up to you, Emad.

[00:19:16] Emad Hajjaj: This is the big, uh, Putin stable again, and this time as a rocket Luncher When, uh, he met, macaron. I portrayed this way. He was more like threatening him and we see, his stable is popping up with nuclear buttons and Putin himself, I like to portray him with that, tank soldier's hat.

[00:19:33] Emad Hajjaj: I love the shape that it gives ... in his, uh, military love. This way. He looks very fun. This is very good.

[00:19:42] Daryl Cagle: Curious, uh, driving the eraser tank. Looking to erase Ukraine.

[00:19:47] Emad Hajjaj: Yes. I was inspired by one of the, Russian, tanks of, uh, soldier carriers.

[00:19:53] Emad Hajjaj: It looks just ma most likely the, the, the defensive eraser, the old one. And the, I find it a good idea just to make it, as a, a vehicle that Mr. Putin is riding and he's using this tank as an eraser. He's raising the borders between the country. He, he think his his life is to, to invade other countries and, uh, occupy them.

[00:20:15] Emad Hajjaj: this one was published in Le Monde.

[00:20:19] Emad Hajjaj: and this, I love one of, one of my main things, the cartoon is to, you know, is to respond to the, uh, Russian propaganda, uh, that try to portray, Putin as a civilized man who plays piano and respect artists. Uh, so, uh, in the control of that, I portray him in that, photo that portray him as a piano player.

[00:20:42] Emad Hajjaj: Yes, he is. But he's play, he's, playing a very, very horrible, horrible weapon. It's not a piano, it's a rocket that's killing people. Uh, so yes, it somehow looks like a piano, but it is a killing machine. There aren't

[00:20:56] Bill Day: very many, uh, notes on that piano either. Are there?

[00:20:58] Daryl Cagle: Yeah. here he is, uh, driving his, uh, bloody, hatchet tank.

[00:21:03] Emad Hajjaj: Exactly. it's the same theme, uh, it's the same trick or twist I love to do. It is finally a match with, some weapon or tank and adapted to another object. To give you some kind of indicted Oh,

[00:21:16] Bill Day: I like, I like the, I like the z, the flag.

[00:21:19] Bill Day: That's a z.

[00:21:20] Emad Hajjaj: Mm-hmm. Yes. Yes. Good. Good touch.

[00:21:22] Daryl Cagle: Here's another big table cartoon, but the table is, reminiscent of a nuclear bomb explosion. Yes. And, uh, you got the world hanging on and Putin, uh, comfortably hanging on.

[00:21:34] Emad Hajjaj: Yes. Because he pushed the whole world on that edge. on that.

[00:21:40] Emad Hajjaj: ... his big table now seems to me as the mushroom cloud explosion. He's threatening the world with a table with his nuclear weapons.

[00:21:49] Daryl Cagle: Here he is, uh, driving his, uh, missile like a motorcycle and, muddying up the world again. Yes,

[00:21:56] Emad Hajjaj: As I respond to one of his photo, he was riding, uh, a motorcycle.

[00:22:00] Emad Hajjaj: And, uh, he's, he's, he's doing the same, they're doing that, but, but with a rocket launcher, nuclear rocket launcher. So,

[00:22:09] Daryl Cagle: uh, yeah. Rockets are getting to be, the metaphor for Putin here he is as a, I tell you, a jet with a big bloody knife and his bombs flying over Ukraine.

[00:22:21] Emad Hajjaj: Have a very simple construction for his face, and that is very dangerous.

[00:22:27] Daryl Cagle: I think his face is difficult to draw because, you know, just a few years ago he looked very much, he looked very much like a Bond villain. He had this more angular face like you've drawn here, but now his face is round and puffy and he looks kind of like an elf.

[00:22:45] Emad Hajjaj: Yes, our, our, our colleague Marian Kamensky, the Austrian cartoonist yes. know something about this subject, why ... Putin looks so rounded. He said, because he's using lots of products in his face. Maybe, I mean, uh, but if you ask me, uh, I'll tell you that the, the, the basic shape of Mr.

[00:23:03] Emad Hajjaj: Putin is very easy, uh, to, to be sketched and very easy to be manipulated. Let me see.

[00:23:11] Daryl Cagle: Well, he used to be angular. He used to have these hard, uh, jaws and now he's just a circle.

[00:23:17] Rick McKee: Emad, I see you worked, uh, ISIS into the flag.

