Moscow, Sept. 21 (Reuters): A Russian regional newspaper is under threat of closure after it poked fun at President Vladimir Putin and depicted him in the uniform of the Nazi Germany SS, its editor said today.

A member of the pro-Kremlin United Russia party has brought a legal action to shut down the Saratov Reporter, published weekly in the Volga city of Saratov, which ran the satirical piece and offending picture on August 31. In a collage, a picture of Putin’s head was pasted onto the body of Max Otto von Stierlitz, a fictitious Soviet spy who worked as a mole in the SS in a cult 1970s film, one of Putin’s favourite spy movies.

Putin, a former KGB spy himself, four years ago personally decorated the actor who played von Stierlitz. “Stierlitz has nothing to do with this. It’s President Putin who is featured there,” Alexander Lando, a lawyer.