The Christian Vision initiative has identified the Lithuanian citizen detained on May 30 during a religious service in the village of Kukliany in Pastavy District. The individual was identified as Mikhail Rybakov, mentor of the Perelazy Old Orthodox Old Believer Community in Lithuania’s Jonava District.
According to the outlet, Rybakov is a well-known figure in the Old Believer communities of the Baltic states. For decades, he led the Perelazy community and defended its independence from the Lithuanian Old Believers Church in court proceedings that reached Lithuania’s Supreme Administrative Court. The community identifies itself as priestless and does not recognize a clerical hierarchy. After purchasing a house in Kukliany, he openly approached the Pastavy District Executive Committee and sought to register a community through official procedures.
The detention sparked outrage among local believers. Community member Sviatlana P. described the district newspaper’s account as false and said that Rybakov had restored the prayer house and attempted to purchase an old building for renovation and transfer to the community, while the executive committee “did not help in any way, either with words or deeds.”
Police described Rybakov as a “fake priest.” However, according to the report, he is a committed adherent of the priestless branch of Old Belief, which fundamentally rejects the institution of priesthood.
As previously reported, the detention was first described by the district newspaper Pastauski Krai at the end of May. According to the publication, the Lithuanian citizen intended to officially register a religious community with the Pastavy District Executive Committee, but a working group of the executive committee identified what it described as “signs of forgery” in the submitted documents and rejected the application. He was subsequently detained.
The Internal Affairs Directorate of Vitsyebsk Region later described the foreign citizen as a “fake priest”.
“Officers of the Pastavy District Department of Internal Affairs detained a 52-year-old fake priest from Lithuania. As a citizen of that country, the man came to Belarus, bought a house and began using an internet messenger to call on people to attend Old Believer religious services.
He organized these events at his place of residence in one of the villages of Pastavy District while collecting donations from his flock. He had neither the appropriate education nor permission from the district executive committee to conduct mass religious events,” the directorate said.
The Lithuanian citizen faces expulsion from Belarus for violating regulations governing the organization or conduct of mass events.
