“Anora is having a good night,” the comedian said, referring to the success of Sean Baker’s film, which picked up several awards… “That’s great news. Two wins already. I guess Americans are excited to see somebody finally stand up to a powerful Russian.” https://buff.ly/wQITsjg

Oscars’ host Conan O’Brien jokes about ‘standing up to a powerful Russian’

The comedian received much praise on line, with some saying the joke was ‘the line of the night’

I had caught the tail end of that joke, and forgot to look it up to see what had been said, but I fully expected it was a dig at Trump. This article says Conan “seemed to make a thinly veiled dig at Donald Trump’s relationship with Vladimir Putin”. I’d say it did more than “seem to” and was not at all “thinly veiled”. EVERYONE knew what he meant.