Russian official sacked for making boys kiss his feet

A regional Russian official sacked for forcing a group of teenagers to kiss his feet has defended his actions, claiming he was merely repeating a lesson he had learned in the Red army.

The official, Difkat Khantimerov, was fired over the weekend after a video posted on YouTube exposed the bizarre incident. The official took charge of a PE lesson and ordered a basketball squad to perform a series of arduous press-ups. He then stuck out his right shoe and ordered the boys to kiss it.

With the teenagers struggling to carry out his request, Khantimerov barked out a series of military-style commands, including "Harder!" "One, two!" and "Kiss!". The clip shows him withdrawing his foot. He then crouches down, and lays his hand flat on the gym floor to be kissed instead.

The extraordinary episode took place in Bashkortostan, a largely Muslim region of southern Russia in the Urals. On Saturday the republic's president, Rustem Khamitov, said he was "relieving the official of his duties" after watching the video on the internet.

"This looks like an outrage, an insult against schoolchildren," the president said, according to Russian news agencies. The president was "indignant to the bottom of his soul," his press secretary, Airat Murzagaleev, said today.

Muzagaleev said the official had given "a strange and not very convincing" explanation for his behaviour: "He told us he had experienced the same thing in the Red army. He said he believed today's youth weren't disciplined and needed to be properly educated." Khantimerov was the head of the Ermekeyev district, Muzagaleev said.

The dismissal represents another victory for Russia's vigilant and politically active blogosphere. Faced with a hostile judicial system that sides with the rich and well-connected, bloggers have taken to posting compromising material online, forcing the authorities to take action.

According to the website newsru.com, Khantimerov mounted a massive effort to identify the person who had shot the footage on their mobile phone, and even contacted the local phone company. His search was in vain.

The video was taken earlier this year and has attracted more than 150,000 clicks on YouTube since it was broadcast this weekend on federal television. It has provoked a wave of comments, most of them hostile. Several bloggers today condemned the official as a "monster".

Russia's presidential children's envoy, Pavel Astakhov, also condemned the foot-kissing incident, describing it as "another case of cruel treatment of children". A few commenters, however, defended him. One, valet176, said that he had done nothing wrong, and noted that the basketball court had recently been renovated.