[00:23:19] Emad Hajjaj: Yeah. Yes. Uh, this is, um, You know, I'm, I'm trying to morph or mix the, uh, the ISIS flag with the, uh, uh, Russian, uh, Russian flag, because I like that.

[00:23:33] Emad Hajjaj: Uh, I saw, I, I saw many, many, crimes, war crimes being committed in Ukraine. Civilians are killed, children, and the cities are born. And, uh, this is similar to what, uh, ISIS used to do.

[00:23:49] Daryl Cagle: Well, ISIS wants to build up this caliphate over the whole region, and, uh, Putin wants to rebuild the Soviet Union.

[00:23:57] Emad Hajjaj: Ironically, he represent himself as, as the fighter of terror in Syria. That he, that he defeated ISIS. But what, but what I want to say in his cartoon that he's doing the same, he's just, it's some kind of a .... We are just a smaller group and, and Mr. Putin is hitting a big state with big capabilities, but doing the same deeds.

[00:24:20] Emad Hajjaj: You are killing innocent people bombing, uh, cities and committing war crimes.

[00:24:25] Daryl Cagle: And Vladimir, now we have a bunch of your cartoons. You've got, a lot of, grim reapers on their knees worshiping the Putin bomb.

[00:24:35] Vladimir Kazanevsky: Uh, yes. I mean that, Putin with ... are made for This is a great job.

[00:24:42] Vladimir Kazanevsky: And, for this, uh, Putin, uh, Putinism, uh, Russia, uh, and politics of modern Russia, it's like religion because, uh, in this way, Putin troops, uh, can't, uh, kill the many, many people. And, uh, It's a new religions now in the world that put in, destroy the world and, uh, they can do it, uh, without something speaking to him seriously.

[00:25:14] Vladimir Kazanevsky: And, uh, here made his great job. And, uh, I think it's, I would like to say about some new religion in the world.

[00:25:25] Daryl Cagle: You know, we, we get news here about the Russian Orthodox Church in Ukraine and how that's really like a branch of, the Russian government, fully pro-war and fully controlled by the Russian state.

[00:25:39] Daryl Cagle: We have some voices here that are, anti-US support for Ukraine, and that's one of the points that they like to make a lot, is that Ukraine is suppressing freedom of religion, uh, by suppressing this church.

[00:25:53] Vladimir Kazanevsky: Uh, yes, but uh, suppressing the church. But you have to understand that religion in Russia support orthodox of religion in Russia, Russian, Putin, and uh, for example, in Ukraine.

[00:26:06] Vladimir Kazanevsky: Uh, now we have a big problem with Russian propaganda across. Russian, church, so-called Ukrainian, church, uh, Ukrainian Orthodox. But Moscow, it means that, uh, many, many, uh, times from Soviet time in the Ukraine existed, uh, some, uh, part of Russian, Russian church. And, they, uh, began to make in Ukraine a great prop for support for supporting Russia so-called Russian War.

[00:26:45] Vladimir Kazanevsky: And, uh, now in Ukraine, we are fighting against this, Orthodox and Russian religion.

[00:26:53] Daryl Cagle: It does seem that this church is just a branch of the Russian government operating in Ukraine.

[00:26:58] Vladimir Kazanevsky: Yes, yes. Across, across religion, they may prop propaganda across religion. And, this, cartoon means that, this, religion are going across, uh, across propaganda, across religion.

[00:27:13] Daryl Cagle: Here's another one of yours, which would not get printed here just because it's got a swastika in it, but you've got a swastika and, and, uh, uh, star of David blinders on Putin, who is, um, dragging his, uh, his Kremlin along, on wheels with, steam pipes. And I wonder if you could tell us about this one.

[00:27:40] Vladimir Kazanevsky: I find the way, uh, own way to go, uh, in this world and here going like a horse and cannot see, uh, outside anything because, uh, he have ideology of, fascism so-called in, in Ukraine. Uh, our parliament, uh, make a law that, uh, rash it like fascism. And now country officially said, that Russias now is ideology of Russia.

[00:28:16] Vladimir Kazanevsky: And, uh, the second part, uh, second side, it's a star, Soviet star. So, uh, ... and that's a Soviet star.

[00:28:26] Daryl Cagle: ... that look, that looks to me like a, star of David. Do you see the little, uh, bit here by his nose at the, the bottom?

