Pivovarov Viktor Ivanovich

On October 3, 2023, security forces conducted a search of the 86-year-old Archbishop Viktor at the Holy Pokrovo-Tikhonovsky Church in Slavyansk-on-Kuban. His assistant, hieromonk Jonah (Ilya Sigida), was present during the search. According to him, armed men beat him, insulted him, and swore. 'I opened it, they abruptly pulled me inside, knocked me to the ground, put a footboard.'" Face down in a highly aggressive manner. They burst in with machine guns, in camouflage, in balaclavas. SOBIR 'Right into the temple with machine guns, like soldiers,' the priest said. Monk spent the night in a detention center after the search, the court found him guilty of "disobedience to a lawful order of a police officer. An criminal case was opened against Archbishop Viktor for repeated "discrediting of the Russian army, a gadget was confiscated, and he was released on his own recognizance not to leave. The reason for initiating the case was an article by the archbishop condemning the war in Ukraine entitled: "Answer to the question that worries everyone today: what is this war?" Earlier, in March 2023, Judge Nikolai Mironenko of the Slavyansk City Court of the Krasnodar Territory fined Archbishop Viktor 40 thousand rubles for an anti-war sermon—at that time, a certain parishioner who had not previously visited the temple reported him. On April 8, 2024, the Slavyansk City Court of the Krasnodar Territory found Viktor Pivovarov guilty and fined him 150 thousand." rubles.