Authorities demand demolition of Kuban temple whose archbishop criticized the war

The administration of the Slavyansky urban settlement in Krasnodar Krai filed a lawsuit urging Archbishop Viktor Pivovarov to demolish the Svyato-Pokrovsko-Tikhonovsky temple in Slavyansk-on-Kuban. The archbishop shared this information on his website on May 27.

In January, the Investigative Committee informed the administration that the temple in Slavyansk-on-Kuban was built on land designated for residential buildings, not religious objects. Law enforcement officials claimed that 'a crime against the pillars of the constitutional order and the security of the Russian Federation' was being committed in the temple.

Investigators contacted the administration after 86-year-old Viktor Pivovarov became a defendant in a criminal case for repeated discrediting of the army, stemming from his article 'The Answer to the Question Which Concerns Everyone Today: What Is This War?' On April 8, the archbishop was fined 150,000 rubles.

A week and a half after the verdict was announced, the administration of the Slavyansky urban settlement demanded that Pivovarov demolish the temple at his own expense. The temple’s representatives stated that they were not informed about the initial hearing and learned about it by chance.

The priests added that the temple had been operational since 2000 and that they had never faced any complaints from the authorities. They associate the demolition demand with Viktor Pivovarov’s anti-war stance.

The Svyato-Pokrovsko-Tikhonovsky temple belongs to the Russian Orthodox Church, a non-canonical Orthodox union. In 2018, the temple’s license was revoked due to new, stricter legislation, and its representatives registered as a religious group.

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