The leader of the Church of Last Testament, sentenced to twelve years in a penal colony, managed to smuggle a letter out of his jail. It is his version of what happened.
by Bitter Winter
“Bitter Winter” reported that on June 30, a court in Novosibirsk, Russia, sentenced Sergei Torop, “Vissarion,” the leader of the “Church of the Last Testament,” to twelve years in a strict penal colony.
Vladimir Vedernikov and Vadim Redkin, associates of the leader, were sentenced to twelve and eleven years in prison, respectively. The leaders of the Last Testament community face accusations of “extremism” and “psychological manipulation” of their followers—charges that are commonly leveled against groups classified as “cults” in Russia.
While we at “Bitter Winter” do not endorse Vissarion’s religious claims, we are concerned about the lack of transparency in the trial and the vagueness of the accusations. These charges are based on the pseudo-scientific theory of brainwashing and theological claims of heresy.
The enthusiasm with which the Western anti-cult community has welcomed this decision suggests that its claims of having severed ties with Russian anti-cultists—who are staunch supporters of the Putin regime and its aggression against Ukraine—are merely superficial.
Vissarion successfully smuggled a letter from jail, which he sent to various human rights and religious liberty organizations, as well as several media outlets, including “Bitter Winter.” We are publishing this letter, written in a prophetic-apocalyptic style, as a document, without endorsing any of Vissarion’s statements that promote his religion or criticize others, nor do we endorse his views on political matters. However, we believe the letter is an important document related to a concerning case involving violations of freedom of religion or belief, as well as other human rights.
The letter follows:
“At the level of emotion alone, an exclamation arises: ‘How can this be possible in this seemingly highly developed and democratic society! How can you allow yourself to do something that can only lead to collapse and disaster, that always provokes the emergence of a totally manifested bitterness and disunity in society?’
But at the level of consciousness, faced with the widespread demonstration of many corresponding facts and specific examples, you can understand: what is happening merely reflects what someone is trying to shamefully hide in every possible way behind actively created indicators that do not correspond to reality.
In the texts of the ancient Scriptures of the New Testament, a figurative comparison is given that corresponds to what I have touched upon, with coffins beautifully decorated on the outside, but filled with carrion on the inside.
Where is your conscience, honor, common sense, and humanity in general? Do you really not understand what you are becoming like, caring only about your external attractiveness, which you flaunt in front of each other?! The independence of the court is declared by law!
But what I had to see was shocking! One of our lawyers even said that in all his twenty years of practice, this was the first time he had ever seen something like this. We remembered the words of the American President Trump about the trial of a political figure in Israel: ‘A politically motivated travesty of justice.’
We have to admit that a period of widespread demonstration of all kinds and types of shows has arrived. The eternal, darkness-marked concern: ‘Bread and circuses.’ A court, where people’s fates are decided, can easily be transformed into a soulless show of judgement if there is political motivation.
How can you allow this to happen? This is only possible when you carelessly betray and trample on the Divine within you! There is no other way!
We were traveling to the court hearing and believed that this would be the last day of our arguments, where in the end all of us and our lawyers would be able to thoroughly and argumentatively consider not only all the details that were constantly emphasized by the state prosecutor, but also to consider the positions of each ‘victim.’
Our entire defense team rightly believed that to pass a sentence, the judge needed to assess the circumstances we had outlined. There were many such circumstances, and we assumed that the judge would go into the deliberation room for at least a few days for the necessary analysis of the information presented.
But, what turned out to be a complete surprise for all of us, after the end of our arguments, the judge announced that she would go into the deliberation room for twenty minutes!!! After this time had elapsed, we were taken back into the courtroom, where the media were already gathered, and the final part of the verdict was read to us in front of the cameras!
This part was read out for longer than the judge was in the deliberation room, where the judgement is supposed to be written. It turned out that the judge was not at all interested in all our speeches at the stage of debates! The verdict, as one could easily guess, was already ready before all our speeches! The judge in her speech was oriented only on the state prosecutor’s speech!
Apparently, the opportunity to defend oneself in the current judicial practice is no longer regarded as a reasonable necessity and becomes an insignificant formality!
For the high-ranking, politically motivated individuals interested in our accusation, it was of utmost importance to showcase their successful work in the fight against crime, and in order to add pathos to their ‘victory,’ they planned a theatrical show of judicial reprisals, allowing the judge to violate with impunity all our rights of defense!
The trial with my accusation had come to the line where the mockers, false witnesses and persecutors were to get the notion that they had won and succeeded in completely demonizing me, as it turns out to have been accurately predicted many decades before this hour and where even the essence of such a mournful event was also accurately mapped out.
When from the very beginning of our trial we expressed our wish that the trial should be open and all interested people should be able to observe what was happening in our trial, the court rejected all this on a completely far-fetched pretext.
The trial was made closed, and the relevant services began to carefully monitor that no truthful information about what was happening in court would be made public, although no classified information was considered in our trial.
And what were they so afraid of, if they really wanted to show the whole nation the truth about some unlawfulness and illegality in my actions and the actions of my two friends, which they were supposedly sure of, if they allowed themselves to arrest us and keep us under arrest in the pre-trial detention centre? But usually one tries to carefully conceal only something shameful, illegal and unlawful! Is not that right? And isn’t our desire for openness a sign that we are sufficiently aware of our innocence?!
The prosecution really didn’t want the public to know the truth about what was really connected with our accusation! We understood that perfectly well. For the history, all the information about what happened at the trial has been preserved. It will be of interest to a great many people concerned with the truth about what happened to us!
No matter how strange it may seem to some, none of those who were used as victims in the criminal case materials, did not say a single word about the illegality or unlawfulness of any specific actions of any of us! But in the verdict, despite such complete ambiguity regarding the key circumstances for the prosecution, huge sentences were nevertheless indicated!
But for what? State Prosecutor A.A. Ovchinnikova in her extensive final statement could not point to any specific action that could be related to the crime allegedly committed by any of us!
We had hoped to the very last that our judge would be able to show at least some officially declared independence and would be able to refrain from politicization by doing otherwise, but what happened was simply a barbaric trampling of the respect we still had for the court.
At the moment of reading out the verdict to us, when everyone stood up and silently listened to the judge’s speech, our public prosecutor A.A. Ovchinnikova behaved peculiarly. She took out her phone and began to change her position in search of the best angle to film our faces.
Did she really want to capture for herself the confusion on our faces and the anguish she expected? Why would a normal and well-mannered person want to memorize someone else’s suffering?
It is like the morbid interest of a hooting mob, madly eager to witness reprisals and executions in order to mock and speak ill of someone else’s misfortune afterwards. What a great scale of madness and heartlessness we have to witness at the present time!
My Father, if it is Your Will that I should receive thorns again, but already on my heart, and go further down the path of sorrow, then let it be according to Your Will and not according to my desire, and I will continue to glorify Your Name to the best of my ability, in spite of the evil hissing of the puppets and the Antichrist! May the mockers, false witnesses and persecutors of the Accomplishment of Your Will be put to shame and turn to dust!
Let Your Glory be, and let Your Kingdom be established on Earth for the salvation and the benefit of the human race, Your children.
Vissarion
July 3, 2025.”
