MOSCOW (AP) — A Russian blogger who has been sent to pre-trial detention for playing "Pokemon Go" in a church has appealed against his arrest.

Russian news agencies on Monday quoted a local court in the city of Yekaterinburg as saying that they have received an appeal from Ruslan Sokolovsky who was ordered last week to stay behind bars at least until November pending trial.

Investigators have charged the 21-year old blogger with enticing religious hatred, the same offense that sent two women from the Pussy Riot punk collective to prison for two years in 2012.

Sokolovsky has posted a video on his blog showing himself playing the smartphone game in a church built on the supposed spot where the family of the last Russian tsar Nicholas II was killed.