Moscow Court Sentences German Sculptor to 8.5 Years for Satire

A Moscow court sentenced German sculptor Jacques Tilly to eight and a half years in prison on Thursday, convicting him in absentia of spreading false information about the Russian military and insulting religious feelings. The 62-year-old artist, known for his satirical carnival floats, created displays mocking Russian President Vladimir Putin that formed the basis of the charges.

Tilly has designed floats for Düsseldorf's annual Carnival parade, one of Germany's most prominent events, since the 1980s. His work often targets political figures through provocative imagery. Recent creations included a float depicting Putin in a bathtub filled with blood colored like the Ukrainian flag, another showing the president biting into a map of Ukraine inscribed with "Choke on it!," and a 2024 piece portraying Putin in military uniform and Russian Orthodox Church Patriarch Kirill engaged in a sexual act. Prosecutors cited these, along with a Deutsche Welle interview in which Tilly condemned Russian military actions in Ukraine, as evidence of the offenses.

The Basmanny District Court in Moscow, presided over by Judge Konstantin Ochirov, imposed the prison term in a penal colony, along with a...