The accused in the "rehabilitation of Nazism" case involving an icon, 57-year-old Igor Maksimov from Omsk, previously referred to as a clergyman by Russian media and the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation, is actually an ordinary layperson.
According to Katolik.life, the head of the Omsk Greek Catholic parish of the Protection of the Holy Virgin, where law enforcement officers intervened, is a completely different priest, and the detained man is just a parishioner, a layperson who may have assisted the priest, acted as a reader, or conducted certain services in the absence of a clergyman. Perhaps he did so voluntarily.
"The parish was preparing for legal liquidation due to the small number of believers. These are, indeed, Ukrainians who have been living in Russia for many years, descendants of exiled Ukrainians during the Soviet period. There are no more than 8 people in the parish. Most of them are elderly," explained Katolik.life to one of the structures of Byzantine rite Catholics in Russia.
Igor Maksimov is accused of "creating a stylized image resembling an icon depicting Ukrainian collaborators of Nazism - Bandera supporters against the background of the Holy Virgin and placed this image for public viewing in the dining room on the territory of a religious organization." During searches in the church and his apartment, Ukrainian-language books were confiscated from him, which were declared prohibited and added to the case materials.
It became known that one of the parish visitors reported the Ukrainian icon in the church building. The detained man faces up to three years in prison.