Russian court arrests Pastafarian pastor for spreading ‘fake news’ about Russian army

A court in Russia’s Nizhny Novgorod has arrested Aleksey Onoshkin, a pastor of the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, for spreading “fake news” about the Russian army with the aim of inciting hatred, Zabralo human rights project reports.

Onoshkin faces a fine of at least 3 mln rubles and up to 10 years behind bars for a post on social media about the attack on the Mariupol drama theatre.

The pastor is also a blogger and a political activist, 7x7 news portal notes. In June, he was forcibly sent to a mental health unit after an unknown person reported that he was suicidal.

In late May, Mikhail Iosilevich, a regional leader of the Pastafarians, the followers of the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, was sentenced to one year and eight months behind bars in relation to an “undesirable organisation” case. He was charged in October 2020. According to the prosecution, Iosilevich used the Pastafarian church as a training location for election observers “with the aim of infringing upon the fundamentals of the constitutional system”. The prosecution ties the training session to the Open Russia organisation.