OVD-Info Dissident Digest #92 17 April 2025‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌

#92

17 APRIL 2025

EXPLAINING THE STRUGGLE FOR HUMAN RIGHTS IN RUSSIA

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Hello and welcome back to the Digest.

Today’s issue is entirely dedicated to our interview with anti-war Orthodox priest Ioann Kurmoyarov.

Sorry for the delay, we had some technical difficulties.

As always, feel free to reach out to Dan.storyev@ovdinfo.org with questions or concerns.

In solidarity,

Dan Storyev

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Trigger warning:
This is a newsletter about Russian repressions. Sometimes it will be hard to read.

Orthodox priest against the war

The Russian Orthodox Church and its priests are often painted as one of Putin’s core support groups. Indeed, the groundwork for the occupation of Crimea was laid in part by Orthodox priests. However, many Ortodox priests stood up against the war. Today I want to introduce you to such a priest, whose strength of convictions led him to a Russian prison for his anti-war stance — but not before he had to flee Ukraine after being persecuted for allegedly pro-Russian activities.

The following is a much-abridged translation of OVD-Info’s interview with Father Ioann Kurmoyarov, a former political prisoner now residing in France. The interview is available in full in Russian. Throughout the interview I also interject to add more context whenever I feel it’s needed. I believe that Kurmoyarov’s journey is quite illustrative of the evolution of the role of Orthodox Christianity in Russia as well as the broader region.

I was born in the Urals [in 1968], in a military family. I am Russian. My father is a Cossack, he grew up in the Cossack village of Naurskaya in Chechnya, then entered military school in Kamyshin in the southeast of Russia, met my mother and was sent to serve in the Urals, where I was born. Until the age of 13, we lived there, then were rotated to Belarus, from Belarus — to Ukraine.

I finished school in Vinnitsa, Ukraine, after which I entered the architecture department of the Volgograd Civil Engineering Institute. I graduated from the university, served in the Soviet army. [After the Soviet collapse], in the late 90s, I returned to Ukraine and received Ukrainian citizenship.

In the mid-2000s, after much soul-searching, Kurmoyarov became a devoted Christian, becoming a monk in 2011. Despite being asked many times, he refused to become a priest — until 2014. The EuroMaidan protests and the ensuing transformation of Ukrainian society resulted in an upheaval in the Christian community, culminating in a schism in 2018. The independent Orthodox Church of Ukraine and the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of Moscow Eparchy clashed. Kurmoyarov, like most Ukrainian Orthodox christians at the time, was a part of the Moscow Eparchy.

In 2014, the [followers of the independent Ukrainian church] began capturing churches, and I was appointed secretary of the Committee for the Protection of Canonical Orthodoxy of the Tulchin Diocese. Then all my misadventures began.

I was reported to the Ukrainian SBU [security services] for several posts on social media. On May 9, 2017, I posted a postcard on Facebook congratulating veterans of the Second World War. It seemed like a beautiful postcard, I didn’t even notice a piece of the “St. George’s ribbon” on it. But then there was no official ban.

The St. George’s Ribbon, a Russian martial symbol, became a hallmark of Putin’s militarism after the annexation of Crimea. A week after Kurmoyarov’s post, Ukrainian authorities outlawed the display of the ribbon.

Ioann Kurmoyarov in Paris, March 2025 / Photo: OVD-Info

There was a trial, media hype, but subsequently the administrative case was closed due to the statute of limitations. The Bishop recommended I move to Russia.

People bring into the church, let’s call it, spiritual dirt that needs to be cleaned up. Orders, medals, awards. What is all this for? I always strongly reacted to this distortion of Christian dogmas. Because the distortion of dogmas is a distortion of faith. Today, the ideology of nationalism dominates in Ukraine. The essence of Christianity is replaced by nationalism. The same thing is happening in Russia.

When I moved to Russia, I was initially received as a hero. I immediately got invitations to parishes. But I did not have Russian citizenship, so I first went to my friend in St. Petersburg. I decided to live there for a while and see.

I received citizenship under the program for the return of compatriots. I had an invitation to the Novosibirsk Seminary. I liked it, I wrote a lot. Then senseless bureaucracy began. Only what the power vertical demands. Only what is handed down from above. The [authorities think they] know everything up there, they sit there like gods. In reality, no one really does anything. I didn’t want conflict, I didn’t say a word to anyone, but I began to slowly look for a parish for myself.