[00:28:35] Vladimir Kazanevsky: No, it's star, star from Soviet time. Oh, okay.

[00:28:39] Bill Day: Oh, I like, I like that, uh, drawing of, uh, Putin the caricature.

[00:28:42] Bill Day: Very nice.

[00:28:44] Vladimir Kazanevsky: Thank you. Thank you. And, of course, uh, gas and, oil. It's, uh, the main power of the war. So

[00:28:52] Emad Hajjaj: Mr. Bladimir have, uh, Have a very distinguished way in portraying Putin. I should they say that. And I love the way he portray Putin, especially his mouth. Uh, yeah. I don't know. Yes. But I think he's, uh, drawing him in a very, very, distinguished, uh, like

[00:29:13] Daryl Cagle: you have beautiful work, Vladimir. I'm just always impressed by your work. Here you've got Putin, and he looks like he's using a missile, like a piece of wood to, rub and start a fire. But he's doing that on the big red button that destroys the world with nuclear bombs as he sits on the Kremlin.

[00:29:33] Vladimir Kazanevsky: Yes. Uh, Putin all time. Uh, notice that, uh, he will use the nuclear weapon. Uh, but, the wolf, uh, don't believe in it, in that, uh, because he told, uh, too much, uh, times that he will use the nuclear weapon. And, uh, his, like primitive, uh, man, who was speaking about by Voi in Ukraine, he would like to say that, uh, I will destroy the war.

[00:30:05] Vladimir Kazanevsky: And, uh, I would like to symbolize, uh, this idea in this ka and he's sitting on Kremlin. Uh, you see, he's, uh, very simple, uh, man without clause, very primitive, uh, and, uh, not stupid. It's, he's very clever. He's crime man. But we will see what, uh, he will do with nuclear weapon.

[00:30:30] Daryl Cagle: We've learned that his military is pretty lousy and it's like he doesn't have enough tools in his tool chest left.

[00:30:38] Daryl Cagle: It makes it much look more likely that he's gonna do something with a nuclear weapon. That's pretty scary.

[00:30:44] Vladimir Kazanevsky: Yes, but, uh, he, don't use only nuclear weapon. He used, nuclear Atoms station in Ukraine, to say about, nuclear weapon.

[00:30:54] Vladimir Kazanevsky: So, I would like, to say about this cartoon, that, Putin began, to bomb, uh, Kiev City at four o'clock in the morning and Hitler at four o'clock in the morning. And, the first day of war when I have seen my watch and thought that Hitler at the same time bomb Kiev city like, Putin and Hitler and, uh, after that, uh, first day I thought that, Putin, it's, uh, real Hitler of nowadays.

[00:31:21] Daryl Cagle: Do you think he was making a statement by doing that at four o'clock in the morning? With that in mind?

[00:31:24] Vladimir Kazanevsky: Yes. And, uh, today, just today they bomb at four o'clock in the morning. Kiev city in the same way. So all time, they prefer. to bomb Kiev city at night, uh, about four or five o'clock at the morning.

[00:31:39] Vladimir Kazanevsky: And, like o'clock of Putin, it's uh, bomb o'clock.

[00:31:44] Daryl Cagle: So here you've got Putin, like the cuckoo clock, popping out of the Kremlin, spitting, 3 missiles out of his mouth. He seems pretty evil and calculating. I don't know how cuckoo, though.

[00:31:57] Vladimir Kazanevsky: For example, today, about, 25 missiles, uh, and the 23 was, uh, killed by Ukrainian power.

[00:32:09] Daryl Cagle: I'm very impressed with how good Ukraine is at shooting down the missiles.

[00:32:16] Vladimir Kazanevsky: But, but Putin, every day, uh, doing and doing this.

[00:32:19] Vladimir Kazanevsky: And they very stupid because if here will use, uh, this rockets, uh, these missiles, uh, in the front, in the real war, maybe he'll have a big success, more, more big success than bomb civil people.

[00:32:38] Daryl Cagle: Here you have, a lineup with, Putin pointing a gun at his head, presumably to kill himself as all of his people are lined up to be killed at the same time by the same bullet and in a whole big crowd of people are watching Z-TV with all the propaganda. This is kind of complicated.

