Mikhail Abdalkin, a regional lawmaker from Samara, who watched Vladimir Putin's annual address with noodles on his ears, was summoned to the police. The expression “to hang noodles on someone’s ears” in colloquial Russian means “to fool someone, to lie to somebody.” The regional legislature's procedural committee publicly reprimanded Abdalkin and proposed the Communist party expel him from the organization. This information was published on the website of the Samara legislative assembly on February 28.
The committee on regulations of the Samara regional legislature publicly condemned Mikhail Abdalkin calling his behavior impermissible. Authorities responded to the lawmaker's video in which he mocked Vladimir Putin by watching the annual address with noodles on his ears. In colloquial Russian the expression “to hang noodles on someone’s ears” means “to fool someone, to lie to somebody.”
The committee demands Abdalkin be expelled from the Communist party. The assembly voted in favor of the proposal, but the Communist party faction is yet to make a decision. One of the legislators called the noodle video "a thing that is being replicated, which increases the morale of Nazis." Alexander Stepanov, head of the liberal-democrats faction, wants Abdalkin to be taken to military service. And Alexander Zhivaykin, leader of the United Russia party branch in Samara, claimed that even soldiers in the trenches "stood up without fear of snipers" during the presidential address.
Mikhail Abdalkin informed in his Telegram Channel that he was ordered to come in for police questioning on March 1. So far there is no information on how the visit ended.
Elected officials who disagree with Russia's actions in Ukraine have been experiencing pressure from their colleagues since the start of the war. In June, Alexei Kholodarev, a member of the Yekaterinburg City Duma, was expelled from A Just Russia party. He also spent 14 days in jail for reposting a documentary detailing alleged corruption by Dmitry Medvedev, a former Prime Minister and President of Russia.
Alexander Lependin, a municipal councilor from Kaluga, might be fined for refusing to stand to the Russian anthem. The municipality’s information center says that his action caused "a big scandal." In the comments, Lependin apologized and explained that he "could not stand up" because his legs hurt after exercising. On his page in VKontakte he published a clip about propaganda in mass media; he also mentions the cancellation of a concert by a band known for their anti-war position and quotes lines from a song about the tyrant who declared war on another country. His page status says: "I can't watch politics on TV <...>. It was Vera Rytova of the United Russia party who reported his disregard for the anthem.