Ioann Kurmoyarov in Paris, March 2025 / Photo: OVD-Info

[In the summer of 2020] I saw photos of the newly-built Temple of the Armed Forces on the news. I looked at the frescoes, and there were NKVD officers, Soviet paraphernalia. I wrote a post on Facebook, saying that this was not a Christian, not an Orthodox temple. That this was a pagan temple.

I immediately got a call: the seminary’s rector was calling.

— Did you write it?

— I did.

— Write me an explanation for your actions right now!

I wrote a detailed explanatory note. I was about to send it, but they had already fired me. They didn’t even wait for the note.

And then I decided: since you are depriving me of my parish and the opportunity to preach to people, I will open an Orthodox virtual parish. I registered on YouTube and started posting videos there. I found a parish, right there in the Novosibirsk region. At first they received me well, and then they said that the Bishop of Novosibirsk ordered not to take me in.

To be honest, I already understood that the Russian Orthodox Church is not a Christian structure. Such treatment, when you just raise your voice, and they immediately crush you, are the methods of a totalitarian sect.

I came to St. Petersburg — no housing, nothing. I went to work as a retail manager and at the same time as a gardener. I wrote an open letter to Defense Minister Shoigu with all the arguments [about the Temple of the Armed Forces].

A little later I filed a complaint with the Investigative Committee, the prosecutor’s office and the FSB against Shoigu for “insulting the feelings of believers.” My feelings as a believer were really insulted, and the letter was signed by over 500 people. I think it’s more correct than punishing a girl who accidentally showed her butt in front of a church. It’s funny. I don’t approve of such things, but in any case it’s funny. [The temple of armed forces affair] is very serious.

The “believers’ feelings” charge was heavily utilized by the Kremlin after 2014 in order to cement control over traditional values, working in conjunction with the Russian Orthodox Church. When Kurmoyarov tried to use this against the authorities it didn’t have much effect except for landing him in court and on pro-Kremlin TV as a villain of the day.

The ‘girl who accidentally showed her butt’ was hounded by authorities and pro-Kremlin groups and sentenced to community service / Photo: Instagram account @youneedleonid

I get up on the morning of February 24, 2022, go online. And there it is: Russian troops have invaded Ukraine. I have lived in Ukraine for half of my life, I know what is happening there. And this is some kind of adventure that could not end in anything normal.

I immediately recorded a video about why Putin will not be able to seize Ukraine. And even if he does, he will not be able to hold on to it, otherwise he will have to burn that land to populate it with Russians. Is there not enough land in Russia, or what?

After the video, people started writing to me: "Why are you getting into politics, Father?" And I responded: "I have never been involved in politics. I have never been elected anywhere, I have not gone to rallies. But, as a Christian priest, I am obliged to give a Christian assessment of the events happening in the world in order to help people find their bearings. I call evil evil, lies lies, and truth truth. As for me, in general, all things should be called by their proper names, so as not to be hypocritical before one's own conscience.”

At 6 a.m. on June 7, there was a knock at the door. I opened the door and understood everything at once. In the hallway stood a bulky guy in a black T-shirt with a Z on it, an investigator, a crowd of people.

And then a tough conversation began. They started to yell at me, and I pushed back. They conducted a full search, confiscated all the gadgets, the charger, icons, the cross, the cassock, the tablet, the laptop, the hard drives, two phones, everything. After the search, they told me to go to the Investigative Committee. I put on the priestly dressand my crucifix.

Ioann Kurmoyarov in Paris, March 2025 / Photo: OVD-InfoThe ‘girl who accidentally showed her butt’ was hounded by authorities and pro-Kremlin groups and sentenced to community service / Photo: Instagram account @youneedleonid

“Why do you need this? What do you want to prove?” — they didn’t like it.

“I don’t want to prove anything, I want to convey to you that my motivation is religious, not political. A Christian cannot calmly watch what is happening. It is against the Gospel, against conscience, against everything,” I said.

I quickly understood how the system works. If a case is opened, you will be convicted anyway. The principle is that the investigation cannot make mistakes. If you admit guilt, you will get off easy, if you do not admit it, you will get the full program.

Five videos were included in the case. Two examinations were conducted on them.

The investigation found Kurmoyarov’s videos to be incriminating. For example, in one video he disputes the widely circulated Putin’s quote on a possible nuclear exchange: “all Russians will go to heaven and the rest of them will simply die”.

The teaching of universal salvation is condemned by the church. In court I said that I admit my guilt, and that was enough for them. But in my final statement and in my testimony I spoke as a pacifist, against the war.

He was sentenced to 3 years for “public dissemination of knowingly false information about the use of the Russian Armed Forces for selfish motives and based on political or religious hatred and enmity”.

