Moscow Times and Vyorstka reported yesterday that a Russian District Court in Moscow has banned the offering on four websites in Russia of souvenir toilet paper imprinted with images of the 1997 version of Russia's 1000-ruble bills. The court found that the toilet paper "offends the feelings of religious believers" in violation of Article 148 of the Russian Penal Code. The 1000-ruble bill carries a picture of a statue of Yaroslav the Wise who was Grand Prince of Kiev from 1019 to 1054. Yaroslav the Wise was canonized in 2016 by the Bishops Council of the Russian Orthodox Church. Prior to that, in 2005 he was named a local saint by the Patriarch of Moscow and in 2004 he was included in the calendar of saints of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate). The court said in part:
In a free democratic society, the dissemination of illegal information capable of offending the religious feelings of believers cannot be protected by freedom of thought, speech, opinion and information
