German artist sentenced to prison by Russian court for carnival display mocking Putin

A German artist who created carnival performances mocking Russian President Vladimir Putin was sentenced in absentia to more than eight years in prison by a Moscow court on Thursday.

Jacques Tilly was found guilty of spreading false information about the Russian army and insulting religious feelings.

Carnival parades in Germany are famous for their floats mocking a wide variety of national and global political figures and Putin is often a target.

Tilly, 62, has been designing and building floats for the Düsseldorf carnival parade, one of the best known in Germany, since 1984.

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In recent years, his designs depicted Putin scrubbing himself in a blood-filled bathtub painted in the colors of the Ukrainian flag, while another depicted a red-faced Putin biting Ukraine, decorated with the words “Choke him!” »

Tilly previously told German news agency DPA that the Russian criminal proceedings against him were “a propaganda trial of an authoritarian regime.”

“It’s very likely that the verdict against me has already been reached. I suspect it will be many, many years of prison camp,” Tilly said.

“This is an attack on our freedoms. Against the freedom of opinion, against the freedom of the press, against the freedom of satire, against the freedom of jesters. And that is how it is understood here in Germany.”