Ioann Kurmoyarov in Paris, March 2025 / Photo: OVD-Info

There is no need to go to prison for long terms. Maybe a politician, if he wants to make a political career, and even then they will most likely kill him. What is their goal? To shut us up. So why help them with this? Anyone who is free can do more. Therefore, I fully agree with the priests, politicians, journalists who are leaving and do not want to go to prison. They are doing the right thing. There is no need to sit there and waste so much time and energy. We need to preach, not let the Russian people be fooled.

Young people and people with families suffer in pretrial detention centers, it is hard for them. And I am a monk, where else should I be if not with those who suffer? I preached to people about religion, about faith. There [prison] is the most fertile soil for a priest to bring people to God. In general, it was hard, but fruitful. I do not regret the years I spent in prison.

But I spent relatively little time there. Five or seven years is very difficult, especially in a prison camp, where everything is different. I knew a guy, a deserter. He was drafted, and ran away, they gave him five years for this. He spent a year in jail and volunteered for the front. He could not tolerate prison any longer.

One day, an investigator from the Investigative Committee and an FSB officer came to me in the pretrial detention center. They were looking for accomplices, saying I recorded a lot of videos, it can’t be that no one helped. I said that it was easy to record at least ten a day, turn on the phone and talk.

I told them about Putin: “We are Christians, we understand that there is no person who would live and not sin. Why do you believe in this tsar of yours so much, that he is sinless? What if he is wrong? He is not without sin.” Do you know what they answered? I was completely stunned. “You are worse than a junkie. Those are against people, and you are against the state.”

On August 1, 2024, I was released and left the country. There was nothing difficult about it. People helped raise money. I bought a laptop, clothes. It took about three months to prepare.

First [I went] to Moldova, where I was interrogated for a long time by the special services: why was I going, why there was no return ticket. Then I went to Georgia, where I received a French humanitarian visa. In France, even before I received social housing they invited me to a monastery where I lived for some time.

I am currently working on a book on the history of the Russian Orthodox Church. There is a huge amount of material, I managed to work in the archives in St. Petersburg after serving my sentence. The book is about how the Russian Orthodox Church ceased to be a Christian Church. In my opinion, the Russian Orthodox Church is a structure whose creation was initiated personally by Stalin.

Ioann Kurmoyarov in Paris, March 2025 / Photo: OVD-Info

I counted 11 or 12 heretical ideas in the modern Russian Orthodox Church. There are those that have been condemned. There are new ones that have not yet been condemned, but these are clearly heretical things. What else can you call the sacralization of war or talk about war being soul-saving?

I believe that the most important thing is to prevent them from stealing the Gospel from us. It is difficult to say whether priests really [support the war] or are forced to be hypocritical. One seminarian of the Theological Academy in St. Petersburg went to anti-war protests, he was detained for five days. When he returned, the rector called him and asked: “Tell me where does Christ condemn war?” The seminarian did not answer, so as not to be expelled. But in fact, he should have said: “Everywhere! Christianity is absolute pacifism.”

What the Russian Orthodox Church preaches — the construction of “Holy Russia’”, the Kingdom of God on Earth — is anti-Christian. The Antichrist will build the Kingdom of God on Earth. Christians have a different task.

There are a number of people in the Russian Orthodox Church who do not agree with this. Not only those few who were persecuted and left. But also a number of bishops and hieromonks who, for various reasons, do not speak out — some are afraid, some do not want to risk their families, but everyone understands everything.

Still, probably 90% [of the Russian Orthodox clergy] support the war. Many veterans were hastily ordained, and for them the church is like a totalitarian army. The Temple of the Russian Armed Forces is a symbol of the imperial-militaristic cult preached and professed by the Russian Orthodox Church. This is some completely different religion, not Christianity.

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Now, being free, I am going to preach and at the same time denounce the lawlessness that is happening in the Russian Orthodox Church. Because, in my opinion, the Russian Orthodox Church is run by swindlers. I also believe that bandits have seized power in Russia, for whom terror is the main method of fighting any opposition.

I am a realist, I don’t like to fantasize about returning to Russia. I live a real life. If all political prisoners are released, if [the authorities] admit that they were wrong, if they stop persecuting the opposition, I will return and organize a parish. But I very much doubt that this will happen in my lifetime.

I don’t think I will be nostalgic for Russia. I am a monk! I am alive in this world! Why should I be sad? Despondency is a grave sin. In the meantime, I will go to the monastic garden to clean up. I am a gardener. Our job is to work and pray, and then — the Lord will provide.