A Samara region court has sentenced a 20-year-old man to three years in prison for biting his friend's nose in a drunken argument, permanently disfiguring the victim.
 
The Russian press has gleefully identified the convicted man in headlines about this peculiar incident in the Samara region town of Syzrani, as his namesake is a famous Russian comedian, the ever-corny populist Mikhail Zadornov.
 
There is also a Mikhail Zadornov who is Russia's former finance minister.
 
Zadornov — the nose-biter, not the comedian or the former minister — was three sheets to the wind in January 2008 when he got into an argument with his drinking buddy, identified only as "B.", regional prosecutors said in a statement this week.
 
In his fit of rage, Zadornov grabbed his acquaintance by the shoulders to keep him from resisting and chomped on his nose, investigators said.
 
So violent was the bite that the cartilage in the victim's nose was damaged, leaving his face permanently disfigured, doctors said.
 
Zadornov was subsequently charged with aggravated assault, and while he admitted biting the man's nose, he challenged the aggravating circumstances in court.
 
The Syzrani City Court would have nothing of it, though, convicting Zadornov and handing him a three-year sentence.
 
While rare, cases of drunken nose-bitings are not unheard of in Russia. In fact, a disturbingly similar incident was recorded in St. Petersburg on Christmas Eve in 1910.
 
On that night, a craftsman named Denisov had invited his neighbor Dunichov — also a craftsman — over for Christmas dinner, according to Vedomosti St. Petersburg, citing local newspaper records.
 
After getting stinking drunk, the two men began quarelling, and when Denisov tried to throw his neighbor out, Dunichov attacked his host, bit off half of his nose and spit the chunk of flesh onto the floor.
 
Luckily, Denisov made it to the hospital and had his nose sewn back together, though he, like Zadornov's victim, was permanently disfigured in the face.
 
Denisov took his attacker to court, where during the trial a year later, Dunichov apparently entertained the public with his testimony.
 
He admitted to spitting out part of Denisov's nose but said he couldn't remember if he bit it off because he was "extremely drunk."
 
In the end, he got off lighter than Mr. Zadornov of Syzrani: A jury convicted Dunichov but the judge put him behind bars for just six months.