Ministry of Internal Affairs has noticed a “campaign of intolerance towards Orthodox Christians” in the post of MDK
January 13, 2017 – Experts from the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) of the Russian Federation have observed a campaign of intolerance aimed at Orthodox Christianity. A message was posted on the social media site “VKontakte” with the aim of insulting the feelings of believers. This situation is described in the reply report of the claim of the “Orthodox Christian Rapid Response Legal Centre”, with a demand to conduct an investigation based on the infringement of the sentiments of believers (article 148 Criminal Code) and about incitement of discord (article 282 Criminal Code). The activists posted a response screenshot on their “VKontakte” group.
The MIA is demanding the identification of the author. The investigation material is “redirected to its territorial jurisdiction”.
The post in the MDK social network group was published on October 14, when Orthodox Christians celebrate the Feast of the Holy Virgin. The post stated that on this day, unmarried women would go to church to pray for a husband. It was suggested for men to pretend to be “sent from Heaven” in order to “seduce any one of them”. The post in the group MDK was not deleted at the time of writing of this article.
In response to the “Mediazone” inquiry, the coordinator Georgy Soldatov has observed that, as it was stated previously, the activists are in support of a criminal case under Article 282 (Criminal Code), entitled “incitement of discord”, and article 148 Criminal Code “violation of the freedom of worship”.
“Of course, hypothetically, if a person, be he married or not, repents. We don’t even have to go so far as to say “repents”, but at least acknowledged their insult, than I would of course support a fine or an administrative punishment. Reconciliation is impossible under such articles. But if there is no repentance and the accused is ready to leave the court and to continue writing such posts, in my opinion, it’s an opportune time to reflect on life in such a moment and to come to deeper things”, he commented on possible criminal charges for the authors of the post.
Photo document from the “Orthodox Christian Rapid Response Legal Centre”
Sources
https://zona.media/news/2017/13/01/mdk