'Jesus of Siberia' arrested in Russian security services raid

Russian security agents have conducted a sweeping raid on an isolated messianic cult and arrested its leader, dubbed “Jesus of Siberia”, who was at the helm of the group for nearly three decades.

Helicopters, dozens of vans and buses were deployed in the raid on the so-called "City of Sun," home to the Church of the Last Testament, in Siberia on Tuesday.

The cult’s leader, Sergei Torop who goes by the name of Vissarion, and two of his assistants were put on a helicopter and taken into custody.

Alexander Staroverov, a member of the church, earlier on Tuesday posted a video on social media, showing dozens of masked men with automatic weapons searching the remote settlement which is home to about 200 people.

Mr Torop and two of his associates are facing charges of running a religious group that caused grievous bodily harm to its adherents, according to Russia’s top investigative body.

The Investigative Committee said in a statement that Mr Torop is suspected of “taking funds from citizens by using psychological pressure on them in order to make profit from religious activities.”

Mr Torop, a 59-year-old former traffic police officer, founded the Church of the Last Testament in 1991, claiming to be a reincarnation of Jesus Christ. The group claimed to have about 10,000 adherents who live in several remote communes in the south of the Krasnoyarsk region.

In the 1990s, some of Vissarion's devotees died either by suicide or as a result of harsh living conditions and lack of medical care.

Mr Torop, who has long brown hair and trademark loose tunics, had refused to meet journalists over recent years.

The group rejects modern technology, calling for living in harmony with nature, barring its members from using money, drinking alcohol or smoking.

Russian authorities in recent years sought to crack down on non-Orthodox Christian denominations, mostly focusing on Jehovah’s Witnesses while sects like the Church of the Last Testament were largely left alone.

The church’s headquarters, however, were searched in February in response to allegations of fraud in the commune.

Most recently, Mr Torop’s followers have described the coronavirus pandemic as a “blessing”, saying that requests to join their communities have skyrocketed since the outbreak began.