The Slavic City Court of the Krasnodar Territory fined the 86-year-old archbishop Russian Orthodox Church (RosOC) Viktor Pivovarov for 150 thousand rubles in a criminal case for “discrediting” the army (Part 1 of Article 280.3 of the Criminal Code), reported in the magazine “Eschatology”.
The human rights project “OVD-Info” wrote that the case against Pivovarov was opened because of his text “An answer to the question that worries everyone today: what is this war?” “The exploded Kakhovka hydroelectric station itself claimed many lives and made almost the entire Kherson region barren by flooding <…> The creators of this supreme evil are completely like Satan in spirit,” the priest wrote.
The magazine of the Russian Orthodox Church «Eschatology» published fragments from the verdict against Pivovarov. They say that, according to the archbishop, Russia does not have the right to declare Ukrainians enemies, invade the territory of Ukraine and take away lands that belong to it. At the meeting, Pivovarov did not admit guilt. He refused lawyers at the beginning of the trial.
The verdict notes that Pivovarov “lives off people’s offerings.” According to the court, his goal “was to undermine the dignity and authority of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation in the eyes of other persons.” One of the pieces of evidence was the expert’s conclusion, according to which “the defendant’s sermon texts contain a negative assessment of the actions” of the Russian military.
Pivovarov informed the publication “Caucasus” about the criminal prosecution. Realities» at the end of December 2023. In October, security forces came to search his cell on the territory of the St. Intercession and Tikhon Church in Slavyansk-on-Kuban and took the priest away for interrogation.
In March, Pivovarov was fined 40 thousand rubles under an administrative protocol for “discrediting » army because of a sermon (part 1 of article 20.3.3 of the Administrative Code). A denunciation of the priest was written by one of the parishioners who had not previously visited the temple. “He runs out and says as he goes: your sermon is political, and big problems await you,” the archbishop recalled.