Four crosses attacked with chainsaw in two Russian regions
August 28, 2012: Four wooden crosses were sawn in half and torn down in two different
regions of Russia, stoking controversy about the respect for the values and religious
symbols, after the scandal caused by the international condemnation of Pussy Riot.
The Russian Orthodox Church has demanded justice for the attacks that occurred in
the regions of Chelyabinsk and Arkhangelsk in the night between 24 and 25 August last,
two weeks after the Ukrainian feminist group Femen used a chain saw on a cross in
Kiev. The action was a protest against the sentence to two years imprisonment for
the members of the Pussy Riot punk band for staging an anti-Putin performance in the
cathedral of Moscow, in a trial which, according to many, was instigated by the Kremlin
in agreement with the Russian Patriarchate Orthodox.
In an interview with Echo
of Moscow radio, Anna Shevchenko, a member of Femen, supported attacks on religious
symbols in Russia and invited people to continue, while also claiming that the Ukrainian
feminist group held any liability.
Vsevolod Chaplin - head of the department
of the Russian Orthodox Patriarchate for relations with the state and society - has
asked the police to find the vandals and bring them before the law. "These actions
clearly speak of the moral values of those who are attacking the Church - he told
Interfax - with these symbolic actions they are seeking to impose their will on the
majority of the population."
No criminal investigation has been opened thus
far in either region. The crime of vandalism carries a sentence of up to three years
in prison, recalls the Moscow Times newspaper. The Patriarchate has found an unexpected
ally in Piotr Verzilov, husband of Nadia Tolokonnikova, the most famous of the three
Pussy Riot members in prison. The activist has condemned the attacks on the crosses
and said that the group does not have anything to do with it.
The Orthodox
Church in Russia and its leader, Patriarch Kirill, have been the object of intense
criticism and media scandals in recent months, but some experts see the vandalism
against crosses as an attack on the ordinary faithful. This perhaps because the attacks
did not target the symbols of luxury and comfort for which the Church is criticized,
but simple wooden crosses, noted journalist and commentator on religious issues, Andrei
Zolotov. The human rights ombudsman, Vladimir Lukin, described the attacks as the
work of "cowards" and demanded an official explanation of these actions.