Defamatory materials about the Sipko case on federal channels

On August 8, 2023, it became known that a criminal case had been initiated to discredit the army against the former head of the Russian Union of Evangelical Christian Baptists, Yuri Sipko. Leading media, in particular federal television channels - Channel One, NTV and Rossiya - released defamatory reports about this.

These materials, with almost the same video sequence, are replete with “anti-sectarian” clichés, contain accusations of cooperation with US-funded foreign organizations - the International Alliance of Religious Freedoms and International Russian Radio and Television (IRR-TV), support of the Russian opposition and Ukrainian authorities.

Thus, NTV called the case brought against Sipko the result of the work of the special services to identify ” “agents of influence sponsored by foreign intelligence services in a whole network of radical religious organizations .

Channel One compared Sipko’s sermons to “outright enemy propaganda ,” and NTV claimed that they were “based on manuals developed by American curators . ” As evidence of work at the direction of foreign curators, NTV mentioned an “old foreign passport with numerous foreign visas” found on Sipko during a search .

Apparently, in order to emphasize the pro-fascist views of Russian Protestants, all reports show a close-up portrait of Hitler discovered during the search - the cover of a BBC film about the Third Reich, telling about the danger of Hitler's regime.

In two of the three reports, the former chief rabbi of Moscow, Pinchas Goldschmidt, who left Russia, is also mentioned, calling on Western leaders to support the Russian opposition.

The authors of the reports involved “sect experts” Roman Silantiev, Larisa Astakhova and Igor Ivanishko as experts.

Sources

• The Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation said that Yuri Sipko hid concerns for believers behind a screen // Channel One. 2023. August 8.
• The security forces visited the radical Baptist pastor // NTV. 2023. August 8.
• The pastor became a defendant in a criminal case about fakes about the army // Vesti. Duty department. 2023. August 8.
• The Russian authorities brought down TV on pro-Western religious leaders // Institute of Religion and Politics. 2023. August 9.