The effort to shame the politicians -- which targeted Yekaterinburg City Manager Aleksandr Yakob, Mayor Yevgeny Porunov, and Sverdlovsk Governor Yevgeny Kuivashev -- apparently worked.
Photos of the artistically enhanced craters spread rapidly on social networking sites like Twitter, Vkontakte, and LiveJournal.
The Yekaterinburg Mayor's Office initially called the street art "unsanctioned and inappropriate pictures that were polluting the city." But by midday on July 24, work crews were removing the caricatures and filling the potholes. (See YouTube videos here and here.)
A pothole caricature of Sverdlovsk Governor Yevgeny Kuivashev
A pothole caricature of Yevgeny Porunov, head of the Yekaterinburg City Duma
Employees of the road repair service paint over a caricature of Sverdlovsk Governor Yevgeny Kuivashev
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Written by RFE/RL editors and correspondents, Transmission serves up news, comment, and the odd silly dictator story. While our primary concern is with foreign policy, Transmission is also a place for the ideas -- some serious, some irreverent -- that bubble up from our bureaus. The name recognizes RFE/RL's role as a surrogate broadcaster to places without free media. You can write us attransmission+rferl.org
