Also led memorial service
Priest suspended over Navalny funeral
April 24, 2024, 12:26 p.m
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In March, Russian Orthodox priest Dmitri Safronov led the memorial service and funeral of Kremlin opponent Navalny, who died in custody. His diocese has now released him from his duties for three years. He should take on other tasks.
Russian Orthodox priest Dmitri Safronov, who led the memorial service and funeral for Russian opposition figure Alexei Navalny, who died in custody, in March, has been suspended from his priestly duties for three years. “After the penitential period has expired, a decision will be made on the possibility of his further priestly activity based on the feedback from the place of obedience,” said the Moscow diocese of the Russian Orthodox Church.
In a statement posted on its website, it gave no reason for the measure, which bans Safronov from giving blessings, wearing the priest’s robe – the cassock – and wearing the church’s priestly cross until 2027. Safronov is also to be transferred to another church in Moscow to take on the duties of a psalm reader.
On March 26, Safronov led a memorial service for Navalny that was attended by thousands. Navalny was President Vladimir Putin’s harshest critic inside Russia and died in February at the age of 47 in a penal colony in the Siberian Arctic.