Russians get cartoon dance duet treat from Medvedev, Putin on New Year’s

Russians were in for a treat of a surprise cartoon duet on TV, when caricatures of president Dmitri Medvedev and prime minister Vladimir Putin reviewed the year after the latter's official New Year's Eve address.

The two-and-a-half-minute animation, showed the animated versions of the ruling duo as they reviewed their year in a jaunty ditty while playing the accordion and tambourine on Red Square.
 
Both the leaders took turns to sing lines in the song, and when one embellished his performance with a flourish, his partner congratulated him immediately.

At one point the judo black belt Putin slaps his own bottom with his tambourine.

When president Medvedev wishes the Russian people "A Happy New Year for the second time", his predecessor gently reminds him that "one of us has done that nine times already".

And it was not a one-off appearance only—the pair have been added to the cast of Mult Lichnosti, a twice-weekly show poking fun at political figures which runs on Russia's state-owned Channel One.

The station's director, Konstantin Ernst, said that he was not obliged to consult the Kremlin before developing his latest characters.

"We have to be careful. One shouldn't do anything insulting," Sky News quoted him as telling the New York Times.

"In any case, our authors have no desire to insult them," he added.