Russia
Punished for listening to Putin with pasta over his ears, he appeals
Mikhaïl Abdalkine, elected from the Russian Communist Party, had shown irony by following a speech by the president, believing that he was “telling him nonsense”.
Published
MP Mikhail Abdalkin posted his video with a tongue-in-cheek comment: “I fully support, I fully agree. Great speech.”
Twitter screenshot
An elected Russian communist, Mikhail Abdalkine, sentenced in Russia to a fine for listening to a speech by President Vladimir Putin with pasta hanging over his ears, is to be retried this month on appeal.
The Russian expression “to hang pasta on the ears” means “to tell salads”. However, the deputy published, on February 21, a video in which he watched and listened, pasta to the ears, to Putin’s speech. Sentenced in March to a fine of 150,000 rubles (nearly 1,600 francs) for “discrediting” the army and the authorities, the deputy of the assembly of the Samara region (Volga) announced on Wednesday, on social networks, that his appeal will be considered on April 27. He denounced his conviction as “illegal and politically motivated”.
Mikhaïl Abdalkine himself published the video for which he was sentenced. He nods his head very seriously, pasta dangling from his ears, when Vladimir Putin evokes “centuries of colonialism, diktat and hegemony” of NATO and the United States, a rhetoric regularly used, in particular to justify its assault on Ukraine.
Defended by his party
The deputy posted his video on Youtube, Facebook and VKontakte, with a comment: “I fully support, I fully agree. Great speech.” The scene provoked the ire of the pro-Kremlin United Russia party, whose deputy Alexander Khinchtein called on the usually very docile Russian Communist Party to “put the rebel elected in his place”. But the communist colleagues defended their comrade.
“Instead of examining the records of killers, crooks and those who actually steal the national heritage, they (editor’s note: the judges) have decided to punish with the ruble a man who has a point of view different from that of the regime in power”, condemned a deputy of the Duma (lower house of the Russian Parliament), the communist Denis Parfionov, in an interview with the Youtube channel Svobodnaya Pressa.
Mikhail Abdalkin crowned his profile in VKontakte with a quote from writer Bernard Shaw: “My way of joking is to tell the truth. It’s the funniest joke in the world.”
The article of law on the basis of which he was condemned punishes by a fine the fact of discrediting the authorities or the Russian army, a text introduced shortly after the start of the Russian assault on Ukraine. In case of recidivism, he would risk prison. Many opponents and ordinary citizens have already served long prison sentences for criticizing the offensive against Ukraine.
(AFP)