Russian faces first hate blog probe
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(COOLTECH, 16 April 2007)
A blogger in northern Russia who wrote that police deserve to be publicly burned faces a hate crimes probe, the first to target blogging in Russia, the Kommersant daily reported on Friday.
Prosecutors in the northern city of Syktyvkar, in the Komi province, have opened a criminal investigation against Savva Terentyev (21), who on February 15 posted an entry on a web log hosted by the popular website livejournal.com, the newspaper reported.
Terentyev wrote that police are "filth," "the most stupid, uneducated representatives of the living (animal) world," according to a photograph of what Kommersant said was his message.
Terentyev allegedly went on to recommend that six police in every city be "ceremonially burned daily, or better twice a day (at midday and midnight, for example)".
The ovens should be like those at the Nazi concentration camp of Auschwitz, he allegedly said.
If found guilty of "stirring up hatred" he faces two years in prison or a fine of 300 000 rubles ($11 620).
The blog belongs to local journalist Boris Suranov who was describing a raid by police to search the offices of the opposition newspaper Iskra, Kommersant reported.
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