Shocks and prayers. Two Russian priests say they were tortured over an alleged plot to kill bishop known as “Putin’s confessor”

Metropolitan Tikhon, 66, is a prominent leader in the ultra-conservative wing of the Russian Orthodox Church who has led the Diocese of Simferopol and Crimea since 2023. In a 2023 interview, he made clear that “The only thing Russian people can build is an empire” and “We are fighting [in Ukraine] against a savage, horrifying, infernal fascism, against Nazis.”

Denis Popovich, a personal aide to Tikhon, and cleric Nikita Ivankovich have been in detention since February, accused of acting on the orders of Ukrainian intelligence. Both have ties to Ukraine: Popovich is a Ukrainian citizen with a Russian resident permit and Ivankovich is an ethnic Ukrainian born in Moscow. Both graduated from the Sretensky Theological Seminary founded by Tikhon.

The FSB announced in late February that it had thwarted the plot, claiming the men had been recruited by Ukraine and supplied with a bomb from a dead-drop location. “The criminal act was planned to be carried out during Metropolitan Tikhon’s stay in Moscow. After committing the crime, they planned to leave Russia using fake passports provided by Ukrainian intelligence services,” the service claimed.

Following the arrests, the FSB released interrogation footage, with both priests giving smooth, unhesitating confessions, stating they were preparing to assassinate the bishop during a visit to Moscow’s Sretensky Monastery on the orders of Ukrainian intelligence. The security service claims to have recovered an explosive device from a cache in a forest and displayed two new Ukrainian internal passports which, they allege, were provided for the priests’ escape.

“The evidence was collected with violations, under torture, with the use of electric current,” Victor Larin, a lawyer for Ivankovich, said today in court. “This does not give me grounds to say that my client… somehow participated in this crime.” 

Popovich’s lawyer, Maria Eysmont, told the court her client was subjected to “prohibited methods of influence: torture with electric current, threats, beatings.” She quoted a statement Popovich made to a lower court, where he described his deep bond with the man he is accused of targeting. “I am accused of attempting to assassinate a man who is for me nothing less than a father,” Popovich had said. “I treated him like a father, and he treated me like a son. I have had no connections with any intelligence services.”

He said a video of him confessing was recorded after FSB agents tortured him. “Those videos… were indeed beaten out of me under the influence of electric current. Several takes were recorded so that we would give specific, precisely verified testimony,” he said.

In court, Ivankovich’s lawyer argued that while prosecutors claim his client dug into frozen ground with a sapper’s shovel, in fact he “held nothing in his hands but a holy book.” The lawyer alleged that after being tortured in a minibus, Ivankovich was brought to a pre-dug hole and ordered to “point to it” for the cameras.

Ivankovich later told his lawyer he complied because he “thought his heart would stop” from the torture.

Novaya Gazeta, which broke the story of the arrests, reported that Popovich was first detained in January for “petty hooliganism.” Ivankovich was then arrested in February after bringing supplies to Popovich. 

In 2022, an anonymous Telegram channel “Bishop Lucifer” labelled Popovich a “sleeping Banderite in the ranks of the Russian Orthodox Church.” A similar post later targeted Ivankovich. 

Today, the Moscow City Court rejected the appeal, ordering that both priests remain in custody.