Former head of Pastafarian church faces administrative charges for calling for protest against pension reform

The former head of the Russian Pastafarian Church, Mikhail Samin, reported that an administrative case has been opened against him under Part 2 of Article 20.2 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation (organization of an unauthorized public event).

According to Samin, the reason for this was his post on VKontakte, where he called for supporters of Alexei Navalny to attend a rally against pension reform on September 9.

• Courtsregularly recognize supporters of Alexei Navalny as organizers of uncoordinated protests for tweets or posts on social networks calling for people to attend them. Under the relevant articles of the Code of Administrative Offenses, activists are often fined or sent to jail.