Flamboyant Samara regional lawmaker Mikhail Abdalkin is no stranger to controversy. The 35-year-old communist has made a political career for himself with outrageous public acts of protest in a bid to call out politicians he believes are indifferent to the plight of their constituents.
But none of his colorful protests gained national attention until February 21, when he posted a short video on YouTube showing him in his office silently watching President Vladimir Putin give his annual state-of-the-nation address with limp noodles draped over his ears.
The protest played on the colloquial Russian expression "to hang noodles on someone's ears," which means to lie or deceive them. It was a bold act in Putin's authoritarian state amid a historic crackdown on dissent that has accelerated since Moscow launched its massive invasion of neighboring Ukraine in February 2022.
On March 16, a court in the city of Novokuibyshevsk, a city of some 110,000 people about 1,000 kilometers southeast of Moscow, found Abdalkin guilty of "discrediting the armed forces of the Russian Federation" and fined him 150,000 rubles ($1,975). Abdalkin considers the ruling "politically motivated" and has filed an appeal.
"Neither I nor my lawyer understand what the 'discrediting' was," Abdalkin told RFE/RL's Idel.Realities, a regional news outlet of RFE/RL's Tatar-Bashkir Service. "There is no mention of the armed forces in the video at all…. But the judge ruled that 'discrediting' includes intentional actions aimed at reducing confidence in someone or undermining someone's image or authority. But whose image was undermined, he didn't say."
I have to look for alternatives because people need to know that not everyone is sitting around silently -- that some people are opposed."
In addition, Abdalkin was singled out for criticism on the floor of the State Duma – Russia's lower parliament chamber -- by Aleksandr Khinshtein, a deputy from the pro-Kremlin ruling party United Russia. Abdalkin unsuccessfully ran against Khinshtein in 2018 and 2021.
"I think that if I live to 2026, I will be able to give him even more serious competition," Abdalkin said. "Khinshtein apparently also thinks this and doesn't want me to live that long."
After Khinshtein's calls for the public to condemn Abdalkin, the lawmaker received threatening telephone calls and social media messages.
"I didn't react because this is just intentionally whipped-up hysteria," he said. "I don't see anything extraordinary in what I did. Just an ordinary protest."
'Unpredictable Consequences'
The noodle protest, Abdalkin said, happened "spontaneously."
"Over the last 23 years -- more like 30, actually -- our citizens have been deceived by politicians of all levels from our television screens," he said. "The image of a person sitting in front of a television with noodles on his ears embodies the condition of our society. That is how I wanted to demonstrate my attitude toward what is going on…. I didn't do anything really novel with my protest. I just expressed what everyone was already saying."
In 2021, a Twitter user posted a photo of himself with noodles hanging from his ears ahead of Putin's Direct Line call-in show.
Abdalkin was quick to add that he was not protesting Russia's invasion of Ukraine, which both he and the Communist Party support. A military veteran who is trained in biological and chemical warfare, Abdalkin added he is ready and willing to be mobilized if needed.
"I haven't run anywhere," he said. "I served in the army, unlike many of my peers who bought their way out."
They are going to clamp down even more, so we must express ourselves more carefully. But we must continue to act."
Instead, the lawmaker said, he opposes the social policies of Putin and United Russia, saying they are not doing enough to combat poverty and lawlessness. He insists that all protests be done within the framework of the law, despite the harsh crackdown on dissent.
"You have to act more carefully," he said. "We have to -- as I already said -- we live according to the laws of the state. You can't live in society and be outside of it at the same time. Yes, we don't like this situation. Yes, we consider these laws to be wrong. Yes, we think it is wrong to persecute people for their opinions and to engage in witch hunts because those things can lead to unpredictable consequences.
"They are going to clamp down even more," he added, "so we must express ourselves more carefully. But we must continue to act."
'Metaphors And Aesopian Language'
In 2020, Abdalkin presented the United Russia chairman of the Novokuibyshevsk city council with a lavishly gift-wrapped bar of soap in the shape of a phallus. Law enforcement refused to open a criminal case on charges of "defamation" in the case.
The same year, he appeared in the city with a man wearing a Putin mask on the occasion of Putin's 68th birthday. The man in the mask promised to live to be 100 and to continue ruling Russia and "lifting Russia from its knees for my whole life."
The previous year, he publicly burned an effigy of the director of the city's main hospital. He also posted the text of a thinly veiled "fairy tale" about an imaginary doctor who was so incompetent that townspeople burned an effigy of her.
"The court sent the text for analysis and concluded that despite its negativity and tendentiousness, it did not contain anything impolite or offensive," according to a media report at the time.
In 2021, Abdalkin presented the head of the Chapayevsk city administration with a bucketful of bull manure as a "sign of gratitude" from city residents.
"Over the last few years, protests have been banned," he said. "It is difficult to organize pickets or even to meet with voters. Protest has become almost impossible. So I have to look for alternatives because people need to know that not everyone is sitting around silently -- that some people are opposed.
"If you say so openly, you violate a lot of administrative and criminal statutes," he added. "So I have had to switch to metaphors and Aesopian language."
It is a form of public expression that Abdalkin has called "actionism," and he does not know where it will lead him next.
"In that regard, I do not have any plans for the future," he said.
