Participants of the blog tour "Valaam Archipelago: People, State, ROC", organized by the online journal «7x7», were declared "unwanted" on the island. They were moved out of the hotel.
The blog tour "Valaam Archipelago: People, State, ROC", organized by the online journal «7x7», began on October, 14. 10 people took part in it and were accompanied by the correspondent of «7x7» Gleb Yarovoy and his father, famous Karelian historian Oleg Yarovoy.
In the morning the group checked in to the hotel "Admiral Kuznetsov" belonging to the monastery. According to Gleb Yarovoy, participants gave passports and checked in. However, the hotel manager Sergei Nedoshivin announced that the abbot of the monastery Bishop Pankraty ordered not to check in the participants of the blog tour and said that their presence was "unwanted on the island". Also, he said, they would not be able to find rooms in other hotels of the island (they all belong to the monastery). Later the group learned that it was not true: for example, the administrator of the hotel "Slavyanskaya" personally informed the participants of the blog tour about nine vacant beds.
The group spent several hours on the island and managed to visit some of the island's places related to the theme of the blog tour, and then left for the city of Sortavala.
The monastery voiced the official position to journalist Gleb Yarovoy: since the tourist season is officially over, the hotel is occupied by workers and can not provide a place for anyone else. However, in a private conversation with one of the participants of the blog tour the head of the security service of the monastery Father Evdokim explained: organizers of the blog tour "did not inform about their arrival in advance". "We arrived not to the monastery, but to the island of Valaam — that's why it is unclear why we should have warned about our visit," Gleb Yarovoy said.
We were not able to get an operative comment of the Valaam Monastery press service.
«7x7» published lots of materials about the conflicts of Valaam monastery and local secular population by tag #Валаам. Journalist Gleb Yarovoy is also the author of the "Valaam Billions" investigations, awarded by the Union of Journalists of Karelia, and "The Tragedy of Secular Valaam".
Sofia Krapotkina, «7x7»