“A skater without a leg”: Russian comedian sentenced to six years in prison for making a joke about an army veteran

Artemy Ostanin was sentenced on Wednesday to five years and nine months in prison and a fine of 300,000 rubles (3,200 euros) for inciting hatred.

A joke that costs him dearly. Russian comedian Artemy Ostanin received a heavy prison sentence on Wednesday for making a joke about a legless Russian veteran that sparked outrage among nationalists. He was sentenced to five years and nine months in prison and fined 300,000 rubles (around 3,200 euros).

In front of a small audience, the modest 29-year-old comedian joked last March about how a veteran, who has been traveling on a skateboard since losing his legs to a mine, had run over his foot while taking an underground passage in Moscow.

Although he was not yet a household name at the time, the video of the joke about the man he called the “legless skateboarder” was picked up by war bloggers and nationalists on Telegram, making it go viral and sparking outrage. “In recent years, comedians have often crossed the line and made jokes on topics that are taboo in any normal society,” lamented Georgy Soldatov, director of the human rights center of the Orthodox nationalist group Sorok Sorokov.

Frightened by negative reactions to his joke, Artemy Ostanin tried to flee Russia in March but was arrested by Belarusian police. Asked this Wednesday by the judge about his sentence, the comedian replied: “I don’t care about your judicial practice. No, I don’t understand. »

Found guilty of “outrage to religious feelings”

During the hearing, the comedian accused Belarusian law enforcement of having physically mistreated him during his arrest in the country last March. He claims to have suffered a fractured spine before being transferred to Russia for trial, according to the Moscow Times. According to him, his arrest and the treatment he suffered already constituted sufficient punishment for the acts with which he is accused, he declared during his trial.

Artemy Ostanin was also found guilty of “outraging the religious feelings of believers” and offending Christians over another joke about Jesus deemed in bad taste, which angered Orthodox nationalists.

The judge who handed down her sentence was sanctioned by the US Treasury in 2024, for her role in what the department called the “arbitrary detention” of Alexei Gorinov, a Moscow city councilor who had expressed his opposition to the war in Ukraine, recalls CBS News.

The comedian’s case is part of a series of harsh sanctions imposed under draconian censorship laws enacted in Russia in 2022, following the invasion of Ukraine, which target those who criticize the Russian military.