I’ve heard of thought crimes, but dream crimes? Over in Russia, one man has been fined 30,000 Rubles (£388.82) for sharing a dream he had of Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Instagram.
Ivan Losev, 26, from Chita, had shared the following in his since-deleted post:
Last night, I dreamed about being mobilised and brought to some kind of boot camp.
Suddenly, AFU (Armed Forces of Ukraine) fighters led by Zelenskyy burst in, rounded everyone up, and were about to execute us by firing squad.
At this moment, Zelenskyy walks past me and says, ‘Ah, I’ve seen your stories on Instagram. Glory to Ukraine!’ I reply, ‘Glory to heroes!’
Zelenskyy pats me on the shoulder and approvingly says: ‘Let this one go, and execute everyone else’.
“So there we are, me and him, standing side by side, watching, and I tell him, ‘Can I get a selfie with you for my Instagram?’ Zelenskyy says: ‘Sure.”
Whoa, what a wacky dream. Well somehow Russian authorities got wind of it and didn’t appreciate that Zelenskyy was a lovable badass in Ivan’s dream, and so they rang him up on his work phone and told him: “There is reason to believe that you are engaged in discrediting the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation,” before advising him to go to his local police station.
Fortunately, Ivan was given the 30,000 ruble fine rather than get ‘disappeared’ or thrown in prison, but I’m not sure Russian authorities will enjoy the fact he told news outlet Sibreal all about his dream and the fine. Then again maybe they encouraged him to spread the word so that others know you can’t be sharing your Zelenskyy dreams on the internet, unless they paint him in a negative light.
Can’t imagine how p-ssed Putin is that Zelenskyy and the people of Ukraine were named TIME’s person of the year for the way they’ve handled his invasion. Meanwhile, all the stories about Putin are about how he fell down the stairs and pooed his pants. Levels.
