Translated material
“I’m not afraid of slander, frame-ups, or even prison!”
How the arrest of Kazakh hieromonk Iakov Vorontsov was prepared
18+. THIS MATERIAL (INFORMATION) WAS PRODUCED, DISTRIBUTED AND (OR) SENT BY FOREIGN AGENT ANDREY BORISOVICH KORDOCHKIN OR CONCERNES THE ACTIVITIES OF FOREIGN AGENT ANDREY BORISOVICH KORDOCHKIN
On February 13, 2026, Hieromonk Jacob (Vorontsov) was arrested in Almaty on suspicion of running a drug den and possessing drugs without the intent to sell them. Archpriest Andrei Kordochkin* talks about what happened to Father Jacob over the past four years in order to understand the real reasons for the persecution.
After February
It seems to me that the first time I heard the name of Hieromonk Jacob Vorontsov was on March 1, 2022, when the “Appeal of the clergy of the Russian Orthodox Church calling for reconciliation and an immediate end to ***” was published. There were 293 signatures under it. Signature o. Jacob was the eighth. A few days earlier, he called for Kazakhstan to leave the EAEU and the CSTO. “I am convinced that patriots of Kazakhstan are obliged to initiate such a petition... I believe that a mandatory point in the petition should be a clause banning public and religious organizations from having a leadership center in the Russian Federation,” he wrote.
When a person makes such statements, a reaction is inevitable. Even if the consequences are not entirely clear, there are two options: reverse gear or move forward, accepting all risks.
A few days later Fr. Jacob published a letter addressed to Metropolitan Alexander of Astana and Kazakhstan, where he wrote: “Who, if not our Primate, His Holiness Patriarch Kirill, can call and force the conflicting parties to peace? Only he and the Holy Synod have such powers and such authority to immediately turn to the armed forces of both sides and demand an end to the bloodshed. Under pain of excommunication and anathema, this must be demanded in the most decisive way. How else can we remain faithful to Christ, who commanded: “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God?”
Everything that happened after February 2022, Fr. Jacob takes this very seriously. Particularly painful is the construction of an ideology that not only justifies and sacralizes military actions, but also deliberately dulls empathy and compassion for the victims.
On June 11, 2022, he wrote: “Today is Trinity Parents’ Saturday. I couldn't go to the temple. I prayed at home. I remembered all those who died in this crazy ***. Lord, rather than live with people who are insensitive to grief and justify lawlessness, it would be better if I died too!”
In the fall of the same year, he writes about a woman whose slandered son ended up in prison in a foreign country. He consoles his mother as best he can, noting: “The main thing is not that a person avoids prison (or poverty, or illness), but that he maintains courage and piety. It is better to be in trouble with God than to be prosperous without God.” He still had more than three years left before his own imprisonment.
Over time, the gap between faith in the Church and the state of the earthly institution becomes more and more painful. O. Jacob quotes Vysotsky:
*I killed the horses and galloped away from the wolves.
Show me the region where there is light from the lamps.
Show me the place you were looking for,
Where they sing and don’t moan, where the floor doesn’t roll.
We have never heard of such houses,
We got used to living in the dark forever.
From time immemorial we are in evil and whispers
Under the icons in black soot.*
Father Jacob observes necropolitics, in which past and present deaths become the main ideological fuel, and Vysotsky again comes to his aid with the exact words:
*Drank the potion in the turtles,
Ate bulniki,
Dancing on the coffins
Blasphemers.*
Circumstances forced Fr. Jacob reconsidered his faith in the Church, like many others: “I no longer wear the priest’s cross. Sadness. But somehow I will live. God will not leave, I hope. I believe in Him. And I believe in His Holy Church. But I no longer believe in patriarchs and metropolitans. Just like in presidents. Trouble." Continue serving in opposition to the church structures of Fr. Jacob can no longer do it, and in July 2023 he announces that he is leaving ministry.
July 7, 2023 Fr. Jacob publishes a decree prohibiting the ministry and addresses himself to Metropolitan Alexander. For the first time, he admits the possibility of criminal prosecution and imprisonment against himself, and also questions the independence of decisions made by his hierarchy”: “I know that you and your curators have enough means and connections to organize any provocation and even criminal prosecution against me. Given our level of corruption, I would not be surprised by this. Hang a new order on some akim or prosecutor, and it will be in your pocket. But know: my conscience is clear, and I am not afraid of slander, frame-ups, persecution and even prison!”
