The British Broadcasting Corporation (the BBC) has not asked the Kremlin for permission to use the image of Russian President Vladimir Putin in its new program, Russian Presidential Spokesman Dmitry Peskov has said.

"No, [the authors of the program] have not asked us for this," he specified.

Earlier, the BBC announced a show to be hosted by a computerized animated character who introduces himself as Vladimir Putin. The cartoon image will be interviewing invited guests. In the add he vows to make the show number one in the British charts, TASS reports.

It will be not the first instance of the image of Russia’s president to be used in a TV shows. Russia’s version of ITV’s Spitting Image, called Kukly, which aired in 1994-2002, used caricature images of many high-profile politicians and businessmen.