If you’ve got a potty mouth (like mine), don’t plan on visiting Russia unless you’re loaded with cash. Police in Belgorod are imposing $50 fines for swearing in public. Although they’re mostly trying to target young people (which means, presumably, I’d escape notice), their purpose seems a little fucked up, if you ask me.

“We want Russian to remain as pure as in the great classics,” said Valentina Trunova, deputy head of Belgorod’s department of youth affairs.

Why bother with the fines, then? Have retired KGB agents burst through offenders’ doors at 4 a.m. and cart them off to a gulag.

Friday, October 1st, 2004, 12:10 pm   |   Idiots Bite, Odd Bites  |  RSS feed Comments and pings are currently closed.