Putin supporters rumbled after Photoshop smear

PRO-PUTIN activists have been caught out in an attempt to discredit one of the Kremlin’s most outspoken opposition campaigners, by Photoshopping an image of him to give the impression he had links with a Russian oligarch wanted on criminal charges.   
 
The doctored picture had been intended as proof that popular opposition activist Alexei Navalny (above right) was funded by the UK-based oligarch Boris Berezovsky (above left), who has been labelled a criminal by Vladimir Putin and the Russian state media for years.  
 
The photo appeared in tens of thousands of copies of a newspaper handed out in the city of Ekaterinburg by activists wearing matching vests that declared loyalty to Putin.
 
As reported in The Daily Telegraph, the ruse was quickly uncovered when the photographer of the original image published it online, revealing that Navalny had in fact been standing next to a completely different oligarch, Mikhail Prokhorov. 
 
The incident appears to be a spectacular own goal ahead of the 4 March election when Putin, currently prime minister, hopes to return as Russian president.
 
There has been some suggestion that the photograph, which had previously never been published, was stolen after Navalny’s email account was hacked. 
 
Navalny, a 35-year-old lawyer who has risen to fame using the Internet to highlight governmental corruption, wasted no time in setting to work mocking the attempted smear. 
 
His blog is now displaying further doctored versions of the image showing him carousing with, amongst others, Chuck Norris, Lord Voldemort and Hitler.   ·