A court in the southwestern Samara region sentenced Svetlana Lada-Rus, an exiled cult leader and marginal opposition figure, to eight years in prison in absentia on Friday.
Lada-Rus was convicted of fraud, establishing an organization that violated the identity and rights of Russian citizens, and for causing serious bodily harm due to negligence.
State prosecutors claimed that the groups formed by Lada-Rus presented themselves as centers for traditional medicine and political movements, but they actually functioned as “destructive communities” that prompted their followers to forsake their “civic duties.”
Additionally, they accused her of enforcing a religious doctrine and demanding daily rituals at her residence in the Samara region starting from 2006, actions that they argued caused significant emotional distress among her followers.
Lada-Rus, labeled a “foreign agent” who now resides overseas, previously deemed the charges against her as “absurd” and “libelous.”
On Friday, she criticized the Samara court’s sentence, stating in a Telegram post: “I do not recognize or believe that this government, which colonized us in 1993, has any authority to judge me or anyone else. This system was designed to remove those who stand in its way of plundering, killing, and destroying the nation.”
Originally a music teacher, Lada-Rus rose to prominence in the 1990s when she established an occult healing center in Samara. She later entered politics, running for the State Duma in 2003 and attempting a presidential run in 2012 with the support of her own party, The Will, which was declared extremist in 2016.
Her beliefs combine a denial of the Soviet Union’s collapse, Russian nationalism, anti-vaccine sentiments, and reptilian conspiracy theories. She has also alleged that Russia’s ruling elite has been compromised by British intelligence.
In recent months, numerous supporters of hers have faced police searches and arrests across the country, including in the Republic of Altai, where one follower, Aruna Arna, emerged as a leader of protests against contentious municipal reforms.
