The Slavyansky District Court of the Krasnodar Territory issued a verdict on 8 April in the criminal case of 87-year-old Archbishop of the Russian Orthodox Church (independent of the Moscow Patriarchate) Viktor (Pivovarov). The case was initiated by the regional department of the Investigative Committee under Art. 280.3 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation – “Repeated discreditation of the use of the RF Armed Forces.” The process began on 27 February and consisted of only three meetings. Although the archbishop did not admit his guilt and even refused the services of a lawyer, the court limited him to a punishment close to the minimum – a fine of 150 thousand rubles. The maximum penalty under this article, which is extremely sensitive for the authorities of the Russian Federation, is 5 years of imprisonment (and with aggravating circumstances – up to 7 years), and, as a rule, the courts impose a punishment under it that is close to the maximum.
“New Europe” has repeatedly written about the heroic position that Archbishop Victor took from the very first days of the “SVO”. In an interview with our publication, he admitted that he was waiting for the most severe repressions from the criminal, anti-Christ authorities – murder or imprisonment and that he had been preparing for such an outcome all his life. From his youth, the future archbishop communicated with the catacomb Orthodox, who did not recognize Soviet power and the Moscow Patriarchate established by it and in the 1960s was expelled from the Moscow Theological Academy for anti-Soviet statements. In the early 1990s, he became a priest of the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad, which did not recognize the Russian Orthodox Church, and in 2006 he was ordained to the rank of bishop in one of the Russian foreign church jurisdictions. In March last year, Viktor was already fined under an administrative article for preaching “discrediting” the actions of the Putin regime and his army in Ukraine. The anti-war sermon was then reported by a certain “parishioner” who had not been seen either before or after the incident in the Intercession-Tikhonovsky Church in the city of Sloviansk-on-Kuban, built on Victor’s private plot.
The reason for the current criminal case was an article by Archbishop Victor, published on 20 November last year on his website “Eschatology”. The author asks the question: “Can a dictator decide to launch a nuclear strike on Ukraine?” He answers it in the affirmative – with references to the prophecies of the Apocalypse, the Gospel and the Old Testament prophets.
“In fact, for not recognizing him as a “god”, for refusing unconditional submission to him, for rejecting his delusional ideology imposed by the devil who possesses him, who appeared to destroy our world,”
— this is how Archbishop Victor describes the motives of the Russian autocrat, without, however, calling him by name.
Even before the publication of this article, on 3 October, searches took place in the church and residential building of Archbishop Victor, during which his assistant, Hieromonk Jonah (Sigida), was beaten. The reason was his article on the same Eschatology website, “The Cult of War.” “The cult of war is an integral part of all totalitarian anti-human regimes,” wrote the hieromonk. “Madness and worship of the god of war is not just temporary insanity, but the beginning of a future even greater psychosis and military madness, which will come during the third world war, not only with Ukraine.” After violence and threats, Fr. Jonah was forced to leave Sloviansk-on-Kuban, and Archbishop Victor remained the only cleric of the temple.
Although the archbishop, convicted for his evangelical position, remains free, a fine of 150 thousand is prohibitive for him. Parishioners of the Intercession-Tikhonovsky Church have announced a fundraiser, which, in particular, is being held on the “At the same time” platform. By mid-day on 9 April, 4,200 rubles had been collected there (less than 3% of the required amount). Donations can also be transferred to the “Peace” card of one of the archbishop’s parishioners (card number – 4279 3000 1147 9912). Transfers are accepted only from citizens of the Russian Federation and from Russian accounts.
Commenting on the verdict, the elder archbishop, for whom the very visit to the court with climbing the stairs was a difficult test, said that “it is not the Russians who should fight against the Ukrainians, but all Christians should fight against the <current> Bolsheviks.” Despite the verdict, Victor continues to deliver sermons in his church denouncing the crimes of the authorities – in the light of the interpretation of his favourite book, the Apocalypse. His position is clearly stated in the court’s verdict itself: “For V. I. Pivovarov, the Ukrainian people are related, he believes that the Russian people adopted the Christian Orthodox faith from them, they do not consider Ukraine and the Ukrainian people to be their enemy – that means, that the leadership of the Russian Federation does not have the right to declare them enemies… Believes that the leadership of the Russian Federation did not have the right to begin conducting a military operation and did not have the right to invade the territory of Ukraine, and by their actions they violated the integrity of this state and its sovereignty, forcibly compelling it to join the Russian Federation, having taken away the lands and people belonging to it from the state of Ukraine… He does not support the conduct of a military operation by the Russian Federation and its armed forces, considers these actions lawless and aggressive.” From these sound arguments, relying as “evidence” on the opinion of a certain expert, the court concludes:
“V.I. Pivovarov acted with direct intent aimed at discrediting the use of the Armed Forces… The purpose of the defendant’s crime was to undermine the dignity and authority of the Armed Forces in the eyes of other persons.”
A clergyman of the Western European Archdiocese of the Russian Orthodox Church, one of the founders of the “Peace to All” project to help anti-war clergy from Russia, priest Valerian Dunin-Barkovsky (Dusseldorf, Germany), commented to “New Europe” on the verdict against Archbishop Victor: “The situation is alarming when a true Christian peacemaker is subjected to criminal prosecution, while people who, with their militaristic calls, violate God’s and human laws, find themselves in power in the church and state. We call on all concerned people to help Bishop Victor raise money for a fine to protect him and his parishioners, but in no way do we consider this sentence adequate and fair.”
