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[ItWasMeantToBe19]

(Moscow) – A Russian court on May 11, 2017, convicted a 22-year-old blogger on criminal charges of incitement of hatred and insult to the religious feelings of believers, Human Rights Watch said today. The court gave the blogger, Ruslan Sokolovsky, a three-and-a-half-year suspended sentence.

Sokolovsky had posted to YouTube a prank video in which he plays Pokemon Go in a church. The authorities should take steps to have the conviction vacated or set aside, and stop prosecuting individuals for peaceful exercise of their right to free speech.

“It’s a relief that Sokolovsky is not behind bars, but the fact that he was prosecuted and convicted remains a prime example of the Russian authorities using vague and broad anti-extremist laws to stifle free speech and promote self-censorship,” said Yulia Gorbunova, Russia researcher at Human Rights Watch. “Sokolovsky’s actions may have offended some or indeed many, but they present no public danger and criminal sanctions against him are groundless incursions on the right to free expression.”

The charges against Sokolovsky stem from an August 11, 2016 prank video Sokolovsky uploaded to his YouTube channel. In the video, Sokolovsky is seen playing Pokemon Go, the popular location-based reality game, on his phone in the Russian Orthodox Church of All Saints in Yekaterinburg. At the end of the video, Sokolovsky says: “I regret not catching the rarest of Pokemons: Jesus. They say he does not exist.”

These Orthodox church jerkoffs hopefully experience no happiness in their lives.

https://www.hrw.org/news/2017/05/11/russia-pokemon-go-blogger-convicted

 

[Lkr]

I posted something similar in the gaming board thread, but the complete reversal in Russian culture in terms of religion since the fall of the Soviet Union is mind boggling. I binged all of The Americans since Easter and the characters in it crack so many jokes about religion.

 

[ItWasMeantToBe19]

These guys are sadistic and barely human.

During questioning, an employee of the church Andrei Shipintsev said the comparison of Jesus Christ to a Pokemon had made him “cry on the inside.”

“I wasn't perfect when I was 21, either,” he told the court. “But my mother taught me; the church is the church.”

“I want to help you. I don't want bad things for you,” he told Sokolovsky. “Since we, as a society made you this way, we should educate you. Let those men who you're locked up with, educate you. Most of them are Russian Orthodox,” he said.

“Thanks. They threatened to rape me,” replies Sokolovsky.

“There you go, they're re-educating you,” was the response.

https://themoscowtimes.com/news/how-pokemon-go-led-a-russian-blogger-to-prison-57856

I posted something similar in the gaming board thread, but the complete reversal in Russian culture in terms of religion since the fall of the Soviet Union is mind boggling. I binged all of The Americans since Easter and the characters in it crack so many jokes about religion.

Really though, Mao and Lenin were total dumbasses.

It's way easy to run a dictatorship when you have the church on board.

 

[Condom]

Really though, Mao and Lenin were total dumbasses.

It's way easy to run a dictatorship when you have the church on board.

Good tip, I also think that they forgot to remove elections and actually changed leaders by voting. Really dumb things if you want to be a dictatorship, it's almost as if they didn't even try.

 

[ItWasMeantToBe19]

Good tip, I also think that they forgot to remove elections and actually changed leaders by voting. Really dumb things if you want to be a dictatorship, it's almost as if they didn't even try.

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Mao's constitution called for a "people's democratic dictatorship" where the government would not be elected but would "act on behalf of the people."

Tankies are literally the worst. At least Nazis don't bother posting on this forum.