On Thursday, a Russian court sentenced a St. Petersburg resident to two years’ probation for leaving a note on the grave of President Vladimir Putin’s parents saying they “raised a freak and a murderer.”

The court found 60-year-old Irina Tsybaneva guilty of desecrating burial places motivated by political hatred. Her lawyer said she pleaded not guilty because she did not physically desecrate the grave or seek publicity for her actions.

The note, which Tsybaneva placed on the guarded grave on the eve of Putin’s birthday in October, read: “Parents of a maniac, take him with you. It causes so much pain and trouble. The whole world is praying for his death. Death to Putin. You raised a freak and a killer.”

Ever since Putin sent troops into Ukraine in February 2022, the government has bet on suppression of dissent unseen since Soviet times.

In another case, a Russian government agency added actor Artur Smolyaninov and a former consultant who advised the office of the President of Ukraine to the list of “extremists and terrorists”.

In a January interview with the European edition of the independent Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta, Smolyaninov said that hypothetically he would only take part in the fighting on the side of Ukraine.

Aleksey Arestovich, an adviser to the President of Ukraine, resigned after he stated online that a Russian missile was the cause of the explosion. 45 people died in the Dnieper as a result of the defeat of the Ukrainian air defense residential building.

Other Thursday events:

— A Russian military court has sentenced Nikita Tushkanov, a history teacher from Komi, to five and a half years in prison for his comments about last year’s bombing of the Kerch bridge connecting Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula with the Russian mainland. Tushkanov was found guilty of justifying terrorism and “discrediting” the Russian army. In October, a teacher posted on social media calling the bridge explosion a “birthday present” for Putin.

— Convicted Leader of the Opposition Alexey Navalny said on Twitter that he was returned to the solitary confinement cell only a day after leaving it. He didn’t guess why. Navalny, 46, who exposed official corruption and organized massive anti-Kremlin protests, was arrested in Moscow in January 2021 after recovering in Germany from a nerve agent poisoning he blamed on the Kremlin. He was originally sentenced to 2.5 years in prison for violating parole. Last year, he was sentenced to nine years in prison for fraud and contempt of court. He is serving time in a maximum security prison 250 kilometers east of Moscow.

The Kremlin’s massive campaign of repression has made criticism of the war a criminal offence. In addition to fines and prison terms, the defendants were fired, blacklisted, branded as “foreign agents” or fled Russia.

MARCIA BIGGS:

Former commander of coalition forces in Iraq, Lieutenant General Stephen Townsend, recently listed 81 locations where bombs had been dropped but had not yet exploded.

Facilities used to manufacture weapons were often on the list of important targets for the coalition. So now these places are twice as likely to contain dangerous items.

So, once it was a workshop for electrical engineering students. You can still see the lab tables here. In 2015, it was hit by an airstrike. After that, university staff found instructions for making a bomb among the wreckage. It was most likely an ISIS bomb factory and, judging by the crater, a very valuable target.

Despite the damage, Dean Alubaidi says he will be holding classes in other buildings this fall until the campus is ready. He expects enrollment to be in the thousands of students who lost three years of schooling during the fighting and don’t want to lose another.

If the last minute twist on the Oscars was visible repeating all the latest twists and turns in American culture lately – Super Bowl, elections – stupid five minute segment Of note earlier in the night is what he captured of the country’s ongoing tensions and tastes for iPhone peripherals.

Host Jimmy Kimmel’s team set up a tour bus with ostensibly “real” tourists who entered the room expecting a museum exhibit about the Oscars, only to find themselves in the middle of the action instead. “Welcome to the Dolby Theatre,” Kimmel announced. “This is the location of the Academy Awards, which is basically happening right now.”

This part was both funny and quirky: a strange microcosm of Hollywood’s relationship with America, America’s relationship with the media, and Jimmy Kimmel’s ability to make things a little more awkward than it needs to be.

Hunger for folk heroes (and memes)

At the front of the crowd was the man who would become a breakout star, “Gary from Chicago.” In the tuxedo room, he was dressed in basketball shorts, a baseball cap and a Hollywood sweatshirt with gender-progressive touches of a purple phone case and a bag that could have been his fiancée’s handbag. If the brilliant ambush frightened him, he did not show it, happily introducing himself to the stars and caustically responding to Kimmel’s jokes. On social media, pop culture’s craving for quirky symbolic everything – see: Ken Bone, Joe the Plumber – fast made itself known. Just like traction various corporate marketing teams.

Our collective phone addiction

About a dozen tourists seemed to understand what was happening, at different speeds and with different emotions – fear, delight, indifference – but they all had in common the fact that they held their phones in front of their faces. “You know we’re on TV so you don’t have to,” Kimmel said as Gary continued to rent a room. His response: “I know, but I want to. I want.”

The phone accessories themselves could have served as a post-show fashion column: one woman had a sparkling jeweled case, another had a selfie stick as if it were a talisman. With the devices in hand, the group attracted celebrities for selfies; Gary even gave his phone to Mahershala Ali when he posed with the acting Oscar.

For tourists, it was a rare chance to see in the flesh people who were usually seen only on the screen. However, they still insisted on having a screen between them.

Piercing the Hollywood bubble…

In an age when Americans were keenly aware of how isolated its various niches were—politically, socially, geographically—ordinary citizens from across the country were literally brought in by bus for cultural exchange with the cultural elite. The stars greeted them warmly: Ryan Gosling gave Gary some kind of gift, Jennifer Aniston handed over sunglasses, Meryl and Mahershala and others grinned and hugged. Denzel Washington even “married” Gary and his fiancée Vicki, although it must be said that the particular cinematic icon seemed to be in a bit of a rush to get back into his seat.

… or amplification

Oscar (host) So White

The tourists were a mixture of white, black and brown men and women. But Kimmel made this diversity seem anything but normal by using weary humor about “funny” names, that is, names unusual for white Americans. When the tourists entered the room, he made the crowd shout “MAHERSHALA!”, the name MoonlightWinner in the category “Best Supporting Actor”. Kimmel later reacted with horror when an Asian woman told Kimmel that her name rhymed with “jewelry”. When her husband said his name was Patrick, Kimmel replied with feigned relief, “See, that’s the name.”

At an event that has recently been accused of white supremacy, this was a pretty dumb thing to do. But Gary, of course, helped blow it off. “I think you are ignoring white celebrities,” Kimmel said. Gary: “Because I am!”

Live broadcast madness

My stress reflexes were in full swing watching the segment, and judging by the cringing reaction on Twitter, I wasn’t alone. It’s possible that the tourists were just actors, or at least more trained than we thought. But nonetheless, the spectacle of chaos in a space as well-staged, as widely viewed and culturally rich as the Oscars was breathtaking. At the very end of the night, viewers would be reminded of what makes such live TV shows so exciting – the possibility of catastrophes and miracles.