The Times - UK (2020-07-27)

the times | Monday July 27 2020 1GM 35

Wo r l d

A renegade monk who took over a con-
vent in Russia and denounced Presi-
dent Putin as a traitor has promised to
“raise the battle alarm” if the building is
stormed.
Father Sergy is being guarded by
Cossacks and war veterans at the
Sredneuralsk convent near the city of
Yekaterinburg. He was defrocked last
week by Patriarch Kirill, the leader of
the Russian Orthodox Church, for crit-
icising the hierarchy and neglecting his
duties.
Father Sergy, 65, has claimed that
Mr Putin is a “traitor to the mother-
land” serving a satanic “world govern-
ment”. The monk dismissed the patri-
arch and other leading clerics as “here-

Defrocked monk in convent siege

tics” and “enemies of God and the Holy

Mother of God” who must be “thrown

out”.

He also called on Russians not to vote

in the nationwide vote on constitution-

al changes last month which gave Mr

Putin the right to remain in power until

2036.

Father Sergy defied the authorities

by continuing to hold services during

the coronavirus lockdown despite a ban

on public events. He claimed that a

system of transport permits introduced

in Moscow and other areas was “Satan’s

electronic camp”.

He also alleged that vaccines being

developed for the virus were part of a

global conspiracy designed to control

the masses through microchips.

The senior monk has now promised

resistance against any effort to take

back the convent. “In the event of an

attempt to seize the convent, a battle

alarm will be raised,” he said in a video

address posted over the weekend.

He argued that the Church had no

right to remove the premises from his

command because it was on rented

property.

“All the buildings and churches on

the territory were built with private

donations,” he said. “The hell-hounds

of the underworld who are calling on

the security structures to take the con-

vent by force are pushing them towards

illegal action.”

Father Sergy helped found the con-

vent in 2005 and seized it on June 16,

driving out the Mother Superior, Var-

vara, and some of the nuns. An im-

promptu unit of Cossack supporters

and veterans of the war in eastern

Ukraine was formed for protection.

The monk has claimed that there are

no weapons on the territory.

The Church has demanded that he

leave the convent and allow the mother

superior to take back control.

Father Sergy, a former policeman

named Nikolai Romanov, was sen-

tenced to 13 years in prison for murder

in the 1980s. He was later able to train

for the priesthood.

He is a passionate admirer of the last

tsar, Nicholas II, and served as the head

of the Monastery of Holy Royal Suffer-

ers in Ganina Yama, near the site in the

Urals where the Bolsheviks shot and

buried the tsar and his family.

Father Sergy, who wears the distinc-

tive robes of an ascetic monk, became

recognised for opening several new

churches and monasteries in the re-

gion. He is known for performing ritu-

als to exorcise demons and for keeping

a portrait of Stalin in his cell.

Despite his extreme views and his

clash with the church leadership, he has

attracted prominent supporters over

the years, including Pavel Datsyuk, 42,

an ice hockey star, and Natalya Poklon-

skaya, 40, the former prosecutor of

Crimea, who became a Russian MP.

There have been reports of physical

and psychological abuse against child-

ren who live at the convent.

When Ksenya Sobchak, a television

presenter and former presidential can-

didate, tried to investigate last month

her film crew was allegedly attacked at

the entrance.

Father Sergy has dismissed the abuse

allegations claiming that they are “an

open lie”.

Russia
Tom Parfitt Moscow

As with everything in the Israeli-
Palestinian conflict, the story of the
baptismal font of the 5th-century
church of Tel Tekoa is disputed.
But all sides agree on one thing. A
week ago, in the early hours, an Israeli
lorry drove to the nearby village of
Khirbet Tuqu’ and away again with the
eight-tonne limestone font on its back.
“The civil administration has re-
turned a rare archaeological relic that
was stolen approximately 20 years ago,”
a triumphant statement from the Israeli
authorities said.
The “civil administration” refers to
the organisation managing civil affairs

T

he clash

between

meritocracy

and keeping

family

traditions is a perennial

headache in business

(Tom Kington writes).

It has taken on extra

significance in Venice,

where gondoliering has

been passed from father

to son for 1,000 years.

Yet a new rule making

it even easier for the

children of existing

gondoliers to obtain a

lucrative licence to join

the ancient profession

has prompted

allegations of

nepotism over a

job that can bring

in more than

€100,000 a year.

