State Duma summons Satan: legislators find connection between the devil, LGBT, pedophilia, and Ukrainian special services

On April 8, a round table dedicated to the fight against Satanism and other destructive cults and ideologies was held in the State Duma. 

The organiser was the deputy from the party "A Just Russia — For Truth", actor Nikolai Burlyaev. He stated that the State Duma receives appeals from citizens who are concerned about destructive phenomena and "satanic sex orgies" in Moscow and other cities.

Among the participants in the round table were parliamentarians, representatives of the military command, clergymen, and others. 

The MPs, together with the churchmen, crossed themselves and performed a prayer to the Holy Spirit, calling to "cleanse them from filth" and "save their souls".

Notably, also head of the Chechen paramilitary forces Akhmat, Apti Alaudinov, who is a Muslim, was invited to the event. Whether he participated in the prayer is unknown.

"Satanism is worse than LGBT"

One of the most prominent speakers was the head of the State Duma Defence Committee, Andrei Kartapolov. He suggested considering Satanism as a "direct threat to statehood", stating:

"After all, we recognised the LGBT ideology as inappropriate and passed laws that do not allow it to spread and punish for it. So, Satanism is no better, it is worse. It is more corrupting, it is more aggressive, it is more misanthropic."

Kartapolov also pointed out the need to examine the financial sources of the 'Satanists':

"We need to investigate on what money, on what means do all these Satanists live, where are their books printed, posters, who pays for concerts, for shows, for performances, for renting concert halls, bars, clubs. That is — who are the customers of all this? And then we will also come to understand where it all comes from," suggested Kartapolov.

"They talk to their guts"

Bishop Pitirim of Skopin and Shatsk  focused on the foreign policy dimension of the problem. In his opinion, Russia has never been defeated from the outside, so now enemies are spending huge resources to destroy the country from within:

"The West has never defeated Russia and therefore has taken unprecedented measures to fill us with all these occultists, Satanists."

Pitirim also gave an example that he personally encountered:

"We came to register one of the churches, there sits a female lawyer. And suddenly someone called her at that time, as we were sitting with her. And she tells us: 'Look, I was kicked out of this group, I didn't fall into a trance, I was talking to my internal organs.' I thought: who was she talking to there, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, or what? I didn't understand. And then I realised that she was talking to her own internal organs. With her liver, with her spleen, I don't know."

Priest Fyodor Lukyanov, who heads the Patriarchal Commission on Family, Motherhood and Childhood Protection, presented a graphic table titled "Common Features of the LGBT Movement and the Satanic Movement." According to him, "there is an evident connection between the international LGBT movement and the Satanic movement."

Lukyanov also linked Satanism with a number of other subcultures and identities:

"We are now facing other movements associated with the dehumanisation of the child — this includes therians, furry fandom, and quadrobers. There are also many satanic elements there."

Vyacheslav Leontyev, head of the executive committee of the "Cultural Front of Russia" movement, drew historical parallels:

"Once, German Nazism was also laughed at, in the beginning: well, some group of people, well, they are a little interested in something. And in the end, we saw the spread, the spread across the country more than you can imagine."

He predicted an increase in the number of "monstrous crimes" committed by Satanists and posed the question:

"What will happen if they come to power?"

There were also accusations against Ukraine 

A representative of the "Spas" TV channel stated that Satanic communities could be used by Ukrainian special services to recruit Russian citizens, including military personnel, for the purpose of organising terrorist attacks. He recommended that law enforcement officers carefully study the tattoos of detainees, noting that there are very few specialists in Russia capable of recognising elements of "infernal symbolism."

Ban Balmont

In the event, TV presenter Anna Shafran stated that Satanism represents a "funnel of involvement in LGBT and pedophilia." According to the journalist, there is a direct connection between these phenomena:

"For those who knows, these are completely related things: Satanism, homosexuality, and pedophilia. Why? Because serving this cult implies the perversion of everything, all norms, all concepts of morality, of what is good and evil."

Addressing those who fear that the fight against Satanism might lead to the banning of classic works, Shafran cited Charles Baudelaire as an example. She called the French poet a "well-known Satanist" and "founder of decadence," emphasising that his fate was indicative:

"He ended very badly because all Satanists end badly," she noted, adding that Baudelaire died insane, and on his grave is a stele "with Satan placed on top."

In conclusion, Shafran reminded who admired Baudelaire:

"And who admired Baudelaire? Russian decadents," she said, immediately clarifying: one of them was [the Russian writer] Konstantin Balmont, whom she called an "open Satanist" and accused him of promoting moral decay both in literature and in personal life.