Forum - View topic

NEWS: Prosecutors Seek 3.5-Year Sentence for Russian Pokémon Go Blogger

3.5 years!?!? are you kidding me!?!? That's a harsh punishment. No need to pry om their religious customs..but...why!?!? It was a harmless thing, the kid just wanted to have fun. I feel bad for him.

3.5 years!?!? are you kidding me!?!? That's a harsh punishment. No need to pry om their religious customs..but...why!?!? It was a harmless thing, the kid just wanted to have fun. I feel bad for him.

Maybe we should drop the Spanish Inquisition for the Russian Inquisition.

3.5 years!?!? are you kidding me!?!? That's a harsh punishment. No need to pry om their religious customs..but...why!?!? It was a harmless thing, the kid just wanted to have fun. I feel bad for him.

Sigh, religion. This whole reaction reminds me of when crazy Christian groups thought Pokémon was the work of the devil back in the 90s.

Is this the Russian equivalent of hate speech laws? You really have to wonder why they are so afraid of people saying something. Sticks and stones, sticks and stones.

Maybe I can clear things out a bit, as I've been his subscriber and followed the case from the very beginning.

One of our most popular federal TV channels made a statement that playing Pokemon GO in church may cause penalty. Sokolovsky wanted to prove that it's just a hoax as there are no laws forbidding playing a videogame in church. So he did that. He didn't interrupt any prayers, no one noticed him playing at all. He just walked in, filmed himself playing Pokemon GO and left.

But he had had a conflict with one local moronic newspaper and used to mock them in his videos. So they complained about that video where he catches Pokemons and thereafter jokes about their precious Jesus and uses montaged choral song with profanities which simulates religious songs. Song just says something like "what a [expletive] beauty".

Then TV channels catched the case and made slander reports about the video blaming blogger in actual SINGING this in the church, which is beyond ridiculous as the song is a local Russian meme and it's obvious that he added it with montage afterwards. And yeah, they pointed that joke about Jesus being Pokemon is offencive as well as that the church was (actually NOT) the place where that precious tsar was murdered. That caused resonance so this stupid case was lead by an entire team of investigators. As if there's nothing else for them to do.

But the case is not that simple, actually. In his other videos Sokolovsky used to shit on politicians and popes (including patriarch) using profanities. So formally they had a reason to claim his guilt.

The problem is, that controversal law about the religious feelings is an utter mess. One of many rubber laws we tend to get. It doesn't have clear borders so you can use it to claim a person guilty for almost anything as long as you want. Ntm, they judge him by several articles which duplicate each other. It's as stupid as it sounds.

Sure deal, punishment they long for is absurdly harsh. But it's not an exceptional case. Our government is now really toxic and oppressive. And orthodox church gets closer and closer to the authority. It's not only about impudent feeding from the budget (formally Russia is still a secular state, btw). For example, our "orthodox activists" can freely do all sorts of illegal shit like crushing art galleries they find "offencive" for some ridiculus reasons. We have a history of cases I myself consider extremism or, at least, vandalism. And they all remain overlooked. Unlike any complains from the orthodox believers.

And, well, this case with Sokolovsky is just a drop in a long stream of absurd. People here get to jail for questionably "offensive" posts and even reposts via social networks.

Some still do. And they'll blame whatever is the most popular thing among kids. Of course, that being said, the reason why these ideas catch on is because it provides devout, church-going parents with excuses to make sure their kids are as into church as they are.