Recent incidents involving a kulich Easter cake sparked a social media frenzy. One involved the cake being used as a base for a hookah. The other featured a sex toy. But disputes over what counts as blasphemy are nothing new in President Vladimir Putin’s Russia.

One August day nearly a decade ago, Ruslan Sokolovsky walked into a church in the Urals city of Yekaterinburg, armed with his mobile phone. Later, the 21-year-old posted a video of himself playing Pokémon Go and walking silently around the church for several minutes, against a backdrop of candles and icons. The church was almost empty, and nobody appeared to notice him. At the end of the video, he said that, unfortunately, he missed out on catching “the rarest Pokémon — Jesus," adding provocatively, "Rumor has it that he doesn't even exist." 

Soon, the young vlogger was facing a surge of manufactured media outrage. One TV show brought in a psychiatrist who diagnosed him with mental illness. Another channel asked if the Japanese game causes hallucinations. The regional news outlet Ura.ru urged law enforcement to examine whether Sokolovsky had breached Article 148 of the Criminal Code — the law against “insulting the feelings of believers.” The legislation was introduced after Pussy Riot performed their infamous punk prayer at the Christ the Savior Cathedral, criticizing the unholy alliance relationship between church and state and calling on the Virgin Mary to remove Putin.

Back then, in 2012, the Russian Orthodox Church had responded with anything but forgiveness. It did everything in its power to ensure that the young activists, Nadya Tolokonnikova and Masha Alyokhina, who both had small children, were locked up for two years. In his first public statement after the women’s arrest, Patriarch Kirill said, “The devil has laughed at all of us. We have no future if we allow mockery in front of sacred shrines.” He called on believers to attend a molitvennoe stoyanie, a standing prayer in defense of the faith. Tens of thousands gathered outside Christ the Savior to hear the Patriarch proclaim, from a specially built stage, that these modern “defilers” were just like the foes of Christ.........

© The Moscow Times