In general, relationships about. Jacob and the Metropolitan are not characterized by mutual sympathy. Father Jacob publishes a photo in which the head of the Russian Format choir, Protodeacon Seraphim Dubanov, gives Metropolitan Alexander an artillery mine with the image of St. Alexander Nevsky with his comment: “Why was I defrocked, and not him?”
Father Jacob declares his readiness to register the Orthodox Church of Kazakhstan in the jurisdiction of the Ecumenical Patriarchate. He has already been banned from serving, the possibilities of church persecution have almost been exhausted, and state mechanisms are being used. December 4, 2023 o. Jacob publishes a photo of a denunciation to the prosecutor’s office, under which, according to him, Archpriest Alexander Suvorov, head of the public relations department of the Kazakhstan Metropolitan District, is collecting signatures. This is one of the main participants in his persecution, in his telegram channel “Semirechensky Pilgrim”, together with the clownish “icon” Fr. Jacob - 27 mentions of his name.
“The prospect of confession awakened and spiritually mobilized me,” writes Fr. Jacob. On November 23, 2023, he reports: “Yes, yesterday I was at the police station. I received a complaint because of my post of August 2, where I wrote emotionally about Russian fascism and the church. The contents of Article 174 were explained to me. Criminal Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan. I wrote an explanatory note. I don’t give up my beliefs. I did not intend to incite hostility and hatred. On the contrary, I wish peace and prosperity to all nations and all people. I am ready to take responsibility for my beliefs. A religious organization called a church should not be an agent of influence and not a gathering of bearded accomplices of fascism dressed in long dresses, but the Church of Christ full of truth and grace, bringing peace and salvation from sin.”
All mechanisms of church repression have been exhausted, but the last one remains. July 15, 2024 o. Jacob publishes a decree on defrocking with the comment: “I do not recognize either the accusations against me or the decision to depose me, signed by a heretic patriarch and war criminal.”
July 26, 2024, in 10 days, o. Jacob publishes a screenshot of a message from a telegram channel that the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Foreign Intelligence Service are allegedly preparing a campaign against the church opposition in Kazakhstan. He accompanies the screenshot with a comment from himself: “When I read such news, I cannot feel safe. Just in case, I say:
I am not suicidal and intend to live a long time; I don’t have any serious illnesses; I don’t use drugs; I am not friends with criminals; I'm not going to emigrate. If something happens to me, it’s not hard to understand where my legs come from.”
There is still a year and a half left before the arrest. O. Jacob does not lose his sense of humor. He quotes an interview with Margarita Simonyan, where she says: “I would be happy if we could afford [to fight] in Ukraine, in Syria, and, if they call again to deal with some barmalei, in Kazakhstan” with her comment: “My dear barmaley, be vigilant! The neighbor from the north does not hide his goals after Ukraine.”
Father Jacob took aim at the main rite of modern political religion in Russia. April 30, 2025 He wrote:
“The very name “Immortal Regiment” suggests that a person gains immortality not through Christ, not through the resurrection, not in the Church - but through participation in war and state memory. This is a dangerous substitution. Instead of prayer there is a procession. Instead of the Liturgy there are banners. Instead of Christ - the image of a “hero”. Instead of church sermons, there is the sacralization of politics. Portraits of ancestors become unique icons of the new ideology, and “immortality” becomes an attribute of civil religion, in which there is no place for the living God. The “Immortal Regiment” became part of a new state pseudo-religion based on the cult of war. Its important attribute is the myth of the “eternal struggle against fascism,” the “greatness of the state,” and the special purpose of Russia as a force opposing evil. For a Christian, the replacement of worship of God with worship of the state and its heroes is obvious here. The war hero here takes the place of a saint, and sometimes even the place of Christ: he “suffers for the people,” “dies for the sake of peace,” “resurrects in memory.” In parades, in songs and speeches, he is remembered almost liturgically. His suffering becomes the source of national “redemption.” This is the substitution of Christian eschatology for political messianism.”
May 8, 2025 o. Jacob reports that the criminal case on charges of extremism against him was discontinued due to the lack of corpus delicti in his actions.
2026 Denouement
By the beginning of 2026, it becomes obvious that the Russian authorities are by no means neutral on issues of church jurisdiction and canons. Defense of “canonical Orthodoxy” has long been part of the rhetoric of Russian government officials, and on January 12, the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service publishes a message entitled “Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople: “Antichrist in a cassock.” It is difficult to imagine that the activities of Fr. James remained unnoticed by experts in uniform on canon law.
