Police raided Sokovsky’s house on Friday morning and charged with him mockery of religious beliefs yesterday.
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Russian Orthodox Church spokesperson Vladimir Legoyda has since explained in a statement on Facebook that it was Sokolovsky’s provocative attitude that got him in trouble and not strictly playing the game.
Ruslan Sokolovsky regularly used his video blog on YouTube to make political comments about secularism and freedom in Russian Federation.
Sokolovsky has posted a video on his blog showing himself playing the smartphone game in a church built on the supposed spot where the family of the last Russian tsar Nicholas II was killed.
Investigators and church officials have said the arrest was because Mr Sokolovsky was filming, and not for catching Pokemons.
According to the Moscow Times, Sokolovsky launched an atheist publication earlier this year.
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After Russian state media warned that players of “Pokemon Go” that using the popular app in churches or near sensitive security areas could result in arrests or even prison, 22-year-pöd Sokolovsky chose to protest the ban in churches. Ruslan Sokolovsky, a video blogger who focused on atheism and current events, was arrested for “inciting religious hatred”, the same offense that sent two women from the punk collective Pussy Riot to prison in 2012. “Where they have gruel, stupid wardens, metal beds, and thin, ripped mattresses with yellow stains”.
