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Armenia charges Russian blogger over offensive language about Armenians, Vardavar water festival
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OC Media
Russian blogger Nadezhda Pirozhkova has been charged with hate speech after she published a video complaining about how she was splashed unwillingly during Armenia’s Vardavar water festival while calling the festival itself ‘aggressive’ and referring to Armenians as being ‘rat-like’.
The charges were reported by the Russian-language Polish media outlet Vot Tak on Wednesday, citing comments from Armenia’s Investigative Committee.
Vardavar is a national holiday in Armenia connected to the country’s Apostolic Church.
The key manner of celebrating the holiday is by splashing others with water in the street — including total strangers.
She also described the holiday as ‘direct aggression towards visitors’ along with the above-mentioned offensive language.