A Russian Orthodox Archbishop has appealed for the release from prison of a young blogger jailed on remand for playing Pokémon Go in a cathedral.
Ruslan Sokolovsky, 21, who lives alone with his disabled mother, is accused of extremism, of disrespect and of insulting the feelings of believers.
He has been remanded in prison for two months after posting a video on YouTube showing him catching some of the virtual reality pocket monsters on his iPhone. If convicted, he faces up to five years in prison.
The local Russian Orthodox Archbishop, Metropolitan Kyrill of Yekaterinburg, has pleaded for him to be released on bail.
He told the news website Znak: "We do not crave blood." He said he had been asked to find out if anything could be done to help Sokolovsky.
The church just wanted to ensure "such actions do not spread". Pokémon Go itself warns players they should not trespass when hunting down the creatures.
Metropolitan Kyrill said church representatives were "ready to spend time" with the blogger. They want to ask him to help with their charity work and assisting the disabled, elderly and children. They also want him to remove the YouTube videos which he said "offended God and the Virgin".
Sokolovsky was arrested in All Saints Cathedral, a beautiful church in Yekaterinburg which has a special place in the heart of Russians because it is built on the site of Ipatiev House where the last Tsar of Russia and the Romanov family were executed in July 1918.
Previously it published on Znak.com a column, which contained an appeal to Metropolitan Kirill, pleading for clemency and assist the release of Ruslan Sokolovsky.
The local city duma chairman Yevgeny Roizman has also appealed for his release and said the blogger's imprisonment was "embarrassing". He posted on Facebook that Sokolovsky had of course been provocative. "But you can't arrest a man for idiocy and bad manners."
According to the Sverdlovsk press statement, the blogger is accused of committing several extremist crimes and public actions showing "clear disrespect for society", inciting religious hatred and insulting the religious feelings of believers.
Under Russian law, simply catching Pokémon in a church is a crime because it is held to violate the right to freedom of worship. This offence alone can be punished by a substantial fine and up to three years in prison.
Sokolovsky said in his video that he did not believe this should be an offence, so he decided to go and hunt Pokémon in a cathedral. He also questioned whether Jesus had ever really existed.
