Russia's alleged pimp-priest

Belarusian cops nab a visiting Petersburg clergyman on charges of recruiting prostitutes

Belarusian state investigators in Vitebsk confirmed to Meduza that they’ve detained a Russian priest on suspicion of pimping. The holy man is charged with attempting to recruit local women to work as prostitutes in a foreign country. Yulia Goncharova, a spokesperson for the investigators’ committee, refused to name the suspect, but she verified that the man identified himself as a clergyman from the St. Petersburg area during his interrogation.

According to Goncharova, the man was detained and charged based on evidence collected by officers of a local police unit working to prevent human trafficking and the spread of illegal narcotics.

Investigators claim the Russian priest persuaded two women in Vitebsk to return with him to St. Petersburg to work as prostitutes. An official police report says the suspect “tried by means of persuasion and promises to arrange for two women in Vitebsk to travel to St. Petersburg to work in prostitution.” Officers detained the man and two women (ages 20 and 30) near a local bus station, before they could leave town.

According to other reports, the priest was detained in a police raid on a local brothel. The website 47news.ru claims that the man in question is Nikolai Kiriyev, a priest at the Apostles Peter and Paul Church in the Vsevolozhsky district of the Leningrad region. According to the website, Kiriyev’s spouse filed a missing person report with police on August 4, two days after he left for the Moscow region, supposedly to visit the New Jerusalem Monastery in the town of Istra. Afterwards it became known that Kiriyev had been detained in Belarus, 47news.ru reports.

Nikolai Kiriyev has worn the cloth for 15 years, becoming a priest in 2002. In 2006, he was awarded the right to wear a kamelaukion — a special brimless hat worn by priests and monks. In 2010, he joined the theological department at the St. Petersburg Theological Academy.

Kiriyev’s church denies the allegations against him. “I’ve never met such a [good] person, and I’ve been working with him for more than 10 years now,” one of the church’s staff told Meduza. The church’s senior priest, Father Sergii, calls the pimping charges against Kiriyev a “monstrous provocation,” adding that he’s yet to receive any official notification about a criminal case. The senior priest says Kiriyev is an efficient and quiet man. The regional diocese refused to comment on the story.

A spokesperson for the Russian Orthodox Church announced on August 7 that the church has forbidden Kiriyev from conducting services until the investigation against him is completed. The church says it’s reviewing the circumstances of the allegations presented by police, “despite their unprecedented nature,” not ruling out that Kiriyev could be handed over to Russian law enforcement.

Russian text by Sasha Sulim, translation by Kevin Rothrock