Standup comics investigated after performing parody skit of Tatarsky assassination

State Duma Deputy Yana Lantratova called on Russia’s Investigative Committee to conduct an inquiry into a parody performance mocking the assassination of the war propagandist Vladlen Tatarsky.

Tatarsky, the self-styled “war correspondent” whose real name is Maxim Fomin, was killed by a blast last Sunday, after one of the guests at his public reading in St. Petersburg handed him a plaster statuette filled with explosives.

The two standup comics, Garik Oganisyan and Alexander Dolgopolov, performed a skit, in which Dolgopolov handed a statuette to Oganisyan. The parody took place in a Berlin venue, and there was laughter in the room, according to the video footage.

Deputy Lantratova insists that “humor based in human tragedy is a crime,” and that “society must react” to incidents like this.

The Investigative Committee head Alexander Bastrykin has ordered an inquiry into the performance and its possible criminal content.