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Russian authorities organized a special operation to arrest a former traffic policeman who claims to be the reincarnation of Jesus and has led a cult deep in Siberia for the past three decades.
Helicopters and armed officers stormed the communities led by Sergei Torop, known to his followers as Vissarion, and arrested him and two of his aides. Russia’s investigative committee said it would charge him with organizing an illegal religious organization, claiming that the sect extorted money from its followers and subjected them to emotional abuse.
Mr. Torop (59), with long gray hair and a beard, was led by masked troops to a helicopter. The operation involved agents of the Russian FSB security service, as well as the police and other agencies. Vadim Redkin, a former Soviet-era boy band drummer who is known as Vissarion’s right-hand man, was also arrested, along with another assistant, Vladimir Vedernikov.
Torop, who lost his job as a traffic officer in 1989, claimed he experienced an “awakening” when the Soviet regime began to collapse. In 1991 he founded a movement now known as the Church of the Last Testament.
Several thousand followers live in a number of remote villages in Siberia’s Krasnoyarsk region. Converts to the cult have included professionals from all over Russia, as well as pilgrims from abroad.
“I am not God. And it is a mistake to see Jesus as God. But I am the living word of God the Father. Everything God wants to say, He says through me, ”Vissarion told The Guardian in 2002.
Original ideology
Russian media reported that in the original ideology of the cult, Vissarion claimed that Jesus was watching over people from near-Earth orbit, and that the Virgin Mary was “running Russia,” but then Jesus declared himself.
His commune mixes a selection of rites drawn from Orthodox Christianity with environmental edicts and a host of other rules. Veganism is applied and monetary exchange within the commune is prohibited. Followers wear austere clothing and count the years from 1961, Vissarion’s birth year, while Christmas has been replaced by a party on January 14, his birthday.
It is unclear what will happen to the disciples now that their leader has been arrested, nor is it clear why the authorities decided to move now. The official Russian Orthodox Church has long condemned the group, but officials have largely left the devotees alone. Some Russian media reported that the community had been embroiled in a dispute with local business interests. – Guardian
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