The Nikulinsky District Court of Moscow fined Protodeacon Andrey Kuraev, who was banned from serving, because of a LiveJournal post that mentioned Russian servicemen from Rubtsovsk. Kuraev announced this on his Telegram channel.
Judge Mikhail Maksimov found the clergyman guilty under an administrative protocol on «discrediting» the army (Part 1 of Article 20.3.3 of the Code of Administrative Offenses). Kuraev explained that they wrote a denunciation against him to the main department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in Moscow.
“Kuraev regularly conducts anti-Russian propaganda. Including, in his post dated April 18, 2022 titled «This is a Civil War, after all»; the author writes: «for the Rubtsov boys who glorified the stolen equipment home.» Below, the author gives a link to the Meduza website, without indicating that this publication is in the register of foreign agents, ”says Sergei Chichin, who turned to the police, in a letter.
Blessed the war. How church hierarchs reacted to the speech of Patriarch Kirill, who supported Russia's invasion of Ukraine
We are talking about a reference to the Meduza investigation about the Russian military, who sent parcels from the border with Ukraine to Rubtsovsk.
“In order to make it difficult for future informers to do their noble work, I deleted my journal for the period from February 23 to August 1. Various lawyers tell me in chorus that it is time to evacuate: the second trial threatens with a real prison term. Honestly, I don’t want to leave, ”Kuraev wrote about the fine he is going to pay. Its amount he did not voice.
According to the clergyman, he does not know what exactly the judge considered “criminal” in his publication, since the reasoning part of the decision was not read at the meeting, and there were no specific quotes in the case file.
At the end of 2020, Kuraev was “deposed from the dignity” due to criticism of the rector of the Elokhov Cathedral, Alexander Ageikin, who died from the coronavirus. Last year, the decision was approved, but the patriarch's resolution stated that the protodeacon was given «time to rethink his position and return to the path of the Church.»