An investigative court in the city of Almaty has ordered two months of pre-trial detention for former hieromonk of the Astana and Almaty Diocese of the Russian Orthodox Church Yakov Vorontsov on suspicion of operating a drug den and possessing drugs without the intent to sell.
According to the defendant’s lawyer, Galym Nurpeisov, the case materials confirm the information.
According to the defense, the motion for house arrest was denied, and the defense plans to appeal the decision.
Vorontsov was detained on February 13, 2026; on the same day, the court imposed administrative detention for 10 days as part of an administrative case for drug use.
On February 23, he was due to be released, but after the detention term ended he was sent for questioning by the investigator in a criminal case.
Yakov Vorontsov was one of the few priests of the Russian Orthodox Church who publicly condemned Moscow’s actions in the early days of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Later he stated that Kazakhstan should establish a representation of an autocephalous church, independent from Moscow. In 2023 the ROC stripped him of his rank.
In December 2023 a criminal case was opened against him in Kazakhstan for incitement of hostility and enmity.
After that Yakov Vorontsov appealed to Kazakhstan’s president Kassym-Jomart Tokayev with a request to look into his situation, noting that the pressure on him was allegedly connected with pressure from the Kazakh diocese of the ROC, which hinders the creation of a church independent from Moscow.
In May 2025 Vorontsov said that the criminal case had been terminated for lack of a crime. Representatives of the Kazakh Metropolitan District of the ROC deny any involvement in the proceedings and refuse to comment on the cleric’s statements.
On February 10, 2026, Yakov Vorontsov said that the court in Almaty accepted his suit to the Department of Justice, demanding that the order “On the Refusal to Register a Religious Association” be declared illegal and canceled.
Timeline of events and context
The situation surrounding Yakov Vorontsov is unfolding against a backdrop of escalating tensions between Kazakhstan’s state authorities and some religious structures that had previously supported distancing from Moscow and called for autonomy for believers.