A Russian comedian is sentenced to nearly six years in a penal colony for a joke about a disabled war veteran, amid a crackdown on dissent.
MOSCOW: A Russian stand-up comedian has been sentenced to nearly six years in a penal colony for telling a joke about a disabled war veteran.
The conviction of Moscow-based Artemy Ostanin is the latest in a sweeping crackdown on those who question the war in Ukraine.
Ostanin told a story on stage last year about bumping into a disabled ex-soldier on the metro, whom he called a “legless skater”.
Pro-Kremlin figures and media outlets spread a clip of the joke online, demanding punishment for insulting soldiers wounded in the Ukraine war.
A Moscow court also found the 29-year-old guilty of inciting hatred and insulting religious feelings over a separate joke about religion.
Judge Olesya Mendeleyeva handed down a final sentence of five years and nine months in a general regime penal colony, according to state news agency RIA Novosti.
Ostanin denied that his joke alluded to veterans of what Moscow calls its “special military operation” in Ukraine.
“I hope no one ever finds themselves in the same situation of brutal legal abuse that I did,” he said in his final court statement, reported by independent outlet SOTA.
After his arrest last year, Ostanin was added to Moscow’s list of terrorists and extremists.
Russia has used such labels routinely to stifle dissent and target opponents since launching its offensive on Ukraine in February 2022.
