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A Few Details from Russia
Well, first, let’s start with something that dominates Russian society. While the country is nominally Eastern Orthodox, Russians have been all over the map after the fall of the USSR. And obscurantism has been part of the Russian elites since before the Soviet Union. You want a deep hole to drop your rope into, reading into Helena Blavatsky and the theosophical society. She was born in modern-day Ukraine and died in London, but her writings were very influential in Europe, Tsarist Russia, and the United States.
So this, well, really looks more like what the Soviets tried to do:
The State Duma has threatened to ban predictions by astrologers and fortune tellers in the media
Russian mass media should be banned from broadcasting predictions by astrologers and fortune tellers, said Deputy Speaker of the State Duma Boris Chernyshov. “In Egypt, the national broadcasting organization has banned state television channels and radio stations from inviting astrologers, fortune tellers and other pseudo-scientific “experts.” Russia could also adopt this approach,” Chernyshov told RIA Novosti.
According to him, during the New Year holidays, TV and radio stations, as well as print media, are filled with speeches by “magicians, astrologers, fortune tellers, shamans and other ‘predictors’”. “Such materials are often presented as…