Russian heavy metal and goth music fans in Russia could face prison after Vladimir Putin banned "satanists".
The Kremlin's top court has outlawed the "international satanism movement" as an extremist and terrorist group - despite no such group existing.
The ruling from the Russian Supreme Court means that anyone who is alleged to be a member could face up to eight years in prison.
It has come after appeals from MPs, the leader of the Russian Orthodox Church, and other officials.
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|The Kremlin's top court has outlawed the 'international satanism movement' as an extremist and terrorist group
Andre Kartapolov, a senior MP who heads the Russian Parliament's defence committee, warned in April that satanism was a "direct threat to Russian statehood", which he claimed was funded by the West.
Another pro-Putin MP claimed he had received complaints from members of the public about the increasing number of "satanic sex orgies" in Moscow and other cities throughout the country.
In January, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Kirill, said he supported calls to ban satanism because it was an "ideology that destroys our national identity and weakens our people".
He added that Russian soldiers in Ukraine were fighting for values directly opposed to Satanic beliefs.
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|The head of the Russian Orthodox Church called satanism an 'ideology that destroys our national identity and weakens our people'
Putin has previously described Moscow's war with Ukraine and the West as a fight against the "outright satanism" of same-sex marriages and other LGBT rights.
However, Russia freed a man from prison who had been part of a gang which killed four teenage girls in a ritual killing as part of its recruitment effort for the war.
Vile Nikolai Ogolobyak and his accomplices fried and ate the tongues and hearts of his victims, one of whom was stabbed 666 times as a sacrifice to the devil, according to police.
Ogolobyak had previously been sentenced to 20 years in prison in 2010 - however he was pardoned by Putin after he served on the front line in Ukraine for six months.
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|Putin's ruling comes after appeals from MPs, the leader of the Russian Orthodox Church, and other officials
Since the announcement of the law, fears have risen that the "satanism" ban could have harsh consequences for fans of heavy metal, goth and industrial music.
The prominent Russian human rights lawyer Ivan Pavlov said: "Will they put people in jail for T-shirts with pentagrams and goat heads? We won't risk saying for sure, but the practice of cases involving other fictitious 'extremists' tells us a lot."
The Supreme Court ruling will come into effect next month, and could be applied retrospectively, meaning people could be imprisoned for social media posts made years ago.
Russia has already banned certain groups as extremist and terrorist groups, such as the "international LGBT social movement" and the Jehovah's Witnesses - putting them on par with the Islamic State.
The same wording was also used to outlaw late opposition leader Alexei Navalny and his nationwide network of activists.
However, Russia recently pulled the Taliban from its official list of extremist and terrorist groups in a bid to create closer ties with the de facto rulers of Afghanistan.
This is despite the Taliban having banned girls from secondary and higher education and having barred women from most professions since they took power.
Not all of Putin's backers agree with the ban, however.
Yevgeny Popov, a pro-Kremlin MP and state television presenter, wrote in April: "I have to officially state that I am not worried at the moment about the 'growing number of satanic sex orgies'.
"To my shame, I didn't know that their number had increased."