Ilya Zhuravlev, a medical doctor of Ulyanovsk, has been arrested and absurdly charged with spreading the idea that being homosexual is needed for proper “devil-worshiping.”
by Massimo Introvigne
Since it started its war of aggression against Ukraine, Russia is obsessed with Satanism, of which it accuses pretty much everybody: primarily the Ukrainians and their government but also the West in general (an accusation echoed by Putin himself), all sort of “cults,” and even “Bitter Winter” and the author of this article.
While those living abroad can regard these accusations as just preposterous, it is a different matter when Russian citizens are targeted. “Satanists” are regarded as “extremists” and being accused of worshiping Satan may lead to heavy jail penalties.
These may be even heavier if one is accused of being part of two extremist or “undesirable” organizations at the same time. Members of an “undesirable” organizations were treated less harshly than those part of “extremist” groups before 2022. However, after the invasion of Ukraine the law has been amended and now those in both kinds of blacklisted entities receive the same penalties.
This is what recently happened to Ilya Zhuravlev, a medical doctor and the director of two health centers in the Ulyanovsk region. Zhuravlev is homosexual and was detained as such in August this year. He was accused of being a member of the “international LGBT movement,” declared “extremist” in Russia in 2023, and arrested with great fanfare.
This month, however, the FSB has revealed through a press conference that the situation of Zhuravlev is much worse. He has been charged with being a member simultaneously of two “extremist” organizations, the “international LGBT movement” and “Satanism.”
According to the FSB press release, he “promoted the idea of same-sex relations among subordinate employees as a way of initiating them into devil worshipping.” The idea is rejected as absurd by Zhuravlev’s friends and associates. Additionally, although most Satanist groups do not condemn same-sex relationships, the idea that practicing homosexuality is a pre-requisite to be initiated as a Satanist only exists in the imagination of some Russian “experts” and judges.
Reading between the lines of comments in the VChK-OGPU Telegram channel, which is notoriously close to the FSB, one may suspect that perhaps the security forces themselves do not fully believe in the Satanist connection, but use it to spread terror among the LGBT community and those defending its human rights.
Massimo Introvigne (born June 14, 1955 in Rome) is an Italian sociologist of religions. He is the founder and managing director of the Center for Studies on New Religions (CESNUR), an international network of scholars who study new religious movements. Introvigne is the author of some 70 books and more than 100 articles in the field of sociology of religion. He was the main author of the Enciclopedia delle religioni in Italia (Encyclopedia of Religions in Italy). He is a member of the editorial board for the Interdisciplinary Journal of Research on Religion and of the executive board of University of California Press’ Nova Religio. From January 5 to December 31, 2011, he has served as the “Representative on combating racism, xenophobia and discrimination, with a special focus on discrimination against Christians and members of other religions” of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE). From 2012 to 2015 he served as chairperson of the Observatory of Religious Liberty, instituted by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in order to monitor problems of religious liberty on a worldwide scale.
