Pokemon Go Cannot Hide From the Hype in Russia

“Pokemon are not a reason to visit the treasure-house of world culture that is the Kremlin” Dmitry Peskov, the Russian Press Secretary, told the TASS news agency on Thursday. According to Peskov, the Kremlin is a tourist sight in its own right.

Russians are awaiting the game's release with anticipation. Some Russian users have created U.S. accounts specifically to download the game, the Vedomosti business daily reported Thursday.

Not everyone is eager for the game's Russian release: Irbis, a nationalist, ultraconservative Cossack group based in St. Petersburg, wants to ban Pokemon Go in Russia, the Znak news website reported Thursday.

“We need to take people out of the virtual world, and this in general smacks of Satan.,” the leader, or ataman, of the local Cossack group Andrei Poliakov said. Given the many interesting real things in the world, people should not be drawn into “this sort of rubbish,” he added, Znak reported.

Pokemon Go will soon arrive on the Russian market, Vedomosti reported, citing two unidentified sources close to managers of Nintendo's Russia offices. According to the sources, the Russian release of Pokemon Go could take place within the week.

The game is available to download in many countries, with the number of downloads reaching 15 million on July 14, according to SensorTower, a platform for app store optimization and app industry intelligence. SurveyMonkey says there are more than 20 million daily users.

Pokemon Go is the first game with added elements of reality to go viral: it uses real locations to encourage users to search for Pokemon. The aim of the game is to catch and train Pokemon in the real world and then engage in battles with other users.