A Russian Orthodox priest who last month held a service at the grave of late opposition leader Alexei Navalny has been suspended from his priestly duties and ordered to serve three years of "repentance".
Dmitry Safronov prayed several times at Navalny's grave in Mosova and held a memorial service on March 26 to mark 40 days since Navalny's death in a penal colony in the Arctic.
His suspension was announced by the Moscow Diocese of the Russian Orthodox Church, which said he would be demoted to psalm reader.
No reason was given for the punishment, the latest in a series of sentences imposed by the Russian Church on priests it considers sympathetic to the opposition or insufficiently supportive of Russia's war in Ukraine, according to Reuters.
"At the end of the period of repentance, based on feedback from the place of obedience, a decision will be made about the possibility of his further priestly service," the diocese announced.
Reuters was unable to contact Safronov. A man who answered the phone at his church in Moscow said that all questions should be directed to the office of the Orthodox Patriarch Kirill, who did not respond to a request for comment.
"They need the priests to be obedient and to publicly support the patriarch's views on this war and to support the Russian state and Putin. If someone refuses, he will be punished".
Thousands of people attended Alexei Navalny's funeral on March 1, a rarity in Russia, where nearly 20 people have been jailed in the past two years for taking part in anti-war protests.
In a speech at the cemetery on March 9, Safronov said that Navalny called on the Russians not to give up.
"Evil can be defeated in only one way: with good. If we try to defeat evil with evil, then evil multiplies. Therefore, we will really remember Alexei, remember his bequest to us and pray for him and hope that he prays for us on the throne of God", he said.
Ksenia Luchenko, an expert who blogs about the Russian Orthodox Church and criticizes its leadership, said Safronov was a "real hero" because he performed his clerical duties at the grave despite the risk of being associated with Navalny.
She told Reuters that the church hierarchy is sending a clear message by suspending him. "They need the priests to be obedient and to publicly support the patriarch's views on this war and to support the Russian state and Putin. If someone refuses, he will be punished".
She said the likely official reason for the priest's suspension was his refusal to read a prayer asking God to lead Russia to victory in Ukraine, which Patriarch Kirill introduced in 2022 and which is mandatory during church services.
Dozens of other priests have been punished for defying the Church's official position on the war - for example, by reading prayers for peace instead of victory. Reuters points out that the most famous is the case of Alexey Uminsky, who was excommunicated from the Church in January and has now left Russia.
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