The court has fined Mikhail Abdalkin, a member of the Samara regional legislature, 150 thousand rubles ($1,930) for mocking Putin's address to the Federal Assembly. Abdalkin was found guilty of discrediting the army, the Protokol.Samara reported on March 16.
In February, Mikhail Abdalkin posted a video of himself watching Vladimir Putin's speech with noodles on his ears. The expression «to hang noodles on someone’s ears» in colloquial Russian means «to fool someone, to lie to somebody.» On March 20, 2023, the court declared Mikhail Abdalkin guilty of discrediting the army.
Following the incident, Abdalkin, who represents the Communist party in the regional legislature, was given an opportunity to "repent" and apologize to the president. However, instead of apologizing, he chose to escalate the situation by posting noodle memes on his Telegram channel.
This was not Abdalkin's first public stunt. In August 2021, when he was running for a seat in the State Duma, he entered the office of Vitaly Ashchepkov, mayor of the city of Chapaevsk, carrying a bucket of feces. The Communist politician placed the bucket on the mayor’s desk and explained that he had brought a “gift” from the residents of Chapaevsk, to celebrate the city's “growth and prosperity.”