MOSCOW, September 15 (RAPSI) – State Duma lawmaker Mikhail Markelov (Untied Russia) has asked Russia’s telecom regulator Roskomnadzor and the Prosecutor General’s Office to stop Euronews broadcasts because of a program in which President Vladimir Putin’s face is used by pro-Ukraine fighters as a shooting target, Izvestia newspaper writes on Monday.

The lawmaker said that Euronews showed a report every half-hour on September 12 in which pro-Ukraine fighters practiced shooting at a target that depicted Vladimir Putin as Hitler.

According to Markelov, that Euronews report was designed to incite hatred and hostility and could be interpreted as the abasement of the dignity of the Russian president and the Russian people who fought and defeated Nazi forces during World War II.

The deputy believes this is sufficient grounds for opening a criminal case against the channel. He also urged Roskomnadzor to ban the broadcast of Euronews, Izvestia writes, citing Markelov’s letter.

This is not the first time Russian authorities have expressed dissatisfaction with the content streamed by Euronews. In August this year, a Euronews program reported Minister Sergei Lavrov as saying that Moscow had proposed reloading the Russian humanitarian aid into the trucks of the International Committee of the Red Cross on the border with Ukraine, but later withdrew that proposal. The Foreign Ministry argued that Lavrov “never said the humanitarian aid would be reloaded” and demanded that Euronews retract the statement and issue a public apology.