Cartoon realities expose identity weakness.

(July 15 2010) -- This week a Moscow court rendered a decision that some say could constrain artistic expression throughout Russia for years to come. In 2007, Yuri Samodurov and Andrei Erofeev curated an art exhibition at Moscow's Sakharov Center titled "Forbidden Art 2006." On Monday, a Moscow court convicted them of public actions aimed at inciting hatred and hostility on religious grounds, marking the latest battle in a long war that pits Russia's Orthodox Christian "patriotic" right against a liberal left.

The Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy began after 12 cartoons depicting the prophet Mohammed were published on 30 September 2005. It had made a request to forty artists to create a caricature of Muhammad to illustrate an article on self censorship and freedom of expression. The cartoons were later published by other newspapers.