Moscow's Tagansky District Court authorized the arrest in absentia of comedian Sasha Dolgopolova (also known as Sasha Kapadya). A criminal case has been opened against her for the rehabilitation of Nazism. The prosecutor's office had previously pushed for the comedian to be prosecuted.
What exactly is the comedian accused of?
One of Dolgopolova's performances prompted the criminal prosecution. The prosecutor's office concluded that during a stand-up show, she made a statement aimed at “humiliating veterans of the Great Patriotic War,” “insulting the memory of the defenders of the Fatherland,” and “downplaying the significance of their heroic deeds.”
Investigators took an interest in a joke about the comedian walking around Berlin:
“Sometimes I walk around Berlin and think, ‘Wow, they killed my grandfather.’”
This presumably refers to footage from a solo show published on the comedian's YouTube channel in December 2024.
Who is Sasha Dolgopolova?
- Career: Sasha began performing in the mid-2010s and became one of the leading figures in Russian alternative comedy as a resident of Moscow's Stand Up Club No. 1. In 2018, blogger Satyr called her “Russia's most underrated comedian,” and a year later she was interviewed by Yury Dud.
- Identity: Until the fall of 2022, the performer was known as Alexander Dolgopolov, but later came out as a nonbinary person. Sasha also publicly supports feminism and has spoken openly about being polyamorous.
- Emigration: Sasha first ran into trouble with Russian law enforcement in January 2020 after someone reported her for “an innocuous joke about Jesus Christ.” She temporarily left the country at the time but returned two months later. The comedian left Russia for good after the full-scale invasion of Ukraine began.
Previously, Sasha was generally referred to using feminine pronouns (“she”), but recently Dolgopolov has been using the pronoun “he” on social media. We use both in this article.
Where is she now?
Sasha Dolgopolov currently lives in Germany. He continues to perform comedy and recently released his first stand-up special in English. At the time of publication, the artist is beyond the reach of Russian law enforcement agencies.
0 comments
Enter your email — we’ll send you a one-time code. No passwords or accounts.
Code sent to
If the email doesn't appear in your inbox within a few minutes, check your spam, junk, or promotions folder, as some email services may mistakenly place automated messages there