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On 28 May, the Leninsky District Court of Kirov sentenced four followers of the “undesirable” Ukrainian church “Revival” to compulsory community service, and gave another a suspended sentence. This was reported to OVD-Info by the court’s press service.
Thus, Natalya Sorokina was found guilty under articles on organising the activities of an “undesirable organisation” (part 3, article 284.1 of the Criminal Code) and financing it (part 2, article 284.1 of the Criminal Code). She was given a suspended sentence of one year and seven months, with a probation period of three years.
Marina Bulatova, Nadezhda Karkina, Elena Singulu and Ekaterina Bazanova were found guilty only under the article on financing an “undesirable organisation.” The first three were sentenced to 360 hours of compulsory community service each. Bazanova received a sentence of 200 hours of compulsory community service.
In January, information appeared about a criminal case against local women from Kirov (a city in central Russia). According to the investigation, one of them—likely Natalya Sorokina—organised the work of several Ukrainian non-governmental organisations in the region from 2022 to 2023, organisations which are classified as “undesirable” in Russia.
The woman was accused of holding religious meetings, gatherings and videoconferences. She and another four local residents also allegedly raised funds to support the organisation’s work.
In October 2023, mass searches were carried out in Moscow and Kirov among followers of the Revival Spiritual Centre. “According to the investigation, residents of Kirov region resumed the activities of the Ukrainian sect Spiritual Centre ‘Revival,’ whose founder is Volodymyr Myrchyavych Muntyan,” stated the Kirov region branch of the Investigative Committee at the time.
- The Spiritual Centre “Revival” is a religious organisation founded in 1997 in Ukraine by televangelist Volodymyr Muntyan. It also has branches in some other countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). In 2013, the All-Ukrainian Union of Churches issued a statement warning people to beware of Muntyan, calling the centre’s activities close to “occult practices.”
The Prosecutor General’s Office of the Russian Federation declared the Spiritual Centre “Revival” and its fund “undesirable organisations” in November 2022. The agency stated that their activities pose a threat to Russia’s constitutional order and security.