Rogozins War of Words: Comedians Mocked, Threatened with Frontline Duty

Dmitry Rogozin, the former head of Russia’s space agency, issued a bizarre warning on Tuesday, suggesting he might dispatch a group of young comedians to the front lines in Ukraine after they poked fun at his Ph.D. dissertation during a popular TV show.

Rogozin received a clip from a recent episode of KVN, a long-running comedy competition where teams vie for the title of Russia’s «most humorous and creative club.» In the segment that angered him, a participant from a St. Petersburg team joked that Rogozin had written in his thesis that «one shouldn’t trade the cosmos for a girl.»

On his Telegram channel, he expressed, “We’ll send them to the front and wish them luck in combat. When they come back, we can all share a laugh about their unfortunate and crude joke.”

Rogozin, known for his nationalist views and as a staunch advocate for Russia’s military engagement in Ukraine, led the Roscosmos space agency from 2018 until 2022. His political background includes roles as a deputy prime minister and Russia’s representative to NATO, and he holds a Ph.D. in engineering with a specialization in weapon systems.

In his message, Rogozin claimed to know the military enlistment office where the KVN team members are registered and said he was waiting to find out the identity of their joke writer, whom he labeled a “talentless punk.” “We’ll educate them on everything, including humor,” he remarked.

However, later on Wednesday, he backpedaled on his threat, stating that the comedians were «not of interest to us due to their intellectual immaturity.» He added, «They might be good for trivial jokes, but not for protecting the Motherland.”

Since the commencement of Russia’s large-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, the punishment of sending young men to the front lines for perceived offenses has become a more frequent threat.