A Church in the center of Moscow attacked

Moscow, October 16, 2013

A group of armed vandals burst into the Church of St. Gregory of Neocaesaria on Polyanka street in Moscow on Tuesday evening, reported the head of the Radonezh radio station Evgeny Nikiforov to a spokesperson of Interfax-Religion.

Referring to the words of the rector of this Church, Bishop Jerome, E. Nikiforov said that at about 6:30 p.m., a group of five to seven people of "Oriental appearance" burst into the church.

"The hooligans, being in a state of absolute insanity and of alcoholic or drug intoxication, behaved extremely indecently, swore using obscene words and threatened the worshippers with pistols," said the agency's spokesman.

The rector's subdeacon Michael Golubev tried to calm down the vandals, but one of them then put the pistol against his face with threat "to smash his head". They then photographed themselves against the background of the iconostasis and disappeared.

Following the attack, criminal proceedings have been initiated according to article 213 of the Penal Code of the Russian Federation, "Hooliganism, committed by a group of individuals", reported the press center of the Ministry for Internal Affairs to ITAR-TASS. The maximum sentence is imprisonment for five years, reports ITAR-TASS.

"The police officers detained three delinquents; measures have been taken to search for their accomplice," reported the Ministry for Internal Affairs, noting that all three detainees were unemployed, and a registered traumatic pistol MR-353 with six cartridges was confiscated from one of them.

Pravoslavie.ru

10/17/2013

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