Channel One, a Russian state TV channel, blurred out portraits of President Vladimir Putin and Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev hanging in the office of a regional governor arrested for fraud in a video aired Friday.
The video footage showed Vyacheslav Gaizer, the disgraced governor of the republic of Komi, standing in his office while it was being searched. As in most of the offices of Russian officials, portraits of Putin and Medvedev were hanging on the wall — but in the Channel One report, the portraits were blurred out.
The same footage was used by other Russian TV channels that made no attempt to conceal the portraits.
Gaizer was arrested last weekend along with several other senior officials and charged with fraud and organizing a criminal group aimed at illegally acquiring state assets.