The traffic cop turned cult leader who claimed to be the son of god — and will now spend 12 years in jail - Alex Croft looks ...

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

Sergei Torop, 64, lost his job as a traffic cop before founding the Church of the Last Testament in 1991 and claiming to be ...

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 ...

A Russian sect leader who claimed he was Jesus Christ reincarnated was sentenced to 12 years in a prison camp on Monday after ...

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 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.

A man known as Vissarion has developed a large following in Siberia. Siberia, RUSSIA, June 23, 2008— -- "Two white robed men were standing there among them and said, 'Men of Galilee, why are ...

Except perhaps for dedicated Russophiles, composer Vissarion Shebalin will most likely be a welcome new discovery. He was a student of Nikolay Myaskovsky, highly respected by Prokofiev and a close ...

Vissarion, who has proclaimed himself a new Christ, leads a mass prayer in the village of Petropavlovka, about 580 km (360 miles) southeast of the Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk August 17, 2007.