Radical Left Torch Church in Russia – Police

admin | 06 July 2013

181423632MOSCOW, July 6 (RIA Novosti) – Two followers of a Russian leftist leader are accused of torching a church in the city of Nizhny Novgorod in protest against a recent pro-church law, regional police said Saturday.

The duo pelted an Orthodox Christian church in the city in central Russia with a Molotov cocktail last week, police said on their website.

However, the Molotov cocktail only burned one window sill, reports said earlier.

The attackers were members of the unregistered Left Front, a political vehicle for firebrand leftist leader Sergei Udaltsov, police said, without providing their names.

The suspects said they were protesting against last month’s law that introduces punishments for offending “religious believers’ feelings.”

The opposition claimed the bill was infringing on non-believers’ rights and linked it to the church’s ideological alliance with President Vladimir Putin, whose presidency bid was endorsed last year by church head Patriarch Kirill.

The city’s branch of the Left Front identified one of the suspects as group member Dmitry Kapelyush and confirmed that he pleaded guilty.

“We do not support such attacks…and regret that we failed to explain it to our comrade,” the group said on its page on social network Vk.com.

Kapelyush claimed earlier that city police have repeatedly threatened to fabricate a case against him, opposition website Kasparov.ru said Saturday.

The church has not commented on the case. Last year, it supported criminal persecution of three opposition minded member punk band [deleted] who performed an anti-Putin song in a cathedral and were jailed for two years each.

Puzzlingly, the Left Front activists were not accused of violating the law they were protesting against: Police only charged them with deliberate damage of property, not offending churchgoers’ feelings.

Source: RIA Novosti

Since you are here…

…we do have a small request. More and more people visit Orthodoxy and the World website. However, resources for editorial are scarce. In comparison to some mass media, we do not make paid subscription. It is our deepest belief that preaching Christ for money is wrong.

Having said that, Pravmir provides daily articles from an autonomous news service, weekly wall newspaper for churches, lectorium, photos, videos, hosting and servers. Editors and translators work together towards one goal: to make our four websites possible - Pravmir.ru, Neinvalid.ru, Matrony.ru and Pravmir.com. Therefore our request for help is understandable.

For example, 5 euros a month is it a lot or little? A cup of coffee? It is not that much for a family budget, but it is a significant amount for Pravmir.

If everyone reading Pravmir could donate 5 euros a month, they would contribute greatly to our ability to spread the word of Christ, Orthodoxy, life's purpose, family and society.