A Russian YouTuber could face five years in jail after he filmed himself playing Pokémon Go in a church.
Ruslan Sokolovsky was filmed catching Pokémon in the Church of All Saints in Yekaterinburg at the beginning of August, when the Pokémon Go hype was at its height.
At the start of the YouTube video, which by now has been watched more than 900,000 times, the vlogger refers to news reports warning players could be jailed if they played the game in the church.
A number of Russian figures reacted to the news of Sokolovsky’s incarceration over the weekend.
Russian Orthodox Church spokesman Vladimir Legoyda posted on his Facebook page saying Sokolovsky is a “well-known” young blogger “who works in the style of Charlie Hebdo”. He said he had not been arrested for catching Pokémon.
Yevgeny Roizman, the mayor of Yekaterinburg, said the arrest was a “disgrace”. “You can’t arrest a man for idiocy,” he added.
Twitter supporters of the vlogger posted under the hashtag #FreeSokolvsky. Among his supporters are punk collective Pussy Riot.
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/sep/05/pokemon-go-russian-youtuber-ruslan-sokolovsky-five-years-jail-church