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Tweet by @bankableInsight (3,639 retweets, 1,662 favorites), reported by the NZ Herald:

This is a Russian priest sprinkling holy water on the central bank's servers in an attempt to stop the fall of ruble.

Image in question

Are Russia's central bank's servers being sprinkled with holy water by a Russian priest in this photo?

This tweet says that the photo is from 2013 or earlier, but doesn't indicate what the photo is of.

Community
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Andrew Grimm
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    Just to clarify, are you skeptical about the event or the photo? – Sklivvz Dec 08 '14 at 12:48
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    The ruble was pretty strong in 2013 so there'd be no reason for a priest to take action to stop it falling, then. – David Richerby Dec 09 '14 at 11:20
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    Speaking as a IT guy, the equipment in those racks are clearly from the 1990s. If the ruble was falling due to any equipment in those racks, it's more likely that the servers couldn't keep up with the load than they needed God's blessing. – Mike Pennington Dec 09 '14 at 11:20
  • Pretty sure that's an LCD screen in the reflection so not 1990s – Jonathan. Dec 09 '14 at 17:44
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    These screens look like CRT -- the kind of the late 1990s/early 2000s that were not too bulbous. The white/light grey casing is also typical; LCD almost always have a black or dark grey case. – Thomas Pornin Dec 09 '14 at 21:22
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    @Sklivvz I assume the photo isn't a photoshop, that it's the description that's suspect. – Andrew Grimm Dec 10 '14 at 00:01
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    While I appreciate there is a high density of atheists on this site, people seem to be using this question as an opportunity to make cheap jokes about the religious. Let's keep it nice, please. – Oddthinking Dec 10 '14 at 06:19

1 Answers1

75

No.

The photo is from a 2013 Facebook post; the author states that the pictures were taken at the 2001 opening of the Russian server/payment company Rapida. Judging from the context, the servers/switches were treated as part of a large-scale whole-office holy sprinkling.

Also, I hope as hell the racks were watertight.

P_S
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