Translated material
Bishop Flavian, Bishop of Cherepovets, left Russia
The Bishop of Cherepovets and Belozersky Flavian (Maxim Mitrofanov), which was prohibited for disobedience , left Russia. Now he is in London. Flavian told Radio Liberty about this.
He made the decision to leave after the search, which was held in his house on December 2. According to the bishop, the FSB operape "broke" to him at five in the morning. The search went until one day. The priest seized passports, credit cards and phones. After the search, he was taken to the St. Petersburg department of the FSB, where, as he claims, he was held until 9 pm, after which he was taken to a confrontation with a suspect in the drug trafficking case. After the confrontation, the bishop was released, not even taking a recognizance not to leave. In the case, he remained a witness. A few days later, Flavian left with emergency passports to the UK
According to Radio Liberty, a certain Cain Montanelli, whom Flavian meets in St. Petersburg in 2017, also appears in the case of drug trafficking. According to the bishop, a native of the city of Kurgan Montanelli, he "pulled out of the escort", rented him an apartment and paid 40 thousand rubles a month to fulfill various instructions. In December 2019, he was detained, he is in jail. According to lawyer Cain Nadezhda Zhernova, pressure is on her client. At the same time, FSB officers are trying to receive information about the connections and bank accounts of Flavian in foreign countries - they are not interested in the possible connection of the priest with drugs.
According to Flavian himself, earlier the FSB Lieutenant Krasavin tried to "establish cooperation with him" to find out "information about his foreign relations." However, as the priest assures, he refused to cooperate with the organization, which "has" hands on the elbow in the blood of Russian priests and Russian people. "
- In August, Bishop Flavian was freed from the control of the Cherepovets diocese. This was preceded by the initiation of a criminal case. According to the newspaper " Cherepovets Truth ", in the priest’s apartment in St. Petersburg and at the workplace in Cherepovets, the police, along with the FSB officers, conducted searches in the fraud case. According to the newspaper, drugs were also found in the bishop’s apartment. Flavian lawyers stated that the information about the drugs "did not correspond to reality and defeats his honor and dignity."
- According to the website of the Russian Orthodox Church, Mitrofanov was born in Saratov and studied at the Saratov Theological Seminary. Since 2007 - the full -time cleric of the Assumption Cathedral in London. Mitrofanov was admitted to the Vologda diocese in 2014.