The Voronezh blogger-preacher was detained in January 2023, his premises were searched, and law enforcement seized all his equipment and old SIM cards.
Khristolyubov is accused of “rehabilitation of Nazism” and insulting the feelings of believers due to statements about Stalin and Hitler dividing Europe, and negative remarks about Islam. At the last session, the prosecutor requested 4 years in a penal colony and a ban on using the internet for four years.
As reported by the Sotavision* correspondent from the courtroom, the accused “dedicated” his final statement to Vladimir Putin. “For 25 years, the country has been ruled by a mad, now elderly KGB officer, who has become not a secret, but an open devourer of humans, whose every word is by definition a lie: ‘Poland forced Hitler to attack it in 1939,’ ‘We threaten no one,’ ‘We don’t need foreign lands,’ ‘Conscripts don’t fight,’ ‘There will be no mobilization,’ ‘They are not there,’ ‘We don’t need Crimea,’ ‘I won’t raise the retirement age,’ ‘She drowned,’ ‘I won’t change the Constitution,’ ‘I won’t go for a third term,’ ‘I won’t cling to power.’ And so on, the list could go on for a long time. He only told the truth once, and that was when he said: ‘If you work like this for seven years, you can go crazy,’” Khristolyubov told the court. He also noted that investigators and the prosecutor are violating his right to freedom of conscience and religion, as Christianity prescribes “exposing false teachings and ideologies, religions, and sects that call people to sin and commit crimes.”
* Recognized in Russia as a “foreign agent” and “undesirable” organization.
Photo: Sotavision