Russian blogger arrested for catching Pokemons in church

On Sept. 2, Ruslan Sokolovsky, a 22-yr-vintage video blogger from Yekaterinburg, was arrested on suspicion of inciting hate and offending believers’ feelings. The arrest was caused using a video published on the blogger’s YouTube channel. Sokolovsky is strolling around a neighborhood Orthodox church while gambling the well-known recreation Pokémon Go Atticus Blog.

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Why make the video?

In keeping with the blogger, he decided to movie the video inner Yekaterinburg’s Church on the Blood after he heard on Russian Television that playing Pokémon Go inside a church ought to result in crook prosecution for offending believers’ emotions. Sokolovsky, an atheist, criticizes the church in numerous video posts and opposes his attempts to impose spiritual training in Russia. Because early 2016, he has additionally been publishing a mag mocking religion. (As of Sept. 6, the website is not to be had. – RBTH)
Bloggers may want to serve 3-5 years in jail for ‘offensive’ videos. The criminal case launched in opposition to Sokolovsky lists prices: ‘inciting hate’ and ‘offending the emotions of believers’.

Yekaterinburg’s Kirovsky courtroom placed the blogger under arrest for two months. In keeping with his attorney, the decision refused to launch Sokolovsky on bail, even though he is only liable for caring for his disabled mom. Underneath Article 282 of the Russian Criminal Code, Sokolovsky faces as much as five years in prison for ‘Incitement of Countrywide, Racial, or religious Enmity’, and up to a few years in jail or quality of as much as 500,000 rubles ($7,seven-hundred) for offending believers’ feelings.

Church and public reaction

Consistent with Vladimir Legoyda, head of the Moscow Patriarchate’s Synodal Department for Church and Society Relations, Sokolovsky acts like Charlie Hebdo, a French satirical mag famous for its arguable cartoons. Writing on Fb, Legoyda said: “The young man in Yekaterinburg turned into arrested … no longer for catching Pokemons in church but for the motion pictures he fabricated from this entire technique and the very extraordinary remarks he made. Archpriest Dimitry Smirnov proposed public punishment for the blogger. In an interview with the Moscow

Calling radio station, he joked that Sokolovsky needed to ‘be impaled’. “You could catch Pokemons to your closet or at the sauna. A church is a prayer residence. It isn’t a place to play soccer, drink coffee, engage in idle communication, or catch Pokemons. It’s miles a special region reserved most effective for prayer and holy sacraments,” the archpriest said. For his part, Yekaterinburg mayor Yevgeny

Royzman voiced guide for Sokolovsky. On his Facebook page, the mayor wrote: “It’s far insane. The fellow, of the path, did an inflammatory component; however, a person can’t be arrested for behaving like an idiot, or for missing manners or having a preference to expose off!” Royzman entreated clergy members, and especially Patriarch Kirill, to return to the younger blogger’s defense. As evident from comments on Legoyda’s and Royzman’s Facebook posts, public opinion at the tale is divided. Some accept that Sokolovsky should face crook prosecution, while others see nothing criminal in what he did and get in touch with for the blogger’s release from custody.

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