Colleagues of comedian Mirzalizade condemn his ban to enter Russia

A State Duma MP has treated the ban imposed on Idrak Mirzalizade to visit Russia for a joke as excessive; and the comedian's colleagues treat the pressure on him as a new level of repressions in Russia.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on August 30, the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) banned the comedian, Idrak Mirzalizade, a citizen of Belarus, from entering Russia for life. Mirzalizade, an ethnic Talysh, who has served 10 days of administrative arrest for a joke about xenophobia, has been found to be an undesirable person in Russia, the MIA has stated.

Sergey Badamshin, an advocate, said that after studying the documents, he would make a decision on appealing against the court decision.

The decision of the Russian MIA was criticized by Kirill Selegey, Idrak Mirzalizade's friend and a Russian comedian, who announced a new level of repressions in Russia. "My friend and colleague is being kicked out of the country for a joke about a crap mattress. For me, this is a new level of repressions," he has said.

Valery Rashkin, a State Duma MP from the Communist Party of the Russian Federation (CPRF), believes that treating the presence of the comedian, Idrak Mirzalizade, in Russia as undesirable because of a joke is cruel and excessive. "I consider it abnormal when such harsh and cruel measures of a person's eviction from the country are taken not for actions, but precisely for statements, moreover, of a humorous nature," Mr Rashkin said on air of the "Ekho Moskvy" Radio.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on August 30, 2021 at 06:54 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.