Police detained a 43-year-old resident of Tyumen, who is suspected of attempting to set fire to the church-chapel “In the Name of the Holy Blessed Prince Dmitry Donskoy,” reports MVD-Media.
The day before, a man tried to set fire to the temple with Molotov cocktails . In a video published by local media, it is clear that a Tyumen resident threw at least two Molotov cocktails into the building. The fire was extinguished by eyewitnesses before firefighters arrived, the Ministry of Emergency Situations said.
The man left the place on a bicycle, before which he showed his middle finger to the person filming the video. The Investigative Committee opened two criminal cases at once — vandalism and intentional damage to property (Articles 214 and 167 of the Criminal Code).
According to telegram channels Shot and Mash close to the security forces, the Tyumen resident communicated by phone with scammers, and the temple tried to set it on fire to get back the stolen money.
Later, the governor of the Tyumen region, Alexander Moor, wrote that he was “deeply outraged” by the attempt to arson the temple, since “the attacker encroached on the sacred.” The head of the region added that, according to preliminary data, the man became a victim of scammers.
The temple-chapel of Dmitry Donskoy has a “military” status. The Committee of Soldiers' Mothers asked to build it back in 1995, according to the website of the Tyumen Church of All Saints. The temple-chapel in Gubkin Park was opened only in 2007: “The place for construction was not chosen by chance. Relatives and friends of fallen soldiers and combatants in Afghanistan and Chechnya come here. Next to the temple on the Walk of Glory there is a Memorial to the soldiers who died in Afghanistan.”
Now in the temple, students of the military-patriotic association “Avanpost” “receive a pastoral blessing,” the publication notes, and a daily prayer is also performed “for defense of the Fatherland from enemy invasions, strife and disorder.”
Updated at 14:52. Added comment from the governor.