Fidget spinners have caught the world by storm recently. These contraptions made out of ball bearings are being marketed as the perfect tool to use if you feel anxious and just want to keep your fingers busy so that you don’t fidget with yourself too much. On the face of it, these spinners are harmless products that people will eventually end up forgetting about once the novelty runs out. That’s not what Russia thinks, though, it thinks that the spinners will “zombify” the youth. No wonder it’s launching an investigation into the matter.

State-owned news channel Russia-24 suggests that the fidget spinners are actually being used by opposition parties in the country to recruit the youth and to raise money for their activities by hawking the spinners. Video segments aired on the channel show fidget spinners being distributed at a rally for opposition leader Alexei Navalny.

Another report from the same channel suggests that fidget spinners are an “object for zombifying” and a form of “hypnosis.” Rospotrebnadzor, the country’s consumer protection agency, has sprung into action following these reports.

It’s launching an investigation into fidget spinners to “study the effect spinners are having on children, including the possible negative impact.” Who knows, maybe they’ll end up banning fidget spinners in Russia.

Filed in General.. Source: nytimes

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