ENGLISH VERSION: "Dissenters are potential terrorists" - rough "anti-schismatic” story aired on a St. Petersburg TV channel

A Pavel Panov "New dissenters” story was released on June 2nd in the "Week in St. Petersburg" program on the "78" TV channel (https://78.ru/tv/programs/2019-06-02/_nedelya_v_peterburge/nedelya_v_peterburge_12_sun_jun_02_2019_180000_). As reported by a"Credo.Press" correspondent, the story contains texts and propaganda techniques aimed at inciting enmity and hatred to the Orthodox outside the jurisdiction of the ROC MP. In particular, one of the "experts" says: "Any dissenter is a potential terrorist." At the same time, authors of the story do not cite any "list of dissenters", so it remains unclear whether Old Believers, for example, are among them.

In the opening remark, the host of the program claims that "secret religious societies" have now intensified in St. Petersburg and the Leningrad Oblast, which is of concern to the "law enforcement officers and the clergy" of the ROC MP. He attributes the adepts of these "societies" to two rather different social groups: "Fragile minds of people disappointed in their lives" and "Successful, but looking for something new and unusual." According to the host, church schisms lead to consequences as can be observed in Ukraine, where believers allegedly "get confused, who is canonical, and who is official."

As a matter of fact, the report begins with a visit to the village of Dudachkino, Vsevolozhsk District, Leningrad Oblast, where two monasteries are located, called by their spiritual father, the Hieromonk Joseph (Sukhoviy) - "Christograd." As evidence of the "sectarian" nature of the monastery, the author of the report indicates that Tsar Nicholas II and Tsarevich Alexis are being worshiped there. The reporter also says that 30 people live permanently in “Christograd”, and the community consists of about 2,000 people.

The second part of the story is dedicated to the cleric of the Suzdal Eparchy of the ROAC Archpriest Alexy Lebedev, rector of the community in Gatchina, who was illegally denied registration [of his community] several times. The author of the story accuses him of "organizing worship of holy relics of strange origin" and possession of weapons. A glimpse footage from the Church of St. Martyr Elisabeth Feodorovna [the Russian Tsarina] was shown, where Bishop Gregory (Lurye) is doing church service, however, the bishop himself was not caught by Panov’s group.