Moscow, Oct 27: Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin yesterday expressed his “disgust” at the global media for its graphic coverage of ousted Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi's death.
The overwhelming favourite in next year's Russian presidential elections told an election campaign meeting that he found the television coverage of Gaddafi's death immoral.
“Almost the entire Gaddafi family was killed. His body was shown on all the world channels. You could not watch without disgust,” news agencies quoted Putin as saying. “What is that?” Putin exclaimed.
“They show a bloodied man, wounded, still alive but getting beaten to death. And they splash that all over the screen.”
The comments were Putin's first on the death of the Libyan leader.
Disquiet has grown internationally over how Gaddafi met his end after National Transitional Coalition fighters hauled him out of a culvert where he was hiding following NATO air strikes on the convoy in which he had been trying to flee his falling hometown.
Mobile phone videos show him still alive at that point.
Russia had earlier condemned NATO for using its jets to attack the convoy Gaddafi had attempted to use to break through the National Transitional Council troops that surrounded his home town of Sirte on October 20.
