A Russian Orthodox priest who presided over the memorial service for the late Russian opposition chief Alexei Navalny in March has been suspended from clerical duties for 3 years, the Moscow Diocese of the Russian Orthodox Church stated.
In a press release printed on its web site on Tuesday, the diocese didn’t say what was causing the punishment, which forbids the priest, Dmitry Safronov, from giving blessings, carrying the frock and bearing the church’s priestly cross till 2027.
Safronov was additionally to be moved to a different church in Moscow to carry out the duties of a psalm-reader.
“On the finish of the interval of penance, based mostly on suggestions from the place of obedience, a choice will probably be made on the opportunity of his additional priestly service,” the diocese stated in its assertion.
On Mar 26, Safronov held a memorial service attended by hundreds for Navalny, who was President Vladimir Putin’s fiercest critic inside Russia and who died on the age of 47 in an Arctic penal colony in February.
