Source: ABC News
“A German artist who created carnival displays mocking Russian President Vladimir Putin was sentenced in absentia on Thursday to 8 1/2 years in prison by a court In Moscow. Jacques Tilly was convicted on charges of spreading false information about the Russian military and insulting religious feelings. Carnival parades in Germany are famed for their floats mocking a wide variety of domestic and global political figures, and Putin has frequently been a target. Tilly, 62, has been designing and building floats for Düsseldorf’s Carnival parade — one of Germany’s best-known — since 1984. In recent years, his designs have depicted Putin scrubbing himself in a bathtub filled with blood and painted in the colors of the Ukraine flag, while another featured a red-faced Putin biting into Ukraine, which was decorated with the words ‘Choke on it!'” (04/02/26)