I was recently party to the world premiere of Russian stand-up comedian Sasha Nezlobin’s show I’m Фine (spelt with a Cyrillic “ф”, pronounced “f”), previewing ahead of a month-long run at the Edinburgh Fringe. The expectant crowd had gathered to support Russia’s answer to Michael McIntyre in Nezlobin’s first full-hour set performed in English since fleeing Russia in 2022.

Nezlobin moved with his wife and daughter to Los Angeles after falling foul of the Putin regime for supporting LGBTQ rights and speaking out against the war. As one of a handful of well-known comedians on the relatively new and booming Russian stand-up circuit, Nezlobin doesn’t know if he’ll ever be able to return home. Earlier this year comedian Nurlan Saburov was banned from entering Russia for 50 years. Another comedian, Artemy Ostanin, was sentenced to nearly six years in a penal colony for a joke about a war veteran.

Since the early 2000s, I have been travelling to Russia most years to study or research in the archives. However, since Putin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 the UK Foreign Office advises against all travel to Russia.

I used to proudly state that........

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