A Russian Youtuber by the name of Ruslan Sokolovsky is facing up to five years imprisonment for playing Pokemon Go in a church. Sokolovsky uploaded a video of himself playing the game in the Church of All Saints in Yekaterinburg in August; which resulted in an investigation from the Russian authorities.
Sokolovsky is currently being charged with inciting hatred and offending religious sensibilities; supposedly because the police had warned people against playing Pokemon Go in churches. The YouTuber had also published other videos criticising the Russian church.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PfMn1yahGYk
The thing is that Pokemon Go has not been officially launched in Russian, not that it has stopped many Russians from playing the game. Naturally, Russian authorities remain suspicious of the game, with communications minister Nikolai Nikiforov saying he believes the game was designed with the help of “intelligence services.”
Not everyone agrees with the arrest, and the #FreeSokolovsky hashtag is being tweeted to show support for the YouTuber. The mayor of Yekaterinburg has similarly declared that the arrest was a “disgrace” and that “you can’t arrest a man for idiocy.”
Sokolovsky’s supporters are also planning to gather in the Kazan Cathedral in St Petersburg to play Pokemon Go as a sign of protest against the arrest.
[Source: The Guardian]
