Russian propaganda cartoons show Vladimir Putin executing corrupt officials

A pro-government political group has released a series of bizarre cartoons showing Russian President Vladimir Putin brutally dispatching corrupt officials. The clips show political figures accused of corruption grovelling before Russia's strongman leader, before being executed by methods including decapitation and shooting.

The cartoons, called In Putin's Reception, were released by the All-Russia People's Front, which was founded by Putin in 2011. One shows Alexander Koroshavin, the former governor of Sakhalin who was sacked for taking bribes, stammering excuses in the president's Kremlin office, before Putin presses a button and he falls to his death through a trapdoor under his chair.

The punishment often reflects the crime, with a corrupt environment official turned to sawdust with a saw, and a housing official decapitated by Putin using a mechanical grab operated by a joystick.

It comes after the Kremlin launched an anti-corruption propaganda campaign in late January 2016, with Putin announcing that 8,800 people had been convicted of corruption and 11,000 disciplined in the first nine months of 2015.

The US accused Putin of corruption for the first time recently, with a US Treasury official claiming that the Russian President had illegally amassed a private fortune during his time in office.

A film by Russian anti-corruption activist Alexander Navalny was released in 2015 detailing the links between the family of Russian prosecutor general Yuri Chaika and organised crime, and alleges that corrupt Kremlin officials have stolen billions. State prosecutors have refused to investigate the allegations.