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Coronavirus-denying Russian monk detained by police
Source: Associated Press
Coronavirus-denying Russian monk detained by police
By VLADIMIR ISACHENKOV
December 29, 2020
MOSCOW (AP) — Russian riot police stormed into a monastery Tuesday to detain a rebel monk who has castigated the Kremlin and the Russian Orthodox Church leadership and denied the existence of the coronavirus.
In the overnight showdown, police clashed with supporters of Father Sergiy at the Sredneuralsk monastery outside Yekaterinburg in the Ural Mountains.
The monk was quickly flown to Moscow, where a court was to approve his arrest. Authorities charged him with inciting suicidal action through his sermons in which he urged believers to “die for Russia.”
When the virus arrived in Russia early this year, the 65-year-old monk denied its existence and denounced government efforts to stem the pandemic as “Satan’s electronic camp.” He has described the vaccines being developed against COVID-19 as part of a global plot to control the masses via chips.
-snip-
By VLADIMIR ISACHENKOV
December 29, 2020
MOSCOW (AP) — Russian riot police stormed into a monastery Tuesday to detain a rebel monk who has castigated the Kremlin and the Russian Orthodox Church leadership and denied the existence of the coronavirus.
In the overnight showdown, police clashed with supporters of Father Sergiy at the Sredneuralsk monastery outside Yekaterinburg in the Ural Mountains.
The monk was quickly flown to Moscow, where a court was to approve his arrest. Authorities charged him with inciting suicidal action through his sermons in which he urged believers to “die for Russia.”
When the virus arrived in Russia early this year, the 65-year-old monk denied its existence and denounced government efforts to stem the pandemic as “Satan’s electronic camp.” He has described the vaccines being developed against COVID-19 as part of a global plot to control the masses via chips.
-snip-
Read more: https://apnews.com/article/riots-arrests-moscow-coronavirus-pandemic-russia-cb61a26ff3824d2512ce8fb155b66de3
FILE - In this file photo taken on Wednesday, June 17, 2020, Father Sergiy, right, a Russian monk who has defied the Russian Orthodox Church's leadership, speaks to journalists in Russian Ural's Sredneuralsk, Russia. Father Sergiy, who has castigated the Kremlin and the Russian Orthodox Church leadership and denied the coronavirus existence, was detained Tuesday Dec. 29, 2020, by police at a monastery in the Urals and flown to Moscow where he will face criminal charges. (AP Photo/Vladimir Podoksyonov, FILE)
