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Doomsday cult members stay put
18/11/2007 18:00 - (SA)
Nikolskoye - Russian Orthodox priests sought to convince more than two dozen members of a doomsday cult on Sunday to leave their underground forest hide-out in central Russia, but they stayed to await what they say is the end of the world.
The cult members have threatened to blow themselves up with about 400 litres of stockpiled fuel if authorities force them out of what officials described as a cave or bunker near the village of Nikolskoye, about 640km south-east of Moscow.
No plans to remove the people
Yevgeny Guseynov, a spokesperson for the regional government, said officials were searching for experienced negotiators to try to coax the group out their hiding place.
The cult followers on Sunday refused to listen to the clergymen, a security official monitoring the crisis said.
Police were guarding the site, but there were no plans to forcibly remove the 29 people - including four children, one only 18 months old.
Russian TV broadcast footage on Saturday showed what appeared to be a snow-covered hillside or mound with two narrow stove pipes poking through the snow and sending smoke drifting into the air.
Pyotr Kuznetsov, a self-declared prophet who established his True Russian Orthodox Church after he split with the official church, has not joined his followers. He underwent psychiatric evaluation on Friday, a day after he was charged with setting up a religious organisation associated with violence.
Russian TV on Friday showed Kuznetsov speaking at the clinic where he was being examined.
He said that cult members initially aimed to dig small refuges where they could spend a day or two in prayer. But later, he said, "we had the idea of making a big dugout for all of us to go to and stay there, just to avoid acts of hooliganism by the local population."
Visited monasteries in Russia
Kuznetsov blessed his followers before sending them into the cave earlier this month. Most of the adults are women, Russian newspaper Izvestia reported.
Kuznetsov, 43, a trained engineer from a deeply religious family, declared himself a prophet several years ago, left his family, and settled in Nikolskoye. He began writing books, borrowing from a mixture of established beliefs, and visited monasteries in Russia and Belarus and recruited followers, Guseynov said.
Kuznetsov said his group believed that, in the afterlife, they would be judging whether others deserved heaven or hell, Izvestia reported on Friday.
Followers of his group were not allowed to watch television, listen to the radio or handle money, media reports said.
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