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[Ukrainian Ranger]

And I disagree completely. Pussy Riot is much more awesome. They were in the Netherlands this summer, participating in a motorcross event in a pink tank, in support of Amnesty Interntional's fight for Ilja Dadin.
http://www.rtlnieuws.nl/boulevard/entertainment/pussy-riot-actief-op-zwarte-cross

But girls from Pussy Riot got two years. This guy is risking five!

[Starver]

Correction: Blasphemy is a victimless crime.

There might be a few divine entities who disagree with you.

A few of them are too busy suing each other for claiming to benthd One True God, all the rest are in industrial tribunals with the their union reps trying to bash out awkward demarkation issues...

[Jimmy]

I believe that currently the Greek pantheon is suing the God of War franchise, and there's been a intellectual property copyright claim lodged by the Norse deities against Marvel.

[Sergarr]

I think this argument was started by someone pointing out the ridiculousness of a government that banned religion for 80 years giving someone a 5 year prison sentence for minor disrespect to a place of worship only 25 years later.

When it's not actually the same government, it makes sense. France has went from "we hate monarchy and kill nobles dead " to "we love monarchy please go back nobles " in 25 years somewhere around the Napoleonic era.

Besides, Communists did not ban religion. It was just looked down upon as a sign of mental weakness and/or deficiency. Also, Marxism-Leninism was basically a religion on its own right ("the teachings of Lenin are all-powerful because they are right!"), and people were getting serious prison sentences for "minor disrespect" towards it, too.

Which was stupid back then and it's still stupid now. Hopefully this bullshit will end at some point.

[sprinkled chariot]

I think this argument was started by someone pointing out the ridiculousness of a government that banned religion for 80 years giving someone a 5 year prison sentence for minor disrespect to a place of worship only 25 years later.

When it's not actually the same government, it makes sense. France has went from "we hate monarchy and kill nobles dead " to "we love monarchy please go back nobles " in 25 years somewhere around the Napoleonic era.

Besides, Communists did not ban religion. It was just looked down upon as a sign of mental weakness and/or deficiency. Also, Marxism-Leninism was basically a religion on its own right ("the teachings of Lenin are all-powerful because they are right!"), and people were getting serious prison sentences for "minor disrespect" towards it, too.

Which was stupid back then and it's still stupid now. Hopefully this bullshit will end at some point.

Teachings of Lenin are all-powerful and right though.
But removal of Khruschev broke chain of arcane leninist magical lore transition from one glorious leader to another one. So communist party has lost ability to divinate future with materialist understanding of history  and to use the mystical powers of Lenins dialectics and proletariat collective subconsiousness to alter the course of the future.
Then enchantments on red flags, powerful history altering formulas in arcane tomes of dialectical materialism, sickle and hammer protective wards started losing their power, and opened the door for dark spirits of bourgasie and free market dooming the Soviet Union.

[WealthyRadish]

The sentence in this case is obviously excessive and politically motivated, but it is still an infraction, however trivial.

If it's just a guy wandering around with a smartphone, someone at the church can tell him to gtfo and that's as far as it goes. I doubt anyone would say in that case that the church is in the wrong by doing so. But by filming it and posting it online, you can't expect hacker priests to take the law into their own hands and DDoS him, so it now becomes a problem for the state, if the church decides to seek recourse (which reasonable people in a country without an unhealthy relationship between the church and government probably wouldn't do, but it is still in their rights to try). In this case, instead of scaring the crap out of him with a police visit or a serious official warning in the mail (which is the sensible thing to do in most cases), the state abused the law with an excessive sentence.

It could be as harmless as some local/regional buffoon wanting to "make an example", or it could be more sinister as part of a wider scaremongering and polarization campaign. I'm leaning towards the former here, but would qualify it by saying that the former was itself likely created in some part by the latter.

Edit:
Oh, reread the article, guy hasn't even been sentenced yet. Pfft, why are people worked up about some hotdog police chief saying he wants 5 years? I mean he shouldn't have been charged at all like I said, but you can't extrapolate too far off one police spokesman's statement that they would actually get that sentence.

[Sheb]

Well, there is the Pussy Riot precedent, so it's not wrong to worry for that guy.

[scriver]

Pussy Riot Precedent.

It has a nice ring to it.

[martinuzz]

Russia's last, and only independent public survey agency, Levada, has been placed on the list of 'foreign agents' and 'potential traitor', since it released a poll last week that showed Putin's United Russia party to drop from 39% to 31% popularity. In concreto this means that the polling agency is no longer allowed to hold or publish polls.

Levada was founded in 1988 per request of Michael Gorbatsjov, to represent the opinion of the common people.

All other polling agencies are state controlled. None of those have shown any decrease in UR's popularity.

[Sheb]

All other polling agencies are state controlled. None of those have shown any decrease in UR's popularity.

To be fair, Ukrainian Ranger is a swell guy, why would he become less popular?

[martinuzz]

I just knew that was coming haha

[Erkki]

Russia's last, and only independent public survey agency, Levada, has been placed on the list of 'foreign agents' and 'potential traitor', since it released a poll last week that showed Putin's United Russia party to drop from 39% to 31% popularity. In concreto this means that the polling agency is no longer allowed to hold or publish polls.

Levada was founded in 1988 per request of Michael Gorbatsjov, to represent the opinion of the common people.

All other polling agencies are state controlled. None of those have shown any decrease in UR's popularity.

Better be a foreign agent than have everyone die in a helicopter accident? 

https://informnapalm.org/en/wp-content/uploads/sites/14/2016/01/gen2.png

[martinuzz]

You mean just like half of the Polish government in 2010?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010_Polish_Air_Force_Tu-154_crash

[Ukrainian Ranger]

Russia's last, and only independent public survey agency, Levada, has been placed on the list of 'foreign agents' and 'potential traitor', since it released a poll last week that showed Putin's United Russia party to drop from 39% to 31% popularity. In concreto this means that the polling agency is no longer allowed to hold or publish polls.

Levada was founded in 1988 per request of Michael Gorbatsjov, to represent the opinion of the common people.

All other polling agencies are state controlled. None of those have shown any decrease in UR's popularity.

But, but... Sergarr said that Russian elections are superliberal... I am confused

[saigo]

Is Sergarr Russian? That might have something to do with it.