Take note: when someone tells you not to play Pokemon GO on their hallowed grounds, it’s probably good advice to follow. That’s especially the case in Russia, where they get very angry if you start throwing Pokeballs around churches.
But one Russian YouTuber filmed himself doing that anyway, and has promptly discovered what the cost of that is.
According to an AFP report published by Yahoo, blogger Ruslan Sokolovski has been placed in detention for two months after he filmed himself playing Niantic’s augmented reality game in Yekaterinburg’s Church of All Saints.
The video, at the time of writing, is still online. And there’s no hiding what’s going on: he’s playing Pokemon GO in a church, all right.
The publication of the video prompted authorities to investigate, and upon searching his home they alleged they found evidence of “incitement to hatred and attacks on the liberty of faith”.
A statement from Russia’s investigative committee said Sokolovski could face up to five years imprisonment if convicted of the charges.
Russia isn’t the first country to take exception with Pokemon GO, or the penchant of its players to wander into places where they shouldn’t. Iran banned the game on national security grounds, and Thailand’s National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission threatened to follow suit unless Niantic removed a range of areas from the game altogether.
Comments
6 responses to “Here’s Why You Shouldn’t Play Pokemon GO In A Russian Church”
Hahaahaha that guy is terrible at it.
Only two months til Sun & MOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOON
If I were in Russia I’d be seeking passage out as soon as possible, the possibly impending last years of Putin’s control over the country are going to end messily.
That fellow is also incriminated by a slew of offences like releasing materials online that are disrespectful to people of various religions including christianity and islam. He maintained and printed a magazine alike charlie hebdo, exploited minors and was cought in possesion of narcotics. So he is not just dumb gamer, he is a 22 year old idiot that stepped on too many feet and got what he deserves, maybe even a 5 year jail term.
Perhaps that is actually the case and not just a media release that covers for the overzealous protection of the church and what it stands for, but the amount of people that have been locked up for dissent, resistance or just stating that they don’t like the way the country is run is frankly frightening. Not to mention the mess that is a country with a strongly associated church and state that results in archaic and awful laws regarding homosexuality (to name but one example).
No, Russia is not a good place to be, and it will be getting worse as Putin exerts ever more control over a population that are becoming increasingly left behind the rest of the world (if they are OK with Putin’s regime) and are more and more oppressed (if they disagree with his regime).
You will be surprised how much free speach you get in Russia.
Hell ther is even an oposition radio station and tv channels like Dozhd and Echo of Moscow are not closed.
In Russia you can be in oposition to government, as long as you are clean before the law.
Step over the line and off you go, running to US/UK embassy pleading for protection. Non surprisingly, Washington post and Amnesty International are writing about this duche, while totaly ignoring Ukrainian Army killing Ukrainians with military weapons (much important news), while condemning Syrian Army doing the same. Talk about bias.
Anything that will hurt Russia is on the menu for public broadcast, while West still buys resources and tech from Russia. Two faced doesn’t even begins to describe this crap.
No wonder, Obama is left in the plane on tarmac – everyone is full of it.
probably deserves whatever is sentenced.. you wont have problems if people use common sense