French authorities in Nice have launched an investigation after the rector of a local Russian Orthodox Cathedral received death threats in connection to the ongoing conflict in Ukraine.
Archpriest Andrey Eliseev, the rector of the Russian Cathedral of St. Nicholas in Nice, received a letter that is said to have threatened him and other Russians with death if they did not leave France and go to Russia within the next month.
“You are Mr Putin’s friends. Go to Russia soon, otherwise, you and your friends will be murdered. You have a month,” the letter reportedly stated, the newspaper 20 Minutes reports.
The prosecutor of the Republic of Nice confirmed that the matter has been handed over to Departmental Security investigators after a complaint was filed and due to the ongoing tensions the prefecture of Alpes-Maritimes has also moved to postpone a pro-Ukrainian rally which was set to be held in front of the cathedral.
The lawyer for archpriest Andrey Eliseev has also made claimed that other members of the parish have been subjected to similar death threats as well. Around 100,000 people make up the local Russian community on the Côte d’Azur and many have also come forward with claims of “Russophobia” following the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
The death threats against the Russian archpriest come just days after a Russian cultural centre in Paris was allegedly targetted by a firebombing. The Russian House of Science and Culture, located in the 16th arrondissement of the French capital, was slightly damaged in the attack, which is believed to have taken place late at night from Sunday the 6th of March into Monday the 7th.
In Germany, hundreds of Russians claim to have been subjected to attacks since the start of the Ukraine conflict in late February, with Germany’s anti-racism commissioner Reem Alabali-Radovan claiming that some Russians no longer dare speak their language on the streets.
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