Like a cross in my throat

The path to Constantinople was blocked by the police. Hieromonk Jacob (Vorontsov), author of Novaya Gazeta, detained

Hieromonk Jacob (Vorontsov), who advocates for a Kazakh Church independent of the Moscow Patriarchate, was detained in Kazakhstan. The case is being conducted under the “narcotics” article. Information support - Spas TV channel.

Arrest

They came to Father Jacob early in the morning on Friday, February 13th. The investigative team of the Almaty City Police Department, accompanied by riot police and witnesses, presented a search warrant to the hieromonk expelled from the Russian Orthodox Church as part of a criminal case about organizing a drug den. This is Article 302 of the Criminal Code of Kazakhstan - from 3 to 7 years with confiscation, in some cases - up to 12 years.

Vorontsov is involved in the case as a “witness with the right to protection”: this status in Kazakhstan means one step closer to a suspect with a high probability of becoming one.

During the search, according to the police press service, “powdery substances” were found and seized. Father Jacob himself does not know what these substances are; his lawyer Galym Nurpeisov conveys his client’s position as follows: “This could well be a medical error: Jacob took sleeping pills - perhaps there was something there.”

After the search, the priest was taken for a medical examination, although according to the law this should not be done: this requires grounds such as the person being behind the wheel and not in bed at home. But oh. Jacob agreed to go - and the examination showed the content of cannabinoids in his blood. Vorontsov denies the use of “non-medical drugs” and almost completely avoids other addictions. “He stopped smoking makhorka a long time ago, he drinks beer only occasionally - a glass on New Year’s, and recently another glass,” says lawyer Nurpeisov.

The conclusion of the examination was enough to bring Vorontsov to administrative responsibility and imprison him for 10 days. Galym Nurpeisov intends to appeal this decision, because if this is not done, then for the security forces in the criminal case about the “brothel” this will be an indisputable trump card. The Almaty Police Department has already promised in an official statement that it will identify “other possible participants.”

The entire operation to neutralize Vorontsov took about three hours: at 8 am he was taken for examination, and at 11 am he was already convicted. “The pace for political affairs is absolutely typical,” states lawyer Nurpeisov gloomily. He has no doubt that the matter is political. Father Jacob, by the standards of Kazakhstan, is a terrible schismatic who is trying not only to “offend the canonical Orthodox” (this case has already been closed), but also to “play off” the Kazakh authorities and the leadership of the Russian Orthodox Church. It is even possible that “with the assistance of foreign intelligence services.” Russian church propaganda is also putting a lot of effort into promoting this version.

The background

To the readers of Novaya Fr. Jacob is familiar from his sermons , the central theme of which is peace and overcoming aggression in the hearts of people. Until 2023, he served as a “canonical” clergyman of the Astana and Almaty diocese of the Russian Orthodox Church, although even then he stood out from the general mass of clergy with his Kazakh patriotism and desire for the “inculturation” of Orthodoxy on Kazakh soil (Novaya wrote about the history of the ministry and the views of Father Jacob). A watershed arose after the start of the Northern Military District, which the hieromonk criticized from the point of view of the Gospel, while the official position of the diocese, headed by Metropolitan Alexander (Mogilev), remained pro-Kremlin. The conflict naturally led to “defrocking” (as the Russian Orthodox Church now does with all pacifist clerics, and Father Jacob announced his intention to open a metochion or parish of the Patriarchate of Constantinople in Kazakhstan, which does not recognize the politically motivated “canonical repressions” of the Russian Orthodox Church.

However, the Kazakh authorities were in no hurry to satisfy Fr. Jacob and his community for registration, despite the applicants fulfilling all the extremely complex requirements of Kazakhstani legislation on religion. Moreover, in 2024, the hieromonk was brought in as a “witness with the right to defense” in a criminal case under Art. 141 of the Criminal Code of Kazakhstan (inciting national hatred) - based on a denunciation by parishioners of the Russian Orthodox Church loyal to Putin. However, a few months later, in May 2025, the case was closed, which caused acute disappointment among adherents of the “Russian world.”

The frustration was sublimated into a series of videos generated by clergy of the Russian Orthodox Church in Kazakhstan and the main TV channel of the Moscow Patriarchate earlier this year. They played the role of informational artillery preparation before the arrest of Fr. Jacob. The videos are posted on the telegram channel “Semirechensky Pilgrim”, which, according to Novaya, may belong to the secretary of the Astana-Almaty diocese of the Russian Orthodox Church, Archpriest Alexander Suvorov - in fact, the main coordinator of the persecution of Fr. Jacob after 2023. The name of the channel hints at the attitude towards Kazakh statehood - “Semirechye” was dubbed “Semirechye” by Russian troops who occupied it in the middle of the 19th century.

Other participants in the video denunciations include Archpriests Alexander Ivliev, Kirill Shklyar, Evgeny Bobylev and Abbot Philip (Moiseev). In a somewhat theatrical style, they are indignant at the “schismatic insolence” of their former brother, who dares to think about Constantinople, and talk about the “canonical obstacles to the ordination” of Fr. Jacob and demand that he be subjected to criminal prosecution again (at the same time, representatives of the Russian Orthodox Church did not formally appeal the termination of the criminal case in 2024).

The key element of the artillery preparation was the release of the top talk show on the Spas TV channel, which is owned by the Moscow Patriarchate, on the evening of January 20. Already in the introduction to the talk show, the main ideological accents are placed: rejection of the SVO = “criticism of Orthodoxy and everything Russian”; the thought of moving to Constantinople = “numerous canonical violations.” The talk show host does not even try to “be above the fray”, already at the beginning of the “discussion” he sums it up: Fr. Jacob is “a deeply sick man, an unscrupulous man.” Archpriest Andrei Novikov, who fled from Ukraine, develops the idea: it was necessary to “extinguish” the future hieromonk even at the stage of receiving his spiritual education, calling to hold to account those “who made the decision on his ordination to the priesthood, on his acceptance into the metropolis, where this person received his position.” And further in this spirit - “rottenness”, “hatred”, “betrayal”, “discredit of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation”...

But the main sedition, according to the program participants, is not in the head of Fr. Jacob, but in those “who are now protecting him in Kazakhstan.” According to Spas, the persecution of the hieromonk was stopped after the publication of his open letter to Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, who allegedly put pressure on law enforcement officers. This version was supported by Archpriest Suvorov, who went on air, which puts the diocese and its head, Metropolitan Alexander, in a very delicate position. The archpriest was not too lazy to write an entire poetic ballad about his former brother in four parts. It gives a strange impression that the author’s muse was a not entirely Christian passion of envy: “He was, therefore, busy with business, / Making acquaintances and ranks. / Although he wore a black cassock, / But he hovered in large circles. / Lived in Moscow, didn’t blow his mustache, / Ate French cheeses, / Knew where to grease, where to grease, / For what kind of game. / He took grants, bless you! - / From disgraced masters."

...The sudden arrest of Fr. Jacob took place in the context of his struggle for registration of the community, declaring its intention to enter the Patriarchate of Constantinople.

The next package of registration documents is currently being considered by the Almaty administrative court. This is the last post on the hieromonk’s blog before the arrest: “My lawsuit against the Department of Justice of Almaty to declare illegal and cancel the order “On refusal to register a religious association”... was scheduled online for [February 10] at 17:00. The court clerk created the group in advance. Included participants. We are waiting. But the process did not begin either at 17 or until now. No explanation." So the arrest is the explanation?