Russian Court’s Decision to Declare a Religious Service an Illegal Meeting Gets Comic Book Treatment

Paul Goble

            Staunton, January 23 – One of the more absurd rulings of a court in the Russian Federation was a decision by a judge in Naberezny Chelny to declare a religious service at which ministers baptized congregants an unsanctioned and thus illegal meeting and to impose a 20,000 ruble (300 US dollar) fine on the cleric involved.

            The court’s decision has attracted withering criticism from religious and human rights activists, but now, it has become the subject of a comic strip available both in hard copy and online – and provoking the laughter among Russians at the officials, the kind of laughter that few regimes can survive.

            Novaya gazeta has now posted on its online edition a selection of the cartoons which make what the Russian court did appear even more outrageous and absurd than a simple description of the actions (novayagazeta.ru/articles/2019/01/22/79255-evangelisty-v-sudebnom-adu-komiks).