FOUNDER
AND TWO
LEADERS OF CHURCH OF THE LAST TESTAMENT ARRESTED IN NOVOSIBIRSK
Sergei
Torop,
Vladimir Vedernikov, and Vadim Redkin will remain in custody
until 22 November
The
Central district
court of Novosibirsk on Tuesday placed Sergei Torop into
custody; he is the
founder of the Church of the Last Testament who calls himself
Vissarion. Also
detained were leaders of the religious association, Vladimir
Vedernikov and
Vadim Redkin. All three are charged with creation of a religious
association whose
activity is accompanied by the use of force against people.
The
court imposed on
them a pre-trial prevention measure in the form of detention in
custody for two
months, until 22 November. The leader of the association is
Sergei Torop, who
calls himself Vissarion. Similar charges were brought against
him.
Torop
told
journalists that he disagrees with the charges. He cast doubt on
the words of
victims, adding that he has never seen several of them. "If an
argument is
made that there was pressure on my part upon those who declared
this, then
these people have been living close by for many years. And
everybody knows
that, being in difficult circumstances, they constantly complain
somewhere and
express discontent. . . . I never saw one of them. I saw one 15
years ago. In
recent years, three of these families have constantly created
some difficulties
and complained somewhere," the head of the religious association
said.
The
defense attorney
for the leaders of the Church of the Last Testament is appealing
the court's
decision. Attorney Ivan Khoroshev reported this to TASS on
Wednesday.
"Of
course. We
will appeal for all three," Khoroshev said, replying to a
question about
an appeal from TASS.
The
59-year-old
Sergei Torop, a former officer of the traffic police in
Minusinsk (Krasnoyarsk
territory), created in the early nineties a religious
organization, which later
was called the Church of the Last Testament. It is reported that
he called
himself Christ the Son of God, with the name Vissarion. A former
rock musician
who once was a member of the group Integral, Redkin is
considered Torop's aide
and often acts as his press secretary. Vedernikov is considered
the director of
a private school where children of members of the society study.
On
Tuesday morning,
personnel of law enforcement agencies arrested three leaders of
the local
religious organization Church of the Last Testament. According
to information
from the S.K.R. [Investigative Committee of Russia], since 1991,
Torop, Vadim
Redkin, and Vedernikov exercised the leadership of this
organization. It is
planned to file charges against them for committing the crimes
defined in part
1 of article 239, and points a and b of part 2 of article 111 of
the Criminal
Code of the R.F. ("Creation of a religious association whose
activity
involves violence against citizens, causing serious harm to the
health of two
or more persons").
According
to
information of the S.K.R., in order to get income from religious
activity, the
detained leaders of the society solicited financial
contributions from
citizens. They also used psychological force, as the result of
long-term
exposure to which some followers suffered serious harm to their
health.
The
center of the
Church of the Last Testament is located in the so-called "Abode
of
Dawn" in the Kuragino district in the south of the Krasnoyarsk
territory.
(tr. by PDS, posted 23 September 2020)
TWILIGHT IN "CITY OF THE SUN": WHY SECURITY
FORCES
HAVE ONLY NOW GONE AFTER VISSARION'S SECT Komsomolskaia
Pravda, 23 September 2020 For 30 years, Sergei Torop has been
building his state in
the taiga of Krasnoyarsk territory and messing with the minds
of Russians and
foreigners, telling them that he is the last Jesus Christ. The end of the world, for which thousands
of adherents of
the sect "Church of the Last Testament" have been preparing
for many
years, came on 22 September. To be sure, in the literal sense
the world has not
collapsed, but the earth under the feet of the organizers and
large flock has
been clearly shaken. The heavens opened up and security forces
descended into
the picturesque natural corner on the bank of Lake Tiberkul in
Krasnoyarsk in a
green helicopter. Vissarion and two of his chief aides were
taken to
Novosibirsk and arrested. The society was left without its
tsar. Why the
Siberian false Jesus wound up behind bars and what danger one
of the most
closed religious organizations conceals within itself is the
subject for
Komsomolskaia Pravda—Novosibirsk. How the society lived The 59-year-old Sergei Torop, who calls
himself Vissarion
and the new Christ, ruled an enormous society rather
successfully. His orders
were fulfilled without questioning and his opinion was
considered to be the
only correct one. He himself wrote the laws for his religious
state and he
punished his wards for their offenses. He was like a Siberian
god who was
obeyed and worshipped, and given gifts. Incidentally, about
the gifts. All residents of the society, when they
came and left their
secular life, brought with them all their savings and also the
money received
from the sale of their personal immovable property. This was
considered an
admission fee, but it did not always affect Vissarion's
decision about
admission into the ranks of the church. "There was a case known when a man sold all
his
property and sent the money to Vissarion, who refused him
transfer into the
society," a source close to the investigation described for
KP-Novosibirsk. "In the end the man was not able to come to
terms with the
unjust refusal and he could not imagine how he could live any
more. A tragedy
occurred; he took his own life. "Actually, people surrendered the money
from the
apartments they sold, that is true, but I never understood
them. We sold the
apartment and bought a house there with that money. And those
who surrendered
everything simply shifted the responsibility, like I give you
money and you
give me a beautiful life. All of this charitableness was never
obligatory," a reader, Liudmila Simonenko, wrote to us. She
herself lived
in the society for several years. "As regards suicides—yes,
there were
some, but these were really psychologically abnormal people,
because I never
observed any reasons for such acts. Rules of the "City of the Sun" Actually, there were very many people who
wished to conduct
a romantic religious form of life in the taiga. To the "City
of the
Sun" in the Kuragino district of Krasnoyarsk territory came
pilgrims from
throughout Russia and even foreigners. "Peculiar laws of life function in the
society. They
pertain to a healthy diet. In the main, everybody becomes
vegetarians and they
reject alcohol and nicotine. Peasants especially like it
there. According to
Vissarion's testaments it is permitted to have two wives. All
working members
of the society are supposed to pay the false-Jesus a kind of
tithe for residing
on the territory. At the same time, each family builds its own
house by their
own efforts," our source continues. Another interesting observation relates to
holidays in the
society. Only three are celebrated there: 14 April, Earth Day
and the day of
Vissarion's conception; 18 August, the day of the descent of
the Kingdom of
Power and good fruits; and 14 August, the Nativity of
Vissarion Christ, which
is the same as the birthday of Sergei Torop himself. What was found during the search At the time of Vissarion's arrest it was
publically declared
that he has no mercenary interests. "I'll tell you a great secret. For 30 years
I have done
everything for free," the detainee admitted. "All our
sacraments are
done without money. None of us directs anything. They arrive
themselves and do something.
