Archpriest Alexander Butrin of the Church of the Sovereign Icon of the Mother of God in Fryazino, a town northeast of Moscow, told parishioners to endure the country’s fuel shortage and not to complain to the authorities. A video of the sermon was published on August 20 by the outlet SOTA

“Just recently we were talking about these interruptions with fuel, and people are already getting irritated,” Butrin said. “They cannot endure even a little.” He invoked St. Seraphim of Sarov, one of the most venerated saints in Russian Orthodoxy, saying the saint’s cell attendant saw him angry only once in his life — when he met a man who had raised a hand against state power. People who organize protests or “pump up their rights,” Butrin said, are “unspiritual people and, of course, not church people”

He also said why the question had come up: “Those in power are afraid of certain moods in the country”

Courts have begun punishing residents who complain publicly