[00:32:57] Vladimir Kazanevsky: I know that Russian propaganda are walking all over the world. More than 20 years. And, for example, when I visited, Japan Australia, USA, France, and many countries I have seen on television in the hotel, uh, Russian programs, Russian propaganda under channels, and, uh, did not see Ukrainian unfortunately.

[00:33:24] Vladimir Kazanevsky: And, I understand that, uh, Russian people. So zombify by Russian propaganda, the now about 70%, of, uh, Russian people support, uh, Putin in this war. And, uh, they, uh, in my vision, uh, they saw many zombified that agree to kill himself together with Putin because, uh, Putin will. Uh, beginning of, uh, this war, it means that he will destroy the Russia state and, killed, uh, many, many own people because he don't, uh, calculated how many Russian people that in the war.

[00:34:12] Daryl Cagle: Here's a very impressive one from you, Vlad with, Putin sitting on top of a giant Z that's made up of, it looks like a hellscape of people, uh, living some horror.

[00:34:24] Vladimir Kazanevsky: That propaganda. It's, I mean, death prop hand. It's, I mean, that symbol of the, uh, idea of putting, uh, way in this world idea of killing, people.

[00:34:39] Vladimir Kazanevsky: Now, we know that, uh, me, as many, many Russian soldiers killed by Ukrainian troops, but, every day, new, new soldiers are going to Ukraine from Russia because they are zombify and they hurry to be killed

[00:34:57] Daryl Cagle: Well, you know, we have, uh, an increasing number of, politicians here in the United States that oppose, American support for Ukraine.

[00:35:05] Daryl Cagle: But what they seem to have in common is that they're, crazy right wing Republicans and I think they're kind of are the stupidest Republicans.

[00:35:12] Bill Day: Yeah. We got one here in Florida named Matt Gates.

[00:35:15] Rick McKee: I'm in his district.

Daryl Cagle: Yeah. Well, we laugh at that, but that's terrible.

[00:35:21] Bill Day: Are they serious? We also have, we also have a governor who, uh, came out, uh, saying that, well, we need, it's really just a territorial dispute.

[00:35:30] Bill Day: It's not really him. We should be involved in it, you know, which is, which is ... odd because ... run for president. Yeah.

[00:35:36] Bill Day: But when, when, uh, DeSantis was a congressman, he was, he was all for supporting Ukraine, which is really odd that he's switched positions now, but he's just pandering, to that far right side of the party.

[00:35:50] Rick McKee: Right, that's what he is doing.

[00:35:52] Daryl Cagle: It is pandering to isolationist Republicans.

[00:35:54] Bill Day: He, he's backed off of it, but he, the purpose was to put it out there to start with, so he didn't have to ex actually, say he believes it, but he put it out there for them anyway.

[00:36:04] Daryl Cagle: So here's another nice one from you, Vlad. you've got Putin yanking a teddy bear away from a child as he dreams of this teddy bear being, militarized evil teddy bear.

[00:36:16] Vladimir Kazanevsky: It's, child, it's only puppet for child, but for Putin, uh, this symbol is, uh, militaries more Russia. I know that now Russian propaganda are going to be in the school and. Uh, many, many young people, will studied military in, uh, the schools from the first class, first from the young age.

[00:36:41] Vladimir Kazanevsky: And, Putin would like to be a chief, to put out the childhood of Russian children, because he would like to rebuild empire and. Now we understand that it's very serious problems that in Russia, built a new military society.

[00:37:05] Daryl Cagle: Okay, here's one of mine, I've got the world. This is what the world says, "cease fire". And what the Putin, doggy hears is reload. Mm-hmm.

[00:37:14] Vladimir Kazanevsky: You, yes. Yes.

[00:37:16] Daryl Cagle: and here's, uh, Putin holding up Ukraine with his gun and, uh, the gas tank holding up Uncle Sam. This is, all that a lot of Americans care about.

[00:37:25] Daryl Cagle: Rick, we're up to you. This was, drawn right after the Olympics, or right as the Olympics were coming to a close.

[00:37:32] Rick McKee: You know, they, they had the Olympics in Russia. Can you imagine that? Now, can you imagine Russian getting

[00:37:37] Rick McKee: the Olympics, how far we've come and he's got his Olympic torch?

[00:37:42] Daryl Cagle: Well, you know, the Olympics are pretty vile about putting their stuff in countries that it should not be in.

