Russian priest has taken over a convent after claiming that the coronavirus pandemic was a hoax and church leaders were "working with the forerunners of the Anti-Christ”.
Father Sergei Romanov, together with a group of armed cossacks, began his occupation of the Sredneuralsk convent outside the city of Yekaterinburg on Tuesday.The men are reportedly veterans of the conflict in Ukraine.Journalists have been forbidden from entering the convent, but a reporter from Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta managed to get past the guards and spoke to Father Sergei.The priest told him: ”The diocese forbids me to serve, forbids me to speak.