MOSCOW - Members of a doomsday cult that believes the world will end next May and that barcodes are a sign of the Antichrist are holed up in a cave in southeast Russia and threaten to blow themselves up if the authorities try to eject them.
Yesterday, priests
and officials were trying to talk to the 29 mainly female followers of "Father" Pyotr Kuznetsov, founder of the "True Russian Orthodox Church" sect.
Inside the cave near Nikoskoye, a village about 645km southeast of Moscow, the cult has stockpiled food and 450 litres of kerosene. The cave's inhabitants include four children, one only 16 months old.
But members have refused to speak with clergy, and instead exchanged letters with Kuznetsov.
He is not in the cave, but is undergoing psychiatric evaluation after being charged with setting up a "religious organisation associated with violence".
- Independent
