A Russian indicted for a paranormal attack on top clergy

I wasn't sure whether to post it in "Paranormal studies" or here, but I think it has lots more cultural and legal aspect to it than paranormal, so here it is. I couldn't find an English source for it, so please bear with my story based on this source in Russian.

Basically, a person in the city of Nizhny Novgorod became a leader of a cult, of sorts, and implored his followers to make an attempt on the life of the Russian Patriarch, by "power of thought". Prosecution says that the group would gather for mediation and concentrate their negative thoughts on the head of Russian Orthodox Church.

Their leader was arrested for posting hateful messages on a Russian social network, which were classified as "extremist speech". The messages called for the paranormal "power of thought" attack on the clergyman. The case is interesting because it so bizarrely demonstrates the arbitrary application of Russian anti-extremist law, and how a ridiculous behavior of a mentally disturbed person can be actually used in a court of law there.

I can't imagine anything like this would be prosecuted in the states. The perp would probably be ordered to undergo psychological evaluation.

...There might be something along the lines of harassment though, if that.

Well we know what happens when someone in the US does it. He gets time on Fox News!

Anyone remember this one?:
crooksandliars.com...

Originally posted by ladyinwaiting
I can't imagine anything like this would be prosecuted in the states. The perp would probably be ordered to undergo psychological evaluation.

...There might be something along the lines of harassment though, if that.

I agree, and that's troubling -- Russian laws have that "extremism" clause that allows the authorities to prosecute most anyone. In this case, a blog post was sent to semantic expertise to determine whether it was hate speech or not. Sure we all know how objective is that

What a lot of you are overlooking is the fact that Russia has always taken paranormal activities and attacks more seriously than the US govt has, at least publicly anyways. The Russians have had a long tradition of "paranormal warfare" groups.

and, what happened to the clergy ?
sorry, i cant read russian.