Blogger faces up to 2 years in jail for critising Russian Orthodox church

13.04.12 20:32 By Vyacheslav Kozlov, edited by Karina Ayvazova

Maksim Efimov, a blogger from Karelia, is being prosecuted after his article about the Russian Orthodox church (ROC) was published on his blog. A criminal case against Efimov was initiated on April 5, 2012 by the Investigative committee. On December 31, 2011 Efimov published an article called "Karelia is tired of priests", in which he criticized the regional ROC activity.

Efimov, for example, said, that "Karelian capital residents are discontent with the church" and tries to explain why. "The thinking part of the society understands that the church is a power party. Just like A United Russia, ROC fools people around and tells how good we live. Total corruption, oligarchy and the absolute power of the security services are linked to the rebirth of the ROC," Efimov wrote. He also said that churches are built on account of the budget, and the ROC uses buildings built for kinder gardens, which are a real deficit in Russia.

The Karelian investigators claim that Efimov's article was intended to arouse hatred, as well as to humiliate a person or a group of people on religious grounds.

Efimov is now facing a fine of up to 300 thousand rubles (some $10 000), or community work during one year, or imprisonment up to 2 years.

Efimov says that the criminal case against him was the investigators' initiative and was not followed by the discontent of religious people and workers.
Dmitry Vas'ko from the regional IC said that "the investigators were especially interested in one phrase published in the article – the one in which Efimov calls the religious people "spawns"."

Damir Gainutdinov from the human rights watchdog Agora calims the case against Efimov is unlawful. "The text of his article does not contain extremist content. It was not aimed to spread hatred, but was about criticizing the religious organization," he said.

http://en.gazeta.ru/news/2012/04/13/a_4345165.shtml