Moscow Woman Jailed 3 Years for Easter Cake Hookah Video
The court said her Easter Instagram video mocked believers and combined the new penalty with a prior suspended sentence.
- On Wednesday, a Moscow municipal court in the Lefortovo district sentenced bar employee Ksenia Belousova, 27, to three years and 25 days in prison for offending the religious feelings of believers under Article 148 of the Criminal Code.
- Belousova's April Instagram video showing a hookah with a bowl shaped like a kulich sparked charges after Z-blogger Vladislav Pozdnyakov and pro-government Telegram channels flagged the content, prompting her arrest last month despite an online apology.
- Belousova pleaded guilty and testified under the fast-tracked procedure that she regularly attended church and her brother was a decorated soldier fighting in Ukraine, stating she donated to charities supporting Russia's war effort.
- The judge merged her 200-hour community service sentence with a three-year suspended drug conviction from August 2025, converting it to real imprisonment after prosecutors requested the suspended sentence be revoked and combined.
- An April Investigative Committee case on religious offense charges suggests broader legal scrutiny; Mediazona reported Belousova works at T-Bank and lives in Murino near St. Petersburg, with her father serving as a distinguished police officer.
15 Articles
15 Articles
With an idiosyncratic motif on a Russian Easter cake, an employee of a Moscow shishabar wanted to make a guest happy. For this, the young woman now has to be detained.
Russian Woman Sentenced to Three Years Over Easter Cake Hookah Video
A Moscow court sentenced 27-year-old Ksenia Belousova to three years and 25 days in prison after authorities accused her of offending religious believers with a viral social media video featuring a hookah made from an Easter cake. According to reports from the Lefortovo Magistrate's Court, prosecutors initially requested a sentence of three years and two months in a general-regime penal colony. The prosecution pushed for a harsher punishment bec…
The employee of a Shisha bar in Moscow is accused of violating religious feelings.
Moscow bar employee sentenced to three years in prison for posting Easter hookah video
A Moscow court sentenced Ksenia Belousova, an employee of a Moscow bar, to three years and 25 days in prison on charges of offending the religious feelings of believers, the independent Russian news outlet Mediazona and the Telegram news channel Ostorozhno Novosti reported. She was taken into custody in the courtroom.
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