Russia: Locals Call for Siberian Vegetarian Sect to Be Outlawed

Text of report by Radio Russia on 10 July

[Presenter] A petition has begun in the Krasnoyarsk Territory for the disbandment of the Vissarion sect, located in the so called Town of the Sun, in Kuraginskiy District in the south of Krasnoyarsk Territory. Yuriy Borisov reports.

[Borisov] Those who have managed to escape the town of death, as the place where the Vissarion sect has been in operation for many years is known, end up in the intensive care units of Krasnoyarsk hospitals. Several of the runaways have been diagnosed with schizophrenia by doctors. The people of the region say the sect is dangerous and believe that the prosecutor’s office must get involved and investigate all the circumstances in which these people became ill. It is already clear that the sect only uses food of plant origin and the people constantly feel hungry.

Doctors say that in that situation the body produces ferments, a so-called internal narcotic, and this has a very harmful effect on a person’s body and causes illness. Those who nevertheless have managed to escape from the sect say that life there is difficult for both men and women. The territorial authorities have finally turned their attention to the community and a monastery is being rebuilt in Kuraginskiy District where former members of the Vissarion sect will live. Yuriy Borisov for Radio Russia, Krasnoyarsk Territory.

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