Russian Yoga Lecturer Escapes Penalty in Sign of Good Karma. Russia’s yoga lovers can sigh in relief today, following a judge’s decision in St. Petersburg to throw out the case against Dmitry Ugai, a man tied to a Krishna group charged with illegal missionary work for lecturing on the spiritual roots of yoga. “The case is closed due to the absence of any administrative offense,” the court ruled, according to the Interfax news agency. Ugai was detained during a spiritual festival in October after giving a lecture in which he said that yoga “was more than just a series of exercises” and was “rooted in religion.” He was taken to a police station and held for several hours with no explanation before being told to sign a blank confession, he told The Moscow Times earlier.