Grab a cup of strong tea laced with a sugar cube and sit down.
The Russian government arrested and indicted citizen Viktor Krasnov for writing “There is no God” and the “Bible is a collection of Jewish fairy tales” in a 2014 spat on social media.
The posts came to the attention of the government after a user on social media flagged his comments as “offending the sentiments of Orthodox believers.”
The Stavropol native was also subjected to a month-long mandatory psychiatric examination by the government during its investigation. The anti-government Grani.ru website reported on Tuesday that he was “declared sane.”
The posts – which were deleted – could earn him up to a year in prison, according to his lawyer and human rights activist Pavel Chikov.
Krasnov was charged with “offending believers’ feelings” by Russia’s Investigative Committee (the country’s equivalent of the FBI) in the fall of 2015.
The charge might seem minor but it was criminalized in Russia after a performance by the punk band Pussy Riot in a famous cathedral in Moscow in February 2012. Two band members were jailed after the show for performing a song that slammed President Vladimir Putin.
Krasnov’s began Monday in the southern Russian city of Stavropol, according to NBC News, which quoted the local Magistrate’s website.