For Russian Priest Protesting Ukraine Invasion, a Mixture of Defiance and Concern

He then told parishioners he would add to the litany two small prayers about peace in Ukraine and would ask God to protect Ukrainian people.

Roughly two hours later, he got a phone call from one of his parishioners saying the police had been asking congregants about his homily. The police contacted him directly an hour later, demanding he visit the station and provide an explanation.

Burdin explained initial reports that he had been arrested were false. Instead, after the unsettling phone call asking him to report to the authorities, he presented himself at his local police station, where his interlocutors began exerting “moral pressure,” he said.

According to Burdin, authorities said: “You have such a wonderful church, but you are betraying your Motherland.”

Before the conversation de-escalated, police officers suggested charges against Burdin could be criminal under a new statute passed in March making it illegal to spread “false information” about the Russian military. Breaking the law, particularly for repeat offenders, could result in up to 15 years of jail time.

Burdin said he was later summoned to the office of his local bishop. His superior asked him to “keep silent,” he said, and “hinted” the priest could be “banned” from ministry because of his actions.

Meanwhile, Burdin’s lawyer warned his phones could be tapped and that he may be followed by a special anti-extremism police unit.

Burdin was fined 35,000 rubles (around $420) in a ruling that accused him of “discrediting the use of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation,” according to Burdin and another person in communication with him. That’s slightly more than the fine of 30,000 rubles (around $360) reportedly levied against Russian journalist Marina Ovsyannikova for publishing a video calling on Russians to protest the war. (Ovsyannikova made the video shortly before she staged an anti-war demonstration on live television, an act for which she was arrested and is now facing separate charges.)

Burdin’s next steps appear to be in flux. In initial statements made soon after his encounter with police, he said he intended to continue speaking out from his pulpit. However, he later appeared ambivalent about doing so, saying, “If I want to be in jail tomorrow, that’s a great option.” Around the same time, he said, he began receiving threatening calls from “hidden numbers” branding him a traitor.

Burdin has since shifted his message to social media. In a recent post, Burdin appeared to decry a speech delivered by Putin at a March 18 rally in support of the war. During his address, Putin paraphrased the Bible to laud Russia’s troops, saying, “There is no greater love than giving up one’s soul for one’s friends.”

“I don’t know what was more — illiteracy or blasphemy — in the speech of the President, who tried with the gospel words ‘there is no greater love, as if someone gave his life for his friends’ to justify the bloody madness that the whole world has been watching for the second month already,” Burdin wrote, according to an automated translation. “What is striking, however, is the approving chorus on the part of the priesthood and some of the laity that followed this performance.”