Late Late Night: FEMEN Protesters Confront Angela Merkel and Vladimir Putin

I heard about this protest on Twitter this morning, and the photos made me laugh out loud.

From Euronews:

Russian President Vladimir Putin and German Chancellor Angela Merkel came face to face – or face to breast – with naked FEMEN activists as they toured an industrial fair in Hanover on Monday.

The leaders were taking in a presentation of a new Volkswagen model when the four women started chanting “f… dictator”. The activists had the same words painted in black ink across their chests and were eventually overpowered by security guards.

Merkel and Putin were attending the Hanover Messe in northern Germany, where Russia is this year’s guest country. Photos taken afterwards suggest they saw the funny side of the protest, if not the motivation behind it.

Here’s some video of the confrontation. It looks like Three Stooges skit.

The Daily Telegraph reports:

On their Facebook page, Femen said the protest was an “anti-dictatorial attack on Putin”. The group criticised the Kremlin, Russia’s Federal Security Service and the Russian Orthodox Church, saying that Femen was against “dictatorship, homophobia and theocracy”.

Femen protests have included burning a Salafist flag in front of the Grand Mosque in Paris, and chopping down an Orthodox cross with a chainsaw.

The group has criticized Mr Putin over the arrest and conviction of the feminist punk band Pussy Riot, for performing an anti-Putin song in a Moscow cathedral last year.

Russia has urged German authorities to punish the protesters. “This is ordinary hooliganism and unfortunately it happens all over the world, in any city. One needs to punish (them),” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.

More photos

Putin sees something he likes

Chaos ensues

Merkel and Putin get the giggles

And laugh heartily

This is an open thread, obviously.