The investigation has opened a second criminal
case of arson
of the Dormition church in Karelia, a source in law enforcement
agencies told
RIA Novosti on Tuesday [14 Aug.].
The directorate of the Ministry of
Emergency Services for
Karelia earlier reported that on 10 August, the building of a
church was
completely burned down. While fighting the fire, one fireman was
injured. The
preliminary cause of the fire was called arson. A criminal case
was opened for
destruction of an object of the cultural heritage. A 15-year-old
youth was
arrested, who, according to information from the investigation,
was visiting
his grandmother near the church in Kondopoga and set fire to the
Dormition
church. The Komsomolskaia Pravda newspaper, citing local
residents, wrote that
the detained teenager supposedly identified himself as a satanist
and he set
fire to the church intentionally.
"A case was opened on the basis of part 2 of
article
167 of the Criminal Code of the RF ("Intentional destruction or
damage to
another's property by means of arson")," the news agency's source
said. The article provides a sanction of up to five year of
incarceration.
Details of the criminal cases still have not
been officially
disclosed. The Investigative Committee has still not commented on
this
information.
It was previously reported also that the
teenager has been
placed in the center for temporary detention of juvenile
lawbreakers of the MVD
of Karelia for 30 days. A forensic psychiatric expert analysis has
been ordered
for determining his sanity.
The church of the Dormition of the Mother of
God was located
on the territory of the former village of Kondopoga, which laid
the foundation
for the city of Kondopoga, on a small promontory jutting into the
Chupa Bay of
Lake Onega. The church building was constructed in 1774 in the
twilight of
northern wooden architecture in memory of the peasants who
perished during the
Kizhi Uprising of 1769-1771. It was a monument of the national
wooden
architecture of the late 18th century, the historical culmination
of the evolution
of tent churches of the Onega School. It was one of the tallest
wooden churches
of the Russian North. (tr. by PDS, posted 14 August 2018)
TEENAGE SATANIST SUSPECTED IN ARSON OF CHURCH
IN KARELIA
A schoolboy is suspected in the arson of the
wooden
Dormition church of the 18th century in Kondopoga (Karelia), an
informed source
told Interfax.
"A 15-year-old schoolboy is suspected. He
considers
himself a satanist. Supposedly he simply did not like the church,"
the
news agency's interlocutor said.
As the chief of the regional Ministry of
Emergency Services,
Sergei Shugaev, told Interfax, the church began burning on the
outside.
"The flame began to spread from the north side
of the
building and therefore the church guard did not immediately notice
the
fire," he said.
In addition, according to an architecture
restorer, Tatiana
Vakhrameeva, a candidate member of the expert council of
Rosokhrankultura,
restoration of the Dormition church will cost about 80 million
rubles.
"Now it is necessary to disassemble what is
left, under
the supervision of specialists. Those preserved elements, which
might be used
during restoration, including as patterns, must not simply be
thrown away. They
need to be disassembled and examined intently," T. Vakhrameeva
explained.
As was reported, in the morning of 10 August,
the fire alarm
in the Dormition church in Kondopoga sounded. The flame was fought
more than
two hours, but the monument was completely burned down. At the
department for
preserving objects of the cultural heritage of Karelia, Interfax
was told that
several versions of the origin of the fire have been considered,
among which
was carelessness with fire on the part of tourists.
The Dormition church, a monument of Onega
wooden
architecture, was built in 1774. The 42-meter tall church was
located on the
shore of Kondopoga Bay of Lake Onega. (tr. by PDY, posted 14
August 2018)
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The directorate of the Ministry of
Emergency Services for
Karelia earlier reported that on 10 August, the building of a
church was
completely burned down. While fighting the fire, one fireman was
injured. The
preliminary cause of the fire was called arson. A criminal case
was opened for
destruction of an object of the cultural heritage. A 15-year-old
youth was
arrested, who, according to information from the investigation,
was visiting
his grandmother near the church in Kondopoga and set fire to the
Dormition
church. The Komsomolskaia Pravda newspaper, citing local
residents, wrote that
the detained teenager supposedly identified himself as a satanist
and he set
fire to the church intentionally.