Pro-Kremlin activist Vitaly Borodin, who methodically files police reports against perceived enemies of the state, has faced an unexpected adversary: Santa Claus.
In a recent letter to Russia’s prosecutor general, Borodin reportedly argued that Santa Claus should be designated as a “foreign agent” due to his popularity in “hostile” countries, which allegedly use the Christmas icon to “undermine traditional values,” according to the media has reported .
However, unlike Western critics of the figure of Santa Claus, Borodin is not concerned with Jesus, but with Santa Claus, the favorite mythological figure of the Russian New Year’s party.
Borodin claimed that trademarks of depictions of Santa Claus are worth $1.6 trillion and warned that there is “a high probability that foreign companies will finance the image of Santa Claus in Russia to undermine traditional Russian values.”
Borodin, according to the same outlet, is known for filing politically motivated police reports against popular journalists and artists, including pop star Alla Pugacheva, actor Danila Kozlovsky and satirical composer Semyon Slepakov.
