On March 12, 2022, Orthodox priest John Kurmoyarov published a video on his YouTube channel titled “Who will be in hell and who will be in heaven?”. The video, which was just under 9 minutes long, criticized Russia’s war in Ukraine from the perspective of Christian canons. It didn’t take long for the video to gain 32,000 views, and in June of the same year Kurmoyarov was criminally prosecuted. The article under which the case was initiated was almost traditional: 207.3 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation – spreading “fakes about the army”.

After the search Kurmoyarov was detained, more than a year he was in pre-trial detention center, and in August 2023 the court sentenced the priest to three years in prison. John Kurmoyarov pleaded guilty.

We will examine this story from three perspectives: Pro, Contra, In fact

CONTRA

Almost immediately after the criminal case was initiated, on June 8, 2022, the priest’s house was searched. “KP-Peterburg”, citing its own sources, wrote that the law enforcers seized a computer, a tablet, two hard disks, two icons, a wooden cross and a vestment. The next day, the court sent Kurmoyarov to a pre-trial detention center until August 6, as his brother, Alexander Kurmoyarov, told reporters*. He also reported that the priest’s lawyer was not present at the trial on the measure of restraint.

“Meduza” wrote** that in Kurmoyarov’s case a linguistic examination of the St. Petersburg State University was conducted and, according to it, the priest ‘expressed deliberately false information about the armed forces of the Russian Federation’. There is no more precise data on what exactly Father John was prosecuted for – his lawyer, Leonid Krikun, only told journalists that he was given a non-disclosure undertaking at the hearing.

Later, on June 28, 2023, at the next trial, John Kurmoyarov admitted his guilt:

“The investigation is over. I have admitted my guilt. I am not going to continue this activity, as it will aggravate my position,” Zaks.ru quoted the priest as saying.

Nevertheless, despite the confession, the Kalininsky district court of St. Petersburg decided to keep Kurmoyarov in pre-trial detention until October 1, 2023. The judge considered that the priest could hide from law enforcers.

At the same time, it became known* that the clergyman was registered in the pre-trial detention center as “prone to extremism and terrorism” (the so-called “profound account”), which entails increased attention from the administration of the detention center or colony, including a lot of checks.

“The staff of the pre-trial detention center explained to me that my article is allegedly on the list of articles on extremism. However, they refused to produce documents about this, advising me to look for them on the Internet. Although my article is not on the list of articles “for extremism”. (From the editorial: criminal liability for extremism is provided for in other articles of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation: 280, 282.1, 282.2, 282.3, which do not appear in Kurmoyarov’s case). Despite this, the staff of the pre-trial detention center refused my request to remove me from the professional register. I should note that being an Orthodox monk, priest and pacifist, I deny violence as such”, – commented Kurmoyarov* on the news about the registration.

At the court session, which took place in January 2023, the expert on the prosecution side was an imam from St. Petersburg, Faizullo Karimov, who has two higher educations received in his homeland, Tajikistan: one in the field of philology and the other in the field of Islam. The imam has no education received in the Russian Federation, and it was the first time he appeared at the trial as an expert.

According to Karimov, the materials contained on the priest’s channel “caused interethnic discord and a negative attitude towards Islam. Allegedly, in one of his videos, the ex-priest said that Christians could not be supporters of war, blood feuds, and thus of the NWO in general, and that people who approve of war have a place in Islam. The words of the Imam in court are quoted by the MR7 publication:

“In the Koran, indeed, there is a concept of retribution, of blood revenge. However, it can be directed only at the person who committed a premeditated murder, only at the murderer… At the same time,” the expert argued, ”the defendant’s statement substitutes concepts, as if Islam preaches revenge and cruelty. It is not so. According to the Koran, all people are brothers in humanity. So, it is not permissible to wish death on anyone.”

During the arguments, which took place on August 30, 2023 in the Kalininsky District Court of St. Petersburg, the state prosecutor requested* for John Kurmoyarov 7 years of general regime colony with a ban on administering websites for two years. As a result, the court sentenced* the priest to three years’ imprisonment with a ban on certain actions.

