A Russian priest now faces up to 10 years behind bars for declaring that troops waging war on Ukraine are going to hell.
The charges against Ioann Kurmoyarov, a former priestmonk of the Russian Orthodox Church and doctor of theology, come as the Kremlin seeks to stifle dissent over the war, with numerous high-profile musicians and writers recently charged under a new law against spreading “false information” about the Russian military.
Kuromaryov has been charged under the same law, according to the independent news outlet Baza, which reported that he was detained in St. Petersburg on Tuesday as investigators conducted a raid in which they inexplicably confiscated some of his religious items. Mediazona confirmed his arrest, citing the press service of the regional courts.
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The charges against him stem from a video he posted on social media in March responding to Russian propagandist Vladimir Solovyov’s claim that even if the war in Ukraine leads to a nuclear strike, Russians will “go to heaven.”
“I would like to disappoint everyone who believes in this ‘fake,’” Kuromaryov said, adding that those who “unleash aggression” do not wind up in heaven. “Ukraine did not attack Russia,” he said. “You will not be in any heaven, you’ll be in hell.”
This is not the first time Kuromaryov has provoked the wrath of the Kremlin elite. He demanded criminal charges be brought against Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu last year for a new military cathedral outside Moscow that at one point featured a mosaic of Vladimir Putin, Shoigu, and another one with soldiers holding a portrait of Stalin. (Those mosaics were later removed.)
Kuromaryov was defrocked after that move, according to Baza.
Russia has gone after several other high-profile cultural figures recently for daring to speak out against the war, with writers Alexander Nevzorov and Dmitry Glukhovsky wanted by authorities in connection with the the same law Kuromaryov is charged under, and Maksim Pokrovsky, the frontman of the popular rock band Nogu Svelo! reportedly now under scrutiny for a song about the war.
At least three journalists who are charged in connection with the law have also had their bank accounts blocked by Russian authorities, according to the human rights group Agora.
