A video almost three years old
The clip that became the basis for the case appeared on the archbishop's channel in the first weeks of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine. In it, Mikhonov-Vaytenko, a clergyman of the Apostolic Orthodox Church, criticized the war and cited the Gospel parable of the herd of swine. The plot of this parable is familiar to anyone acquainted with the Gospel: the demon-possessed animals rush down a steep bank into the lake. This parable became one of the key episodes in the case details that the court later examined.
Police in the Nevsky District viewed the page with the video only on February 20, 2025, and on the same day drew up a protocol under Part 1 of Article 20.3.3 of the Code of Administrative Offenses. This article pertains to discrediting the use of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation and provides for administrative, not criminal, punishment. The difference is significant: it concerns a fine, not imprisonment, but such cases are still tried under rules that require precise qualification of every phrase and publication date.
What was said in the courtroom
The case was heard by Judge Anna Volgina. The prosecution's representative did not appear at the hearing, and the court continued without them. The archbishop himself did not admit guilt. Addressing the court, he stated that the circumstances in the protocol were distorted and that his position remained unchanged: explaining to people that peace is better than war is a preacher's duty.
The circumstances in the protocol were "greatly distorted," and explaining to people that peace is better than war is his "direct duty."
Lawyer Andrei Chertkov insisted on two lines of defense. The first was that individual phrases were taken out of context from the entire video and therefore cannot be considered discrediting the army. The second concerned timing: according to the defense, the statute of limitations for administrative liability for a publication made in March 2022 had long expired. The judge admitted into the case letters of gratitude sent to the priest by social institutions of Kherson Oblast. These documents concerned the assistance the archbishop provided to those in need.
Refugees, a church outside the Moscow Patriarchate, and a previous fine
The Ukrainian information portal RISU, which covers church life, recalled several circumstances when reporting on the court's decision. First, the Apostolic Orthodox Church is not connected to the Moscow Patriarchate, meaning it is not part of the structure led by Patriarch Kirill. Second, the archbishop himself is the son of the poet Alexander Galich, one of the founders of the author song genre. Third, since 2022 Mikhonov-Vaytenko has been helping refugees from Ukraine and from Russia's border regions, and this assistance is precisely what the letters of gratitude from Kherson Oblast recognize.
The 30,000-ruble fine was not the first in a short period. Less than a month earlier, the archbishop had already been fined 15,000 rubles in a case concerning a repost—that is, the repeated publication of material online. Thus, within a few weeks, two administrative cases related to statements about the war were opened against the priest, and both ended in monetary penalties.
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