A self-styled mystic Vissarion and two aides were sentenced to prison for using psychological pressure to extract money and ...

After losing his job as a traffic officer in 1990, Sergei Torop, 64, claimed to have been reborn as Vissarion and went on to ...

Sergei Torop, a former traffic policeman known to his followers as 'Vissarion', set up the Church of the Last Testament in a ...

Sergei Torop, a Russian sect leader claiming to be Jesus reincarnated, received a 12-year prison sentence for harming followers' health and finances. Known as 'Vissarion,' he founded a religious sect ...

Sergei Torop, a former traffic officer who calls himself “Vissarion,” founded the Church of the Last Testament in 1991 after what he described as a divine revelation. He attracted thousands of ...

Earlier, a Novosibirsk court sentenced Torop and Vedernikov to 12 years in prison, and Redkin to 11 years in prison KRASNOYARSK, June 30. /TASS/. The defense team of Vissarion Community (Church of ...

Vissarion and his followers believe the end of the world is coming and their Siberian community is the ark of salvation. Such sects have proliferated in Russia’s wilderness.

Vissarion, who normally dons a long white cloak and sports long hair and a beard, lives with his followers in Petropavlovka, or what he calls his “Siberian utopia,” The Guardian reported.

Vissarion's followers are strict vegetarians and they don't smoke or drink. The houses and churches are built from wood by hand and most of the energy comes from windmills and solar panels.

"Vissarion the Teacher," or "Jesus of Siberia," Russian ex-traffic cop Sergei Torop meets followers in the remote village of Petropavlovka, in Russia's Siberia region, August 18, 2009.