A Russian comedian was sentenced by a Moscow court to five years and nine months in prison for telling a joke involving a war veteran who had lost his legs in an explosion during the war and had to ride a skateboard.
Russian justice sentenced Artemy Ostanin, 29, to prison and a fine of 300,000 rubles, the equivalent of around 3,300 euros, for inciting hatred and disrespecting soldiers fighting in Ukraine. The comedian was also condemned for, in a previous joke, offending the feelings of Christians with a joke he made about Jesus, which would have angered orthodox nationalists.
When reading the sentence, the Reuters agency says that Ostanin apologized to all those whose feelings he may have hurt, but made a point of denying having committed any wrongdoing, justifying that the joke he made about the war veteran did not make any mention of the conflict in Ukraine.
Ostanin, who had been arrested in March 2025 when he tried to flee to Belarus, said in his final statement in court that the process he faced was unfair. “I hope no one else finds themselves in the same situation of brutal legal abuse,” he said, responding harshly when asked if he understood the scope of the sentence that had been handed down: “Screw your judicial practice. No, I don’t understand.”
It should be noted that Russia approved censorship laws in 2022, after starting what it called a special military operation in Ukraine.
Russian human rights group Memorial harshly criticized the case in a post on the social network X, saying that “this case demonstrates how vague laws on extremism and blasphemy are used to silence freedom of expression, intimidate artists and punish humor.”
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