Russian political satire in poetic form

The "Citizen Poet" project in Moscow, apparently conceived by three friends after a night of heavy drinking, retrofits familiar Russian poems as mocking verse, poking fun at politicians like Dmitri Medvedev and Vladimir Putin.

The three men behind the project -- poet Dmitri L. Bykov, actor Mikhail O. Yefremov, and producer Andrei Vasiliev -- post weekly videos of the poems online and have developed an audience of millions. A recent New York Times article explores the project's surprising popularity:

 "Citizen Poet" has managed to engage Russians who are politically passive but nonetheless alienated, much as Jon Stewart did with "The Daily Show" during George W. Bush’s presidency.

"The government feeds us," said Mr. Vasiliev, a longtime journalist, as he waited to take the stage as master of ceremonies, drinking what seemed not to be his first cocktail. "This is not a joke. The sillier they behave, the better our show is [...] They nourish us."

But in a country where political journalists have been killed for reporting too aggressively, this kind of criticism can be dangerous. Vasiliev doesn't seem particularly concerned, partly because of the form that his criticism takes:

Mr. Vasiliev likes to joke that they would be in jail already if their critiques were not presented in the style of classic poets. He recalled getting a worried call from Mr. Yefremov’s mother, and responding: "How can they lock him up? He’s Lermontov! He’s even wearing a jacket!"

Mr. Yefremov, for his part, said the project had no political purpose. He described himself as "not Putin’s fan," but said that the political alternatives make any change of leadership unappealing.

"I'm afraid that it will be even worse," he said. "That frightens me much more."

Anyway, he added, every king's court includes a jester.

"I think it's good that they don’t notice us so far, or pretend that they don’t," he said. "Maybe this thing is too small for them, for what they are doing." Otherwise, he added jovially, "I might be on a train to Magadan."

Um, ha ha? Read the whole article here, which includes a few translated poems.