Dueling Calendars

A group of journalism students from Moscow State University posed for a risqué calendar created as a birthday present for Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, who turned 58 on October 7, 2010. Clad in lacy lingerie, the models pout at the camera, with captions like “How about a third time” and (above) “You’ve put out the fires, but I’m still burning.” The wall calendars briefly went on sale for R260 at Auchan supermarkets in Moscow, but the chain denied ever selling them and withdrew them from their aisles after the calendars stirred a riot in the press.

In response, another group of students from the same journalism department quickly organized an opposing calendar, where girls dressed in black pose with their mouths taped shut, next to much less playful questions like “Who killed Politkovskaya?”, “When is the next act of terror?”, and, above, “Freedom of assembly anytime and anywhere?” 

“We have a few questions, and we have posed them,” wrote Elizaveta Menshikova, who came up with the idea, “We will not let them disgrace the honest name of our school,” she said on her blog: