Cult followers in central Russia's Penza Region have dug a shelter, stocked it with food and are waiting for the apocalypse, which they say is due in May 2008. A total of 29 sect members, including four children, of the so-called True Russian Orthodox church have moved into the shelter, which contains underground wells, a kitchen, monastic cells and other facilities. They wrote a letter to local authorities saying they had gone underground of their own free will.

The letter is meant, no doubt, to be a warning to local authorities not to try and use force in trying to end their self-confinement. "The inhabitants of the underground shelter have threatened to set themselves on fire if forced out," Alevtina Volchkova said, adding that a criminal investigation has been launched against the sect leader, who calls himself Father Pyotr.
He is likely to undergo a psychiatric examination and will face up to three years in prison if found guilty of infringement of his followers' rights. The prosecutor also said all the cult members are from other Russian regions or former Soviet countries, and some have breached Russian laws.

When policemen and local priests tried to persuade them to leave they threatened to blow themselves up, as they have a plenty of explosive materials, such as bottled gas and kerosene.
"It was God who told us to act this way, and a book about us is being written in heaven," a popular Russian tabloid Komsomolskaya Pravda quotes a cult follower as saying. The tabloid also said the sect was established about two years ago by 43 year-old local, Pyotr Kuznetsov, who set up a prayer house in the village.
"They [sect members] don't work and stop their children from going to school," the newspaper quotes a local resident as saying.

Several months ago, a message saying that "sorry, we have made a vow of silence" appeared on their church doors and Kuznetsov announced the advent of the apocalypse. When their shelter was completed the cult followers moved in. "A microbiologist doctor is among them and the temperature inside is 12-17 degrees Celsius (53-62 Fahrenheit)," Volchkova said. A 16-month-old baby is also amongst those hiding in this snow-covered cave, located near the village of Nikolskoye, 100 kilometers southeast of Penza. The leader of the sect was not in the cave, national media reported.
Steam could be seen rising from a hole in thick snow in footage shown on NTV television. Police are guarding the cave to prevent anyone else from joining them. Authorities estimate that the zealots have been in the cave for two weeks, prompting concerns for the health of the four children hiding out. Gunshots were fired into the air from the cave when Father Georgy and police tried to approach, NTV reported.

"They are ordinary Christians," Father Georgy, a local priest, told NTV while standing near the cave. "They just don't accept [tax identification numbers] and passports. They say the church did this and that wrong and that the end of the world is near." The members say the current Russian Orthodox Church is commercialized and with the church having its own tax code and carrying out commercial activities, the sect claims to represent the real Russian Orthodox Church.

The government and the Russian Orthodox Church have complained repeatedly about the rise of sects since the fall of the Soviet Union. The opening of the Iron Curtain provided a hospitable climate for religious movements such as the Moonies and the Scientologists.
The messianic Japanese cult Aum Shinrikyo, which released anthrax in Tokyo in 1993 and Sarin gas on the Tokyo subway in 1995, recruited hundreds of people across Russia and sought to acquire various weapons in Russia. The cult actively recruited top Russian scientists and technical experts in order to develop weapons of mass destruction, according to a 1995 US Senate report. A former traffic cop who claims he is Jesus is the spiritual leader of some 5,000 disciples in Siberia.

Last year this group built a prayer house in Nikolskoye, and several months ago members began preparing the cave 500 meters outside the village, national media reported. Members began storing enough petrol, kerosene and food to last until May 2008, and before moving in, they expanded the cave and reinforced the roof.
The hideaway was only discovered when the daughter of one of the sect members turned up in Nikolskoye, and Kuznetsov - who did not go into the cave himself - squealed under pressure from investigators, Izvestia reported.
Prosecutors have opened a criminal investigation in connection with the formation of an illegal sect, a crime punishable by up to three years in prison.
Archbishop Filaret of the Penza and Kuznetsk dioceses said in a statement published on the regional government's web site that he was "deeply grieved" to hear that "a group of people who are outside the church of God ... are preparing themselves for the second coming of Christ."