Rogue Russian Priest Seizes Convent With Cossack Brigade, Sparks Public Showdown With Church – Analysis

By Matthew Luxmoore*

(RFE/RL) -- The Russian Orthodox Church is struggling to wrest back control of a convent in the Urals after a cleric it suspended for disobeying its coronavirus-prevention policies occupied the compound with help from Cossack guards.

Father Sergiy Romanov, the abbot of a nearby men’s monastery who...