The Tagansky District Court in Moscow has received a request from investigators to arrest stand-up comedian Sasha Dolgopolov in absentia, according to Mediazona.
The case against the comedian was opened under Part 4 of Article 354.1 of the Russian Criminal Code, which criminalizes insulting the memory of defenders of the Fatherland online. In May, the Moscow prosecutor's office demanded that criminal proceedings be initiated.
According to the supervisory agency, Dolgopolov's performance, published no later than December 20, 2024, contained "insult to the memory of the defenders of the Fatherland, humiliation of the honor and dignity of veterans of the Great Patriotic War, as well as belittlement of the significance of their feat." Which specific joke drew the complaints was not specified.
Telegram channels Baza and "Ostorozhno, Moskva" linked the complaints to the comedian's remark about walking around Berlin. Mediazona notes that on December 20, a recording of Dolgopolov's concert in Germany was published on his YouTube channel. The comedian currently lives in Germany.
Sources differ: the Moscow prosecutor's office claims that the comedian's performance contained an insult to the memory of the defenders of the Fatherland, without specifying the specific joke; Baza and "Ostorozhno, Moskva" cite the remark about walking around Berlin as the reason, while Mediazona only suggests that the concert from December 20 is in question.