Somebody at some time may find himself dissatisfied with
something. And two
people show up who are displeased. And so they concoct
everything. . . . But there is the suspicion that Vissarion
himself concocts
very well. As proof of this serve the 18 volumes of "Last
Testaments"
written by him and the enormous sums of dollars and rubles
confiscated during a
search in the houses of the sectarians. In addition to everything, as it turned
out, the dry law was
not observed there. Alcohol was found in the homes. It may be
a coincidence,
but Torop was kicked out of the police where he served as an
inspector before
his "epiphany" for his own drunkenness. But most alarming of
all was
the store of weapons and shells in the home of one of the
companions of the
messiah. One wonders what all this was about for vegetarians
who do not hunt
for game. Had they really prepared a crusade? What did they come to Vissarion for? Investigators paid attention to the sect
two years ago
because of a tragedy. An infant, a boy, in a family of
Vissarion's followers,
died. "A criminal case is pending for the death
of a child;
presumably it was faith that prevented the parents from
getting help from
'worldly doctors,'" our source reported. But the arrest of Vissarion and his aides
is connected with
other charges. A statement was written against Vissarion by
former devotees.
One of them spent 20 years in the sect and is now under
treatment by a
psychiatrist. Doctors declared that the society caused serious
harm to the
health of the man. Both Sergei Torop and two of his chief
aides are charged
under the article "Creation of a religious association whose
activity involves
use of force on citizens or other causes of harm to their
health." In
essence the point is the creation of a dangerous totalitarian
sect, a serious
charge for which one can get up to four years. What do the sectarians say? The detainees themselves are puzzled in
court: where did so
many charges come from?
They try
to justify themselves and rely on pity. "This is inhuman!" thinks Vadim Redkin,
another
long-haired companion of Vissarion, who before becoming a
hermit was a musician
in the group Tender May. "I have a wife and three small
children in the
taiga. It will be hard for them without me. And these people
who wrote
complaints against us—they are psychologically unwell." Vissarion seems to be happy with his
publicity. He smiles
for journalists' cameras and swears that he has done nothing
wrong. He did not
take money. He preached for free. What's next? It remains to be seen what kind of
interaction Sergei Torop
and his sect have managed to work out with authorities in
Krasnoyarsk
territory. Why, despite numerous complaints and statements
with strong
evidentiary base, which have been submitted previously, have
people continually
refused to open criminal cases? "Actually the locals encouraged the
creation and
development on the territory of the Russian Federation of a
separate state—Vissarionia,"
Professor Alexander Dvorkin, an investigator of contemporary
religious
sectarianism in Russia, emphasized on Radio Komsomolskaia
Pravda. "At the
entrance there were checkpoints: whom they wanted, they
admitted, and whom they
did not want, they did not admit. The local police preferred
not to stick their
nose in there. Everything that happened there was completely
ignored. The
children studied in their own schools there and their own
system existed there,
or more accurately an anti-system of health care. People were
kept in complete
isolation, were exploited, that is, actually people were serfs
and nobody
really cared. And judging by everything, there was a serious
criminal grouping
there. For now the leaders of Vissarionia are
sitting in an
investigation cell, and their wards are continuing to live at
large, in the
woods. There are neither more nor fewer people there; several
thousand. The
question arises: what will become of them now? "It's all bad for the people," says the
head of
the Civil Rights Center of the World Russian People's Sobor,
Roman Silantiev.
"Most likely, they completely lack social ties outside the
boundaries of
the sect: neither a circle of fellowship nor property.
Apparently a second
generation of devotees already is living there. The main thing
is that it is
not necessary to drive them out of there. The people have
houses there,
everyday life, economy. They have existed there about 20 years
now as a kind of
ecosettlement in a modified form. The specialist cites examples of other such
organizations,
where a flock has been deprived of a leader and continued to
conduct their
habitual form of life. The main requirement on them is to
observe the law of
the Russian Federation and not to conduct agitation. (tr. by
PDS, posted 23
September 2020)
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