Cossacks tried to disrupt the exhibition "Spiritual Warfare"

A group of Cossacks and activists of the Eurasian Youth Union (ESM) tried to block the entrance to the exhibition of Evgenia Maltseva and Viktor Bondarenko “Spiritual Warfare” in the Gelman Gallery at Winzavod, but were dispersed by police and riot police, a PublicPost correspondent reports.

“The faithful Muscovites were insulted by the works of this artist, so we came to protest,” said one of the protesters. Protestants shouted the slogan “Liberal fascism will not pass!”

ESM activists and several Cossacks with whips were detained by the police and sent to a paddy wagon. As Interfax reports with reference to the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Moscow, a total of 9 people were detained. The Cossacks were forced to leave, but remained near the building where the exhibition is taking place and gave interviews to journalists. Entrance to the exhibition is limited - only representatives of the press and people with special invitations can enter.

A sexton from a church in the Ostankino district of Moscow, Dmitry Enteo, tore off the exhibition poster and was detained by the police. The entrance to the Winzavod territory is completely blocked by the police.

“We came here from different parishes to protest against the exhibition, now we are sitting in a paddy wagon,” a participant in the action, ESM activist Andrei Kovalenko told a PublicPost correspondent. “We are sitting together in one paddy wagon, in the other there are several more Cossacks. We held the defense at the entrance to exhibition. We are familiar with the exhibits of this exhibition, we have seen examples on the Internet. We consider these images to be blasphemous and insulting to the feelings of millions of Russian people. If the authorities allow it - and they do - then we have to come."

Photo of an exhibit from the exhibition

Photo of an exhibit from the exhibition

Photo of an exhibit from the exhibition

Photo of an exhibit from the exhibition

Photo of an exhibit from the exhibition

The head of the Synodal Department for Relations between Church and Society, Archpriest Vsevolod Chaplin, also spoke out about the “Spiritual Warfare” exhibition. He stated that he considers the exhibits of the “Spiritual Warfare” exhibition, stylized as images of members of the punk group Pussy Riot, to insult the sacred symbol revered by Christians.

The author of the idea for the exhibition, Viktor Bondarenko, and artist Evgenia Maltseva decided to create “images of Christianity that correspond to the spirit of the times”: the Holy Trinity, the Savior, the Mother of God, characters of the Apocalypse. “The icon must be freed from the historical “trail”, which carries the rudiments of the slave system, feudalism, despotism, patriarchy, obscurantism, ignorance, suppression of the individual. That is why the images of the participants of the feminist group Pussy Riot, who became a symbol of the struggle for spiritual freedom,” this is how the organizers of the exhibition “Spiritual Warfare” outlined the theme .