Coronavirus-denying monk who referred to as Putin a “traitor to the Motherland” sentenced to 7 years in Russian jail

A former Russian Orthodox monk, who denied that the coronavirus existed and defied the Kremlin, was handed a seven-year jail sentence Friday.

Nikolai Romanov, 67, who was often known as Father Sergiy till his excommunication by the Russian Orthodox Church, urged his followers to disobey the Russian authorities’s lockdown measures and unfold conspiracy theories a few world plot to regulate the plenty.

A courtroom in Moscow convicted him of inciting hatred. His lawyer instantly introduced plans to attraction.

Video shared by the Ostorozhno Novosti Telegram information channel showed bailiffs inserting Romanov inside a glass defendants’ field. Supporters of Romanov shouted phrases of encouragement after the decision was introduced and the previous monk could possibly be seen baptizing his followers from the category cage, in line with the video.

Romanov served as a police officer throughout Soviet instances, however after quitting the ranks was convicted of homicide, theft and assault and sentenced to 13 years in jail. He grew to become a monk after his launch.

When the coronavirus pandemic started, he denied its existence and denounced authorities efforts to stem the pandemic as “Devil’s digital camp.” He unfold long-debunked conspiracy theories about COVID-19 and described the vaccines developed towards the virus as a part of a world plot to regulate the plenty by way of microchips.

The monk chastised President Vladimir Putin as a “traitor to the Motherland” who was serving a Satanic “world authorities,” and denounced the top of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Kirill, and different prime clerics as “heretics” who should be “thrown out.”

Romanov urged followers to disobey the federal government’s lockdown measures and holed up at a monastery close to Yekaterinburg that he based. He had dozens of burly army veterans implement his guidelines whereas the prioress and a number of other nuns left.

The Russian Orthodox Church stripped Romanov of his abbot’s rank for breaking monastic guidelines and later excommunicated him, however he rejected the rulings. Going through stiff resistance by a whole lot of his supporters, church officers and native authorities hesitated for months till lastly shifting to evict Romanov and detain him.

Romanov has been in custody since his arrest in December 2020. In November 2021, he was given a 3½-year sentence after being convicted of inciting suicidal actions via sermons during which he urged believers to “die for Russia,” and breaching freedom of conscience, accusations he denied. The seven-year sentence will run concurrently with the earlier sentence.

After his 2020 arrest, Reuters reported that Russian Orthodox Church spokesman Vladimir Legoida wrote on Telegram: “It is a pity that … Sergiy and his supporters didn’t heed the repeated calls of the church to repent and amend (their methods).”