A Russian official was branded an "imbecile" by the Kremlin after spotting an earthworm in his plate of salad at a reception and posting a photograph on Twitter.
Tver region governor Dmitry Zelenin posted a photograph of the small red worm on the edge of a plate of salad on Twitter late Tuesday at a Kremlin reception for the German President Christian Wulff and his wife.
"The beef came with live worms," Zelenin wrote, cited by Russian media, adding that, "That's an original way to show that the lettuce leaf is fresh."
But the Kremlin did not relish the joke.
The Kremlin's top foreign policy advisor, Sergei Prikhodko, said he regretted that there was no rule on "firing governors for imbecility" in an interview with the RIA Novosti news agency on Wednesday evening.
"I am responsible for international relations, but I probably should have recommended my lawyer colleagues to include a clause on firing governors for imbecility," Prikhodko said.
He slammed the governor, 47, saying that: "I won't even talk about (his) irresponsibility and stupidity."
Tver governor Zelenin -- who is a member of the ruling United Russia party and is in charge of a important region northwest of Moscow -- later deleted the posting.
The Kremlin kitchens are being checked after the incident, a spokesman for the presidential administration, Viktor Khrekov, told the Vesti FM radio station.
Bloggers jokingly compared Zelenin to the sailors of Battleship Potemkin, immortalised in Sergei Eisenstein's 1925 film, who mutinied in 1905 after they found maggots in their meat.
It is not the first time Twitter has caused a stir in Russia.
Medvedev sent his own first message on Twitter in June, while visiting Silicon Valley and his KremlinRussia account has been updated regularly with "tweets" and photographs.
He has encouraged officials to use e-mail and write blogs.
Despite embracing modern methods of communication, the president last month upbraided Kirov region governor Nikita Belykh for posting on Twitter during a meeting.
In a schoolmasterly tone, Medvedev publicly criticised Belykh for "having nothing better to do."