Archpriest Novopashin claims his theories that Ukrainians are “cannibals” and the U.S. trains “cultists” to attack Russia, ridiculed by “Bitter Winter,” have now been proven true.
by Massimo Introvigne
Novosibirsk Archpriest Alexander Novopashin, one of the leaders of a Russian organization that has been part of the European anti-cult federation FECRIS until March 2023, became notorious for claiming that Ukrainians are “cannibals” and that the United States trains “cultists” in secret bases in Ukraine to perform acts of sabotage and terrorism in Russia.
We at “Bitter Winter” have published several articles about Novopashin’s preposterous claims, paying some attention to him for two reasons. First, despite his ridiculous theories, he is taken seriously in Russia and regularly lectures Russian security forces and soldiers (including about the evil anti-Russian plans of “Bitter Winter”). Second, in the middle of one of the worst tragedies of this century the Archpriest offers at least some comic relief.
But now Novopashin claims that his theories have been vindicated by the March 22 terrorist attack in Moscow. Just two days had elapsed from the attack, and he wrote an article where he claims that his theory that the “Ukronazis” are “cannibals” has been proven true. “I once called Ukrainian terrorists that way—oh, how the Western press [read “Bitter Winter”: there is no other “Western press” paying attention to Novopashin] laughed biliously: ‘He called the Ukrainians cannibals! Well, you need to know what he is like…’ And I called them that because that’s how I saw them. These non-humans shed human blood, the blood of children and women, our blood, devour people’s lives, feed on suffering, so who are they? Cannibals… And it is useless to drive cannibals into a cage. They will still remain cannibals, even if you keep them there all their lives. Therefore, cannibals must be destroyed.”
There is, of course, only a minor problem about this. Novopashin is in the good company of Vladimir Putin when he claims that the terrorists were connected with Ukraine, but to the rest of the world it is clear that this is a typical ISIS attack, and the ISIS itself has posted images of the incident only the terrorists itself could have supplied.
But, Novopashin explains, even if it would come out it was really the ISIS, that would not be important. Because the ISIS is a “cult” and essentially all the “cults” are one and the same: “they all have the same goals, the same techniques, everything is the same, except that the scale is different.”
And of course those indoctrinated by Novopashin and the Russian former FECRIS know that “cultists” are trained by the U.S. in Ukraine to enter Russia and perform sabotage and terrorist attacks in Russia. “Yes, the Americans have been doing this kind of work for a long time, creating groups to carry out sabotage and terrorist attacks in Russia,” Novopashin tells us, and that includes the ISIS. “After all, it was known that in Ukraine the Americans were creating a network of special ISIS training bases/schools; in particular, one such school was organized in Dnepropetrovsk. And such a large-scale project in Ukraine is not supervised by bearded guys with cropped mustaches in turbans and with machine guns in their hairy hands, but by brave military experts, very similar to the heroes of American action films. Yes, in fact, they are Americans. This is a project of the American intelligence services.”
“This is not surprising,” Novopashin adds, “because the United States is the same terrorist state as ISIS, and now, as we see, it has already surpassed it… It is very convenient: militants undergo professional training in one country, commit a crime in another, and go to a third. The UK is also working in the same direction.”
Somebody can object again that “Bitter Winter” is paying too much attention to the ramblings of a madman. But, apart from his historical connection with FECRIS, which tells us something of FECRIS’ inclinations and mind, there is evidence that the madman has the hear of people very close to Putin and some of his theories have been echoed by Putin himself.
On the Moscow attack after a few days what looked like just another demented theory by Novopashin became the official line of the Kremlin.