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Charlie Hebdo caricatures on A321 air crash outrage Russian public

The absence of any official French reaction to the satirical weekly’s sacrilegious behavior has made the Russians even more indignant
Flowers at the airport in St.Petersburg Alexander Demyanchuk/TASS
Flowers at the airport in St.Petersburg
© Alexander Demyanchuk/TASS

MOSCOW, November 6 /TASS/. Charlie Hebdo’s satirical caricatures on the A321 plane crash in Egypt that claimed 224 lives have outraged the Russian public. But the absence of any official French reaction to the satirical weekly’s sacrilegious behavior has made the Russians even more indignant.

"The caricatures are overgrowing the boundaries of French journalism. They are so sacrilegious that they require some kind of reaction from the French officials. Their silence will mean their taciturn consent to Charlie’s usurped right to mock and scoff at the tragedy," Alexey Pushkov, the head of the Russian State Duma (parliament’s lower house) Committee for Foreign Affairs, told TASS on Friday.

Konstantin Kosachev, the head of the Russian Federation Council (parliament’s upper house) Committee for International Affairs, has described the cartoons "as another example of consistent amorality."

"It is impossible to try to expand the boundaries of what is possible by breaking the limits. What comes next is inadmissible indifference to moral values and indifference to human suffering," the Russian deputy stressed.

"The Charlie Hebdo journalists danced on the memory of people who died in that terrible air crash. These caricatures will deliver a hard blow at the image of France and Europe where such things are possible," Vyacheslav Nikonov, the head of the Russian State Duma Committee for Education, said.

"The magazine’s actions are designed to foster terrorism which is shameful and insulting for France," Irina Yarovaya, the deputy head of the Russian State Duma Committee for Security and Counteraction to Terrorism, said.

"The caricatures fall short of human ethics," Boris Reznik, secretary of the Russian Journalists’ Union, said.

His colleague Pavel Gusev, who heads the Moscow Union of Journalists, has described Charlie Hebdo’s behavior as cynical.

"There was a tragedy in which people died. What Charlie Hebdo is doing is pure cynicism and mockery at the dead," Gusev said.