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Russian Authorities Probe Lurkmore Website Pages for Signs of Extremism

Russian authorities are looking into entries posted on the country's tongue-in-cheek online encyclopedia Lurkmore that mock Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov as well as the Molotov cocktail.

David Khomak, an administrator of the Lurkmore site, said Monday in a Twitter message that he had received a "paper" from the Interior Ministry's Counter-Extremism Center, saying they "wanted to know who wrote about Kadyrov and who wrote about the Molotov cocktail."

According to a copy of the letter posted by news site Russkaya Planeta, the ministry sought the names and any known IP addresses of the people who posted the articles. The names of the Lurkmore listings are simply titled "Ramzan Kadyrov" and "Molotov Cocktail."

In Lurkmore's characteristically flippant tone, the opening lines of the article about Kadyrov describe him as "[Russian President Vladimir] Putin's 'foot soldier' and a monkey in politics."

"Since 2007, a small-time little tsar appointed by the Kremlin," the listing goes on to say. "He was granted by Tsar Vladimir [Putin] a carte blanche for any actions. As a result, Ramzan started delivering LOLs for observers, and butthurt and other troubles to those who don't like him much."

The article about the Molotov cocktail outlines the history of the improvised incendiary device before saying: "It's obvious that any willing individual can make this outstanding means of retribution on one's knee in the garage in only 15-20 minutes."

The encyclopedia also provides a basic recipe for the explosive device, with its final step reading: "Burn, motherf--ker, burn!"

Lurkmore also warns "young experimentalists" to take precautions in order to "finish the task, while avoiding turning into an aromatic shashlyk themselves." A shashlyk is a type of grilled meat that is popular in former Soviet republics and parts of Eastern Europe, Asia and the Middle East.

A recent Russian law allows the government to block access to websites deemed guilty of promoting "extremist" views, and a number of prominent news portals have been barred in Russia under the law. 

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