Dmitrii Kurmoiarov (Ioann)
Dmitrii Kurmoiarov (Ioann), born 1968, Saint Petersburg. Charges: Article 207.3 part 2 items g, d, Russian Criminal Code (Dissemination of false information about the RF Armed Forces, government agencies or mercenaries…); “Father Ioann Kurmoiarov's case of "fakes" about the activities of the Russian Armed Forces in Ukraine”. Sentence (August 31, 2023): 3 years of imprisonment in a general regime corrective colony with a 2-year ban on engaging in activities related to… Status: not in Russia. Recognition: Memorial: Support for Political Prisoners — recognised as a political prisoner, July 26, 2022.
In brief
Saint Petersburg · Saint Petersburg · Religious figures · Anti-war cases, Cases against "foreign agents"
Sentence
3 years
of imprisonment in a general regime corrective colony with a 2-year ban on engaging in activities related to making publications on the Internet
Upheld June 27, 2024
Charges
- Article 207.3 part 2 items g, d, Russian Criminal Code — Dissemination of false information about the RF Armed Forces, government agencies or mercenaries (using official position, by a group of people, falsifying evidence, for selfish reasons or motivated by hatred)
Full wording of the charges
The reason to open a case was a video in which Kurmoiarov claimed that Russian military personnel killed in Ukraine would go to hell, and not heaven, since they were not peacekeepers.
Latest event
August 15, 2025 — added to the register of “foreign agents”
Recognition by rights defenders
- Recognised as a political prisoner — Memorial: Support for Political Prisoners, July 26, 2022
Timeline
· Added to the register of “foreign agents”
· Imprisonment ends
· Imprisonment begins
· Cassation ruling
upheld
· First-instance verdict
guilty verdict · 3 years
· Recognised as a political prisoner
Memorial: Support for Political Prisoners
· Persecution begins
Father Ioann Kurmoiarov's case of "fakes" about the activities of the Russian Armed Forces in Ukraine
· Preventive measure: placement in a temporary detention facility
Criminal case
Father Ioann Kurmoiarov's case of "fakes" about the activities of the Russian Armed Forces in Ukraine
Thematic group: Anti-war case
Details and sources
Full summary
A priest of the Russian Orthodox Church outside of Russia. Previously he served in Vinnitsa in the Moscow Patriarchate church and criticised the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kyiv Patriarchate. An administrative case was opened against Kurmoiarov, accusing him of pro-Russian propaganda, resulting in him being excluded from the list of priests of the Tulchyn diocese. He moved to Russia and taught theology at the Novosibirsk Theological Seminary. He criticised the patriarch and spoke out strongly against the Temple of the Armed Forces in Kubinka near Moscow. Then he moved to St Petersburg, moved to the Russian Orthodox Church outside of Russia. Composes electronic music. 7 June 2022 Kurmoiarov was detained after a search, the next day taken into custody on charges of spreading deliberately false information about the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation. On 10 August it became known that the lawyer Leonid Krikun, representing the interests of Kurmoiarov, was made to sign a non-disclosure agreement.
At one of the trial sessions Kurmoiarov said that the staff of the medical unit of pre-trial detention centre #1 "Kresty-2" ignored twenty-five of his requests for medical assistance, his complaints were refused to be registered, and the button to call the staff does not work, which in case of hypertension, from which he suffers, can lead to death in case of a heart attack or a stroke. In addition, according to him, for more than two weeks he had not been allowed to take a shower, citing the lack of hot water, and a full search had been carried out not behind a screen, but in front of the other detainees in the cell. In the pre-trial detention centre, the priest was filed as prone to extremism and terrorism. They cannot provide him with the necessary medical care (Ioann had a severe flu, after which he began to have problems with hearing and vision, and he also has chronic diseases).
On 31 August 2023 Kurmoiarov was sentenced to 3 years in a general regime colony. On 1 August 2024 he was released.
All fields of the record
- Citizenship
- Russia
- Place of detention
- Pre-trial detention centre No. 1, Saint Petersburg and Leningrad Oblast
Other people prosecuted under Article 207.3 part 2 items g, d, Russian Criminal Code
Under the same article, not necessarily in the same case.