Russian-installed Sevastopol Governor Mikhail Razvozhaev, Vladimir Putin, and Metropolitan Tikhon Shevkunov, in Sevastopol, Crimea, 18 March 2023. Photo: EPA-EFE/SPUTNIK/KREMLIN POOL

Lawyers for two Russian Orthodox priests accused of plotting to assassinate Metropolitan Tikhon Shevkunov, known as “Putin’s confessor”, have said their clients were tortured while in detention, independent news outlet Mediazona reported on Wednesday.

The allegations came as a Moscow court considered an appeal by the defence against extending the pretrial restrictive measures imposed on Denis Popovich and Nikita Ivankovich. During the hearing, Ivankovich’s lawyer Viktor Larin stated that the evidence was gathered illegally, “using torture and electric shocks”.

“Therefore I cannot legitimately say that my client … was a party to this crime,” Larin told the court. His words were echoed by Popovich’s lawyer Maria Eysmont, who said her client had been subjected to “electric shocks, threats and beatings”.

State-owned news agency TASS said Popovich and Ivankovich pleaded not guilty to preparing a terrorist attack and the illegal trafficking of explosive devices, while their lawyers said the evidence had been falsified.

Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) said on 28 February that the two men had been detained on suspicion of preparing an act of terror targeting Metropolitan Tikhon Shevkunov of Simferopol and Crimea, who, after being the superior of Moscow’s Sretensky Monastery for over 20 years, was appointed metropolitan of Russian-annexed Crimea in 2023. While Tikhon is frequently referred to as “Putin’s confessor” in the media, he has himself said that despite advising Putin on Christianity, he knows him “only a little”.

According to the FSB, Popovich, who is from Ukraine originally, and Ivankovich, who is of Ukrainian origin, were recruited by the Ukrainian secret services in mid-2024 and planned to detonate a bomb in the Sretensky Monastery and then leave Russia on fake Ukrainian passports.