A resident of the Kirov region and the Syktyvkar diocese appealed to the prosecutor's office with a statement about the forcible detention of people in a religious community

A resident of the Kirov region appealed to the prosecutor's office with a statement about the forcible detention of people in a religious community near the village of Meshchura, Knyazhpogost district of the Komi Republic. She recently managed to escape from this community. The Syktyvkar diocese made a similar statement to the republican prosecutor's office and the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

A group of believers moved to this village from the Kirov region in 2003 and settled on an abandoned farm. The leader of the community is the supernumerary cleric of the Vyatka and Sloboda diocese, Priest Alexander Kozhevnikov. In 2003, he applied to the Sykryvkar diocesan administration with a request to be admitted to the staff, but was refused.

The priest and his followers - 35 people - are convinced of the need for isolated living in deserted places in preparation for the imminent "end of the world." For several years they were in contact with residents of nearby settlements, but over the past year they have stopped external contacts. Community members lead subsistence farming, do not use electricity, refuse medical care, and do not allow their children to attend school.

Representatives of the Syktyvkar diocese, police and local authorities tried to conduct conversations with the hermits and persuade them to return to their previous way of life, but they responded by threatening self-immolation if the authorities tried to forcibly evict them from their current place of residence.

Let us recall that in 2007, a similar community was discovered in the Penza region . Its leader, Pyotr Kuznetsov, was sent for compulsory treatment by a court decision.

Sources

• People are being forcibly detained in a religious community in Komi // Komiinform. 2009. November 5.