Tag: Russia

Russian cult of Islam kept children underground for years

Russia Seventy members of an Islamic sect who have been living in an underground bunker without heat or sunlight for nearly a decade have been discovered living on the outskirts of the city of Kazan in Russia, local media reported.

The sect members included 20 children many of whom had never seen daylight until the prosecutors discovered their dwelling on August 1 and sent them for health checks.

Video: Moscow police raid Church of Scientology

Scientology Moscow police have been searching the Church of Scientology on Taganskaya Street since Thursday morning.

According to a source who spoke to Russian news agency Interfax, “The search could be part of a criminal investigation by the Moscow region’s Investigative Committee into the distribution of scientology literature of the extremist nature.”

Jail-dodging “sex guru” arrested

Russia The leader of a notorious quasi-religious cult, suspected of recruiting thousands of people and turning them into voluntary sex slaves, has been arrested in Russia.

Konstantin Rudnev, leader of the “Ashram Shambala” sect has been put in custody in the Western Siberian city of Novosibirsk and charged with sexual assault, rape and the creation of a society involved in violence and the violation of human rights, police said.

Russia’s witches and wizards face ad ban to protect cancer victims

Russian MPs have backed a bill that bans anyone who calls themselves a witch or a wizard from advertising their services in the media in an effort to combat a controversial national obsession with the occult.

According to the Orthodox Church, Russia has 800,000 practitioners of the occult, many of whom advertise in newspaper small advertisements offering cures for alcoholism and spells to lift curses and return errant husbands for a fee.

One report claims almost one in five Russians have consulted occult ‘healers’ but MPs have warned they are risking their health and possibly their lives by trusting in such quackery.

Satanic cult teens ‘sacrificed’ victims then ate them

Satanism Seven young members of a satanic sect have gone on trial in Russia accused of four gruesome murders in which they “ritually sacrificed” their victims before cooking and eating parts of them.

The case is being held behind closed doors but local media say all seven defendants admit their guilt. They are officially charged with murder, theft and the desecration of human remains.

Russian Supreme Court bans regional Jehovah’s Witnesses branch

Jehovah's Witnesses The Supreme Court rejected an appeal against a previous court ruling of the Rostov regional court issued on September 11, 2009, which declares the Jehovah’s Witnesses’ branch in the southern Russian city of Taganrog an extremist organization and bans its activities.

A plot of land, an office building and other property belonging to the group were also seized.