On January 22, Russian standup comedian Alexander Dolgopolov received an ominous letter. Saint Petersburg’s HopHead Tap Room had forwarded to him an official request from Russia’s Ministry of Internal Affairs. It demanded “full information” about a performance he had given at the venue in February 2019. 

Though the Ministry’s letter gave little away, Dolgopolov was in no doubt as to its seriousness. Fearing the consequences for a routine in which he poked fun at the Orthodox Church, Jesus and the Virgin Mary, he left Russia. 

“I knew that if they got hold of me, they would put me in jail,” he told The Independent at the time.

That same day, the Ministry of Internal Affairs press service confirmed his suspicions. An unidentified resident of Orekhovo-Zuyevo — a city 500 miles from the Saint Petersburg venue — had made a complaint, having watched the year-old routine on YouTube. In response, local police had opened an investigation of Dolgopolov under Article 148 of Russia’s criminal code, for “offending the feelings of religious believers”.