Kazakh anti-war priest faces probe on charges of stirring hatred

Kazakh police have opened an investigation against a Christian Orthodox priest known for his harsh criticism of Russia’s war on Ukraine.

Hieromonach Iakov Vorontzov, or Father Iakov, has been an outspoken critic of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the Russian Orthodox Church’s support of the Kremlin’s policies.

Father Iakov called on Kazakhstan to leave the Russia-led Collective Security Treaty Organisation and the Eurasian Economic Union. He also called for a ban in Kazakhstan on any public or religious organisations controlled by the Kremlin.

For his stance, in the spring of 2022 Kazakhstan’s Orthodox Church, which is part of the Russian Orthodox Church, suspended Father Iakov from service.

In a Facebook post on Thursday, Father Iakov said that he was called in by the police the previous day.

“They received a complaint about my [Facebook] post from 2 August in which I spoke out emotionally about Russian fascism and the Church,” he wrote.

He said the police informed him about an article of the Criminal Code on stirring ethnic discord and hatred. Father Iakov was asked to write an explanatory letter about his post, and then he was let go.

In the post in question Vorontsov said: “Everything Russian irritates and drives me crazy. Especially Russian poetry that I used to love.

“The Russian church is even worse. It is the most repulsive of all the religions on the earth, and it has long since ceased to have anything in common with Christianity.

“Don’t take it as hatred or Russophobia. No. It is a defensive reaction. Something like immunity against fascism,” Vorontsov wrote.

He added that today “any eulogies about any great Russians of the past and present … smack of fascism”.

Father Iakov, who on Facebook uses the name Zhaqyp Aqqulaq, said in his Thursday post that he “did not intend to stir discord and hatred”.

“On the contrary, I wish peace and happiness to all peoples and all human beings. I am ready to bear responsibility for my convictions,” he said.

“The church, as a religious organisation, must not serve as an agent of influence to an aggressor-country, and must not be an assembly of bearded men in long dresses who support fascism. It must be a church of Christ full of truth and grace, and promoting peace and salvation from sins,” Father Iakov added.

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