On-stage parody of Russian propagandist Vladlen Tatarsky’s murder sparks uproar

Two Russian comedians based in Europe have received a spate of threats after they parodied the violent death of a military blogger for the war earlier this week.

At a concert in Berlin this week, Alexander Dolgopolov and Garik Oganisyan recreated the moments before the bomb blast that killed Vladlen Tatarsky at a cafe in St Petersburg on Sunday, with Dolgopolov approaching Oganisyan on stage to present him with a bronze statue . Oganisyan then thanked him and placed the statue next to him before grinning at the audience, prompting applause and roaring laughter.

Apparently, listeners were aware that just as Tatarsky was setting down his gifted statue, a bomb went off, killing him instantly at a “patriotic” event. The pro-war hardliner was portrayed by the Kremlin as a martyr for the war against Ukraine, with Vladimir Putin posthumously awarding him the Order of Courage and posters erected in some cities to pay tribute to him.

When video of Dolgopolov and Oganisyan’s parody went viral, Russian lawmakers and propagandists have called for a full criminal investigation.

“Humor about human tragedy is a crime. People want cheap blood glory. Society must react. It is in our power to make them understand that we don’t need blasphemous humor,” lawmaker Yana Lantratova wrote on Telegram, announcing that she had formally asked the investigative committee to watch the comedians’ skit.

She praised Tatarsky, real name Maxim Fomin, for his ability to “tell the truth” and compared him to other Kremlin “heroes” who met fiery ends, such as Daria Dugina and Motorola, the Russian car wash employee, who became a warlord in Donetsk, Ukraine, who was blown up in his apartment in 2016.

The Prosecutor General’s Office is already investigating the two stand-up comics, according to pro-Kremlin online news agency Mash, which reports they could face charges of extremism or justifying terrorism.

Dolgopolov and Oganisyan have also provoked the wrath of Tatarsky’s war bloggers and hardliners, with the Rusich mercenary unit sharing a call for them to be sent on assault missions to Ukraine “so they’ll come to their damn sense and at least something male will wake up in them.” .”

Vladimir Solovyov, one of the Kremlin’s most rabid mouthpieces, called for the two “humiliators” to be jailed for “discrediting” the war.

“These two assholes need to be arrested for aiding and abetting terrorism or we won’t be able to deal with this infection. We must arrest them and convict them as accomplices. As did everyone who laughed at that ‘joke’ in the video,” wrote another popular pro-war Telegram channel, suggesting even chasing members of the audience.

Russian investigators have blamed Ukrainian special services for Tatarsky’s death and charged a 26-year-old Russian woman with committing the death.

Before his death, Tatarsky, who previously fought alongside pro-Russian forces in Donbass, attracted hundreds of thousands of followers on social media with his reckless calls for attacks on Ukraine.

When the Kremlin illegally annexed four regions of Ukraine last September, he declared: “I congratulate everyone, everyone who has waited until this moment. We will defeat everyone, we will kill everyone, we will rob everyone we need. Everything will be the way we like it.”