In Kazakhstan, a former Russian Orthodox Church priest who criticized the Kremlin was sent to a psychiatric institution

In Kazakhstan, a former Russian Orthodox Church priest who criticized the Kremlin was sent to a psychiatric institution

Former Orthodox priest Iakov Vorontsov was transferred to a special institution in the settlement of Aktas in Kazakhstan’s Almaty Region, RusNews writes.

Vorontsov was transferred on May 22, even though his lawyers had managed to appeal the court’s decision. The defense says the former priest was sent for compulsory treatment with violations: the decision was made without him and without his lawyers, and the examination did not confirm that he posed a danger to others:

The diagnoses were called into question, and there was no evidence of any threat.

🔵Earlier, former hieromonk of the Russian Orthodox Church’s Astana and Almaty Diocese Iakov (Vladimir) Vorontsov was charged with maintaining a drug den and possessing drugs without intent to sell.

🔵Until 2023, Vorontsov served in the Russian Orthodox Church in Kazakhstan. Back in 2022, he spoke out criticizing Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the Russian Orthodox Church’s support for it.

🔵In August 2023, he published a Facebook post in which he called the Russian Orthodox Church “the most disgusting of all earthly religions,” describing that assessment not as “hatred or Russophobia,” but as a “reaction to fascism” (it is no longer publicly available).

🔵In March 2022, he was suspended from ministry, and in July 2024 Patriarch Kirill approved the decision to defrock Vorontsov.

🔵In December 2023, Vorontsov said he intended to create an Orthodox church in Kazakhstan independent of the Russian Orthodox Church. However, the Kazakh authorities refused to register the parish.