Former traffic cop Sergei Torop commanded followers to stop using money while extracting funds from them through ...

A religious sect leader who claimed to be the reincarnation of Jesus Christ has been sentenced to 12 years in a Russian ...

Sergei Torop, 64, lost his job as a traffic cop before founding the Church of the Last Testament in 1991 and claiming to be ...

The end of the USSR in 1991 was one of the most cataclysmic events in history, with its aftereffects still being felt three ...

The Russian security forces had arrived in September 2020 to arrest the so-called Jesus of Siberia, a former traffic policeman known as ‘Vissarion’ who some viewed as the reincarnation of Christ. The ...

Vissarion and his followers believe the end of the world is coming and their Siberian community is the ark of salvation. Such sects have proliferated in Russia’s wilderness.

Russian authorities arrested cult leader Vissarion, who claims to be the reincarnation of Jesus Christ, and two of his aides, on accusations of "causing grievous bodily harm to two or more persons ...

Vissarion's followers are strict vegetarians and they don't smoke or drink. The houses and churches are built from wood by hand and most of the energy comes from windmills and solar panels.

"Vissarion the Teacher," or "Jesus of Siberia," Russian ex-traffic cop Sergei Torop meets followers in the remote village of Petropavlovka, in Russia's Siberia region, August 18, 2009.

Vissarion, who normally dons a long white cloak and sports long hair and a beard, lives with his followers in Petropavlovka, or what he calls his “Siberian utopia,” The Guardian reported.

Except perhaps for dedicated Russophiles, composer Vissarion Shebalin will most likely be a welcome new discovery. He was a student of Nikolay Myaskovsky, highly respected by Prokofiev and a close ...