PRO

In his speech on his Youtube channel shortly after the so-called SWO began, Father John Kurmoyarov invited listeners to understand “Putin’s most important fake” – “They will die, and we will become martyrs and be in paradise.” “I want to disappoint all those who believe this,” said the priest, ”from the point of view of Christian doctrine, we will not be in paradise at all. For in paradise are the blessed, the peacemakers. And the one who unleashed aggression, he will not be in paradise…”.

On August 30, 2023, John Kurmoyarov made his last word at the court session:

“I am a deeply religious person and a Christian pacifist. I was deeply shocked, because Russians and Ukrainians are essentially one people. I was particularly traumatized by the fact that on both sides of the conflict Orthodox people are involved and suffering.

In my opinion, Russian civilization has existed for such a long time because it is based on Christian values – love, kindness, brotherhood, compassion for others and faith in God. Without these values there is no future not only for Russian civilization, but also for all mankind. That is why any war, any conflict, any special military operation must end in peace.

I would like to apologize to all those whom I may have offended with my emotional statements during the course of the SVO. During the investigation, I realized that in Russia the words of Orthodox clergy have a special weight. Therefore, we need to be very careful and try not to act under the pressure of emotions, but to be guided by the principle not to do harm,” – the edition ‘Paper ’* quotes the priest’s speech.

At the same court hearing Kurmoyarov noted that he admitted his guilt and removed his publications at the request of Roskomnadzor, but despite this, on August 31 the court sentenced* the priest to three years in prison.

IN FACT

John Kurmoyarov has long been known as a “church dissident”: when he began his church service in Ukraine (Moscow Patriarchate), he was excommunicated from the diocese for opposing “the split of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. After he moved to Russia, he was already banned from ministry for two months by the Russian Orthodox Church – for speaking out** against the merger of church and state: in June 2020, he criticized the Russian Defense Ministry’s newly opened church in Kubinka and called it a “pagan kapist.”

“This is another example of how Orthodoxy is turning into banal paganism, with its kapishchas, heavenly patrons, icons of branches of the military, temples according to professional affiliation,” Kurmoyarov wrote on his Facebook page*** at the time.

The priest was outraged by the use of communist symbols in the design of the temple – one of the stained glass windows features a five-pointed red star with a sickle and hammer. Kurmoyarov also reacted very negatively to the fact that Adolf Hitler’s trophy cap is kept not in the museum at the Armed Forces temple, but in the church itself.

The Metropolitan banned Fr. John from the ministry a week after the publication of this text, motivating his decision by the fact that the cleric “does not meet the standards of the Russian Orthodox Church”.

On December 6, 2021, John Kurmoyarov wrote a statement* to the Investigative Committee against former Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu for insulting the feelings of believers. This statement was related to the same RF Armed Forces temple in Patriot Park. In the statement, the priest explained that since the customer of the temple is the Ministry of Defense, the claims should be directed to its head.

Such statements, especially to the ROC and the Ministry of Defense, could not go unnoticed. By the beginning of the Special Military Operation, the “dossier” on Priest Kurmoyarov was quite complete, lacking only a “fresh” publication to bring it under the article on “fakes”. On March 12, 2022, such a publication – “Who will be in hell, and who will be in heaven?” – took place. By that time, the law on criminal punishment for “fakes” was quite ready – the president signed it on March 4.

The human rights movement “Memorial” recognized* Ioann Kurmoyarov as a political prisoner.

P.S. On August 1, 2024, John Kurmoyarov was released from the colony* “Metallostroy”. The priest had spent more than two years in detention. At liberty, in St. Petersburg, he had no relatives, and he was supported by people who cared about him. Journalists of the publication “Paper” came to the gates of the colony to meet Father John, but he refused to talk to the press and went home in a cab. Members of the support group of the priest told the press that they organized a fundraiser for Kurmoyarov – during his imprisonment he had accumulated a large debt for utilities. All in all, with the help of activists, 116,000 rubles were collected for the needs of Father Ioann, who had been released.

*- recognized as “foreign agents” on the territory of the Russian Federation.

**- recognized as a “foreign agent” and “undesirable organization” on the territory of the Russian Federation.

***- Meta is recognized as an “extremist organization” on the territory of the Russian Federation.