The ruling by

the city authority

allows gondoliers’

offspring to skip a

challenging theory

exam, which includes

foreign languages, to

win the chance to steer

change would further

exclude outsiders. “We

are ushering in the

dynastic right to a

licence,” he said.

Aldo Rosso, a former

examiner, said that

outsiders were already

marked down in tests to

allow gondoliers’

children to score more

highly. Being able to talk

with tourists should be a

job requirement, he

said. “You need those

languages,” he added.

The 433 gondoliers

have 200 substitutes,

who take over when

there are shortages from

illness or holiday. When

a gondolier retires, the

licence can be passed on

to a chosen substitute,

which is likely to be a

child. Only one

gondolier is a woman,

whose father was a

gondolier.

A half-hour ride costs

€80 or €100 at night. Mr

Rosso said that

gondoliers could earn

more than €100,000 a

year. Andrea Balbi, head

of the association of

gondoliers, denied that

nepotism played any

part in the rule change.

“Sons can only avoid the

exam if they have spent

four years working with

their fathers,” he said.

“I am not the son of a

gondolier, nor are more

than half of Venice’s

gondoliers,” he said.

“This will never be a

closed shop.”

Mr Balbi said it was

crucial, however, that

the tradition could

continue to be passed on

from father to son.

“Every gondolier has a

personal rowing style he

will teach his son, so you

can take one look at

how a young gondolier

rows and guess who his

father is,” he said.

Aldo Reato, a former

head of the association,

agreed. “A traditional

trade should be handed

down the generations,”

he said. “Isn’t that what

tradition is?”

Maurizio Carlotto, the

deputy head of the

organisation, started

teaching his son

Giacomo to row when

he was ten. “He will take

over from me,” Mr

Carlotto, 59, said. “Being

a gondolier is in your

blood. Customers always

ask, ‘Are you the son of

a gondolier?’ That’s what

they want.”

Gondola

families

keep grip

on trade

The gondoliers of

Venice teach their

children a personal

style of rowing

the sleek black

boats along the

canals of Venice.

They will still need to

pass the practical

exam. Davide Scano, a

councillor, said the

ALAMY

na

join

on

es

o

teer

Th

Ve

ch

st

th

bo

can

The

pass

exam

coun

Nativity at Bethlehem, five miles to the

northwest.

The font stayed at Tel Tekoa until

2000 when it was stolen. The Israelis

say that it belongs naturally to the Tel

Tekoa site, and have implied, although

not confirmed, that the relic will be

returned there.

Israel accused of taking historic font

under the aegis of the military occupa-

tion of parts of the West Bank.

For the Palestinian Authority, it was

the Israelis who had engaged in an act

of theft. Hanan Ashrawi, the Palestini-

ans’ most prominent woman and

Christian politician, said the Israelis

had illegally seized the font from the

care of the local administration. “This

systemic policy of plunder is a war

crime that must not go unpunished,”

she said.

The font is a relic of the Byzantine

era, the late Roman epoch when Christ-

ianity was the dominant religion of the

eastern Mediterranean. It was un-

earthed in the remains of a church in

the archaeological site of Tel Tekoa and

is one of only three of its type. One of

the others is in the Church of the Holy

Israel
Richard Spencer
Middle East Correspondent

Eight Italian police officers have been

accused of torturing suspects, dealing

in drugs and turning their police station

into a brothel.

The Levante police station in the

northern town of Piacenza was deemed

a crime scene and closed on Friday.

Officers are accused of giving drug

dealers permits that allowed them to

move around freely during the lock-

down in a province that recorded Italy’s

third-highest death rate from Covid-19.

The alleged ring-leader of the group, a

37-year-old officer from the Naples

Police ‘turned their station

into drug den and brothel’

area, is accused of organising an orgy

with prostitutes in their commander’s

office while he was absent. A bug placed

by finance police on the phone of one of

the suspects allegedly recorded him

dividing up eight kilos of marijuana

with a local dealer. The officer posed for

photos brandishing banknotes and

bottles of Dom Perignon champagne

and boasted of being “untouchable”. All

eight officers have been arrested.

According to the bugged conversa-

tions, the officers modelled themselves

on Gomorrah, an Italian crime drama

series. In 2018 the police station re-

ceived a special award for its success in

combating drug dealing.

Italy

Philip Willan Rome

The eight-tonne font was taken at night