diff --git a/rhodecode/lib/pagination.py b/rhodecode/lib/pagination.py
--- a/rhodecode/lib/pagination.py
+++ b/rhodecode/lib/pagination.py
@@ -109,16 +109,9 @@ page's items by their index number pleas
 """
 
 import re
-import sys
 from string import Template
 from webhelpers2.html import literal
 
-# are we running at least python 3.x ?
-PY3 = sys.version_info[0] >= 3
-
-if PY3:
-    unicode = str
-
 
 def make_html_tag(tag, text=None, **params):
     """Create an HTML tag string.
@@ -907,9 +900,12 @@ class SqlalchemyOrmWrapper(object):
         self.pager = pager
         self.collection = collection
 
-    def __getitem__(self, range):
+    def __getitem__(self, key):
+        if not isinstance(key, slice):
+            raise ValueError('Pagination without a slice not supported')
+
         # Return a range of objects of an sqlalchemy.orm.query.Query object
-        return self.collection[range]
+        return self.collection[key]
 
     def __len__(self):
         # support empty types, without actually making a query.
@@ -1033,7 +1029,7 @@ class RepoCommitsWrapper(object):
         self.pager = pager
         self.collection = collection
 
-    def __getitem__(self, range):
+    def __getitem__(self, key):
         cur_page = self.pager.page
         items_per_page = self.pager.items_per_page
         first_item = max(0, (len(self.collection) - (cur_page * items_per_page)))