At the same time, media reports that since the beginning of the year, Kazakhstan has decided to extradite four Russian activists. Two deportees have already been arrested in Russia. Russian human rights activists state that Kazakhstan is becoming less and less safe for Russian oppositionists.
January 16, 2026 o. Jacob publishes the message he received: “Your person is considered as the subject of informal agreements between the Russian side and the Republic of Kazakhstan.” He is warned that he is being followed.
On January 20, 2026, the “Attack on the Orthodox Church in Kazakhstan” program is broadcast on the Spas channel. According to the authors of the program, Fr. Jacob is “rotten”, “sick”, “recruited by the British intelligence services”. Participants in the program say that the Russian state is responsible for Russians all over the world, and there is no need to be afraid of violating the principle of non-interference in the affairs of another state. Extreme dissatisfaction is expressed with the criminal prosecution of Kazakhstanis taking part in hostilities in Ukraine on the side of the Russian Federation.
It's getting dangerous. I advise Fr. Jacob should leave. He answers me: “I feel responsible for the community that has developed here. If God wills, we will be able to become legal and serve Him freely. If I leave, the community may fall apart. We submitted documents to register a religious association. State bodies are conducting appropriate procedures. The Russian Orthodox Church is putting pressure on the state. An open demand to prosecute me is an extreme measure on their part, aimed at preventing the registration of our community. But Kazakhstan has a Constitution and laws. Freedom of conscience is guaranteed. If I leave, they definitely won’t register me.”
- February 13, 2026 o. Jacob was arrested on suspicion of drug possession and running a drug den.
I google it and read the headlines in the local media: “In Kazakhstan, police officers planted a syringe with drugs on a man and drove him to suicide.” “The Kazakhstani proved that the police planted the drugs on him.” “The policeman planted drugs and escaped punishment. Why is his victim still sitting?” “They planted drugs”: Almaty police officers were again accused of committing a cynical crime.”
Two days later, the head of the “Eurasian Analytical Club” Nikita Mendkovich publishes a video from the medical interrogation of Fr. Jacob. In response to my question about how it is possible in Kazakhstan to violate medical secrecy and investigative secrecy by transferring a video to a public figure in another state for pre-trial discredit, my knowledgeable interlocutor writes: “The FSB lives in Kazakhstan like in Russia. Don’t forget the Russian enclave of Baikonur, which is subordinate to the Moscow region, plus two training grounds, plus 8 military units of the Russian Federation, plus Russian business in Kazakhstan. How did you leak it? Like this".
On February 16, 2026, a letter from Fr. Jacob from the conclusion, where he writes in particular:
“Everyone knows about public calls for reprisals against me through criminal prosecution. The whole world knows about my choice of the Gospel, and not the “Russian world”; peace, not ***; freedom of conscience, and not “obedience” to evil, clothed in episcopal omophorions. For this choice of mine I was and am subject to slander. There is not and never has been any brothel in my house. Various people came for pastoral consolation and kind words. My like-minded people and fellow believers came for conversations and prayers. The powder that was found in my house does not belong to me. I believe he was planted for the purpose of reprisal and discredit. It’s not hard to guess who benefits from this and who might be the customer.”
In the pre-trial detention center, the hieromonk had his hair cut short and his beard shaved. Vorontsov’s lawyer regards this as cruel treatment: “Jacob is a suspect, he is not convicted, not even on trial... This is an attempt to humiliate human dignity, namely his religious feelings.”
Father Jacob was arrested for two months and will spend Easter in a pre-trial detention center.
On his Facebook, Fr. James talks about drugs several times. On March 12, 2014, he writes about internal affairs officers who are looking for where mephedrone is brewed. According to them, they often conduct checks without local police officers and do not notify them, because local police officers sometimes cover for drug dealers. On October 27 of the same year, he reported that the laboratory had been found on his street: “Thank you for covering up those who poison the city with rubbish.”
We have not seen Fr. Jacob personally, but one thing I know for sure: drug addiction cannot be hidden. A serving priest cannot be an invisible drug addict. This would be known, and no dubious political accusations would be needed to remove him from ministry. “What can we take from him - he’s a drug addict!” - this is an ideal trump card, and if you didn’t get it, then it means it didn’t exist. And what happened and what we know for sure is what this material was written about.