It appears as though Russian officials fear that Pokemon Go will capture the hearts and minds of the young citizens in Russia. Apparently, it's thought that Pokemon GO will have the youth unwittingly involved in "terrorist acts," all for the sake of catching Pokemon.
“There is a feeling that the devil came through this mechanism and is simply trying to destroy us spiritually from within,” Franz Klintsevich, a senior Russian security official, told the state news agency TASS.
Klintsevich, a vice chairman of Russia’s Committee on Security and Defense of the upper house of parliament, went on to describe the augmented reality game as a Western “psychological operation” that could "manipulate" youths. He even went on to say that it "could lead all the way to revolution."
But how? Well, another official thought that part out.
“Imagine that the little beast in question doesn’t appear in some park, but at a secret site where a conscript or other soldier takes and photographs it with his camera,” said Aleksander Mikhailov, a retired major general of the Federal Security Service. “It’s recruitment by one’s own personal desire and without any coercion. This is the ideal way for secret services to gather information.”
“Users of mobile devices with this game installed on it could become unsuspecting accomplices in terrorist acts,” complained lawmaker Denis Voronenkov to Russia's Federal Security Service.
In light of these fears, Russia is making their own version of the game, except with Ivan the Terrible and Pyotr Chaikovsky instead of Pokemon.
[Washington Times via NeoGaf]
