By Victoria Arnold, Forum 18
Less than four weeks after Russia's legal amendments restricting sharing beliefs came into force, a Judge acquitted Vadim Sibiryev on 15 August in the first attempted prosecution. Anti-extremism police had charged Hare Krishna devotee Sibiryev for offering religious books on the streets of Cherkessk. A Hare Krishna adherent has become the first person to be charged under Russia's new law restricting sharing beliefs. Anti-extremism police in the North Caucasus republic of Karachai-Cherkessiya arrested 19-year-old Vadim Sibiryev on 28 July on suspicion of violating the Religion Law by handing out religious literature in the street. But a judge acquitted Sibiryev on 15 August, when his lawyer successfully argued that his actions did not fit the law's definition of "missionary" activity.