[00:37:49] Rick McKee: That's true. you know, after what he's done now, I just can't, I can't see it. And, and there was a protest going on in Kiev as the Sochi Olympics were coming to an end. And of course, you know, he sent his thugs in to quell the protests.

[00:38:01] Daryl Cagle: Here you've got Putin sitting on Santa's lap with his wishlist and an elf holding the naughty and nice intel book and says, "this is what happens when you skip your briefings."

[00:38:13] Rick McKee: Yeah, this was, referring to, when Trump was President-elect and he was, just bragging about how he was skipping his Intel briefings and.

[00:38:21] Rick McKee: How he intended to skip them when he became president. So, uh, he's sort of mocking that

[00:38:26] Daryl Cagle: Here you've got, uh, Putin and Trump.

[00:38:28] Daryl Cagle: And Trump says he didn't do it. Case closed. And that's the Perry Mason moment. As Putin's pointing his gun at the 2016 election, Putin had quite an influence on the 2016 election.

[00:38:41] Rick McKee: Yeah, he did. And, uh, Donald Trump, uh, denied it, took Putin's word for it, and, uh, Putin said he didn't do it. That was good enough for Donald Trump.

[00:38:50] Bill Day: Yeah, in spite of what his intelligence told him, and the military told him

[00:38:54] Daryl Cagle: right here, you've got Putin, and he's, got Trump as a puppet to marionette that he's walking around Syria.

[00:39:01] Rick McKee: yeah, I drew this, uh, right after Trump withdrew our troops from Syria, which basically allowed Putin to just slide right in there.

[00:39:11] Rick McKee: it seemed, like Trump had his strings being pulled by

[00:39:14] Daryl Cagle: Putin. You got Putin hoisted by his own pitard. I wondered what a pitard was, and now I can see that it's his underwear hanging on the, hanging on the hammered sickle on the old Soviet flag.

[00:39:29] Rick McKee: Yeah, like Bill said earlier, those symbols are so great and, I drew this, right after Russia had invaded Ukraine and it, was obviously not going as well as he had hoped.

[00:39:37] Daryl Cagle: Here you've got his Ukraine failure blowing up behind him and Putin says, I'm being canceled.

[00:39:44] Rick McKee: Yeah. the whole cancel culture thing, that was, in the news. So I, I thought that was, a good juxtaposition.

[00:39:47] Daryl Cagle: It is. Look at those, look at those wild eyes.

[00:39:51] Daryl Cagle: So, gentlemen, that was our last cartoon. ,

[00:39:55] Rick McKee: I hope, uh, I hope maybe sometime in the near future we, we can stop having to draw him.

[00:40:00] Vladimir Kazanevsky: When I cartoon about Putin, Putin face, I am after that, so tired that I have to sit and uh, to drink after that some whiskey, but, uh, my health don't allow. I have problems.

[00:40:19] Daryl Cagle: Well, gentlemen, thank you for being with us and, uh, Uh, I appreciate all your cartoons.

[00:40:25] Daryl Cagle: You all draw just great Putin cartoons.

[00:40:29] Bill Day: Well, I very much enjoyed this, Daryl, Thank thanks to all of you.

[00:40:32] Vladimir Kazanevsky: Very much. I enjoyed it too.

[00:40:32] Emad Hajjaj: Thank you very much

[00:40:35] Vladimir Kazanevsky: participating.

[00:40:36] Daryl Cagle: Well, very good. And let me say that you should remember to subscribe to the Caglecast. Subscribe to the Caglecast, remember that our Caglecast is available in both video and audio version. So if you didn't see the cartoons, you've just been listening to the words you want to see the cartoons, go to Cagle.com or Apple Podcasts or YouTube or Spotify or Caglecast.com and you can see the video podcast.

[00:41:02] Daryl Cagle: Thank you for, coming today, and we will see you next week. I think we're gonna do a couple of more Putin editions because so many cartoonists have been drawing so many Putin cartoons.  Gentlemen, thank you again.

[00:41:14] Daryl Cagle: All right. And I will, see you soon!

Some excellent Putin Links:

What happens when leaders disregard the truth? Putin and Trump are about to find out, https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/may/14/what-happens-when-leaders-disregard-truth-putin-trump-about-to-find-out

The Vanishing Acts of Vladimir Putin, https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/the-vanishing-acts-of-vladimir-putin

Putin grows increasingly isolated as Russia's war in Ukraine falters, https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/12/30/putin