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Man Who Claims To Be Jesus Christ Arrested In Military-Style Operation

Man Who Claims To Be Jesus Christ Arrested In Military-Style Operation

Sergei Torop - known as Vissarion - claims he was reborn in 1990 as the reincarnation of Jesus and says that his mother is Mary...

Rebecca Shepherd

Rebecca Shepherd

Watch the moment Russian special forces staged a special operation to detain a former traffic cop who claims to be Jesus Christ:

Footage shows a large military-style operation with four helicopters and dozens of heavily armed troops storming a remote compound called Sun City.

The leader of the sect that inhabits Sun City is called Sergei Torop - known as Vissarion - a former Red Army conscript and traffic policeman who claimed he was reborn in 1990 as the literal reincarnation of the son of God.

Alongside his closest aide Vadim Redkin, a former rock musician, 59-year-old Torop was reportedly detained and flown away under armed guard.

The operation appeared to involve the Russian National Guard, a force under the command of Vladimir Putin, but also the FSB security service and the Investigative Committee.

Videos released by sect members showed masked special forces officers with combat machine guns at the group's territory in the remote Kuraginsky district of Krasnoyarsk region in Siberia. Other officers appeared to be in plain clothes.

Local resident Alexander Staroverov said: "There are 50 avtozaks (cells on wheels), 50 buses, an ambulance and medical workers."

He added that Torop and Redkin 'were put into helicopters and taken away in an unknown direction'.

Sun City.
East2West

The group - who are banned from smoking and drinking alcohol - have been in Siberia for years and it is unclear why the Russian authorities acted now in an early morning raid.

Three years ago Torop told the BBC: "We have a school of noble maidens here. We're preparing girls to become future wives, future brides for worthy men.

"She has to understand not to rise above the man, not to be proud of her independence but to be shy, inconspicuous and weak."

The cult leader is reported to have two wives with six children. He rejected his first wife, marrying a 19-year-old who had lived with him since the age of seven.

Cartridges found in Torop's house.
East2West

He lives in a comfortable chalet while his followers reside in wooden huts in one of Russia's coldest regions with temperatures sinking to minus 50C in winter.

Torop claimed to have had an awakening after he was fired as a night shift traffic cop in the Siberian town of Minusinsk.

He said God had sent him to Earth to teach mankind about the evils of war and the havoc we were wreaking on the environment.

The cult leader abolished Christmas, replacing it with the anniversary of the date of his own first sermon, 18 August. He claims that Mary, mother of Jesus, is his own mother.

However, official records show his biological mother was called Nadyezhda... make of that what you will.

Featured Image Credit: East2West News

Topics: World News, News, Weird, Russia