KYIV - Vladimir Putin has asked for political asylum in Ukraine - sort of. It's not actually the Russian president, but Roman Roslovtsev - an anti-Kremlin activist known for staging one-man protests against Russia's strict law on public assembly while wearing a rubber Putin mask - who is asking Ukraine to provide him sanctuary.
Roslovtsev fled Moscow around noon on August 20, leaving the room he rented in the Russian capital and all of his belongings – including the mask – behind, he told RFE/RL in an interview in Kyiv on August 22. He took with him only his Russian “internal passport,” some cash, and the clothes on his back. Fearing Russian security services were listening to his phone calls, he didn’t even tell his mother.
