THIS is the haunting moment cops raided a mass live burial to rescue cult followers wrapped like mummies and entombed in graves.
Police in Russia raided a bizarre shamanic ritual in which two young women were “buried alive”.
Police in Russia raided a bizarre shamanic ritual in which two women were ‘buried alive’[/caption]
Reports said participants were wrapped in rags and buried alive as part of a supposed rebirth[/caption]
The self-styled shaman named Timur[/caption]
The pair with heads wrapped like mummies had to be dug out of the graves in a forest in Leningrad region.
Both were alive after their ordeals.
One had difficulty standing up when she was dug out.
Thirteen more worshippers were gathered around a fire, some waiting to be buried after digging their own graves.
The self-styled shaman named Timur and his female assistant Yekaterina Koroleva were both detained on suspicion of running a sinister cult.
First, the shaman was ordered to dig out the two women from their 20-inch deep graves.
Koroleva – organiser of the ritual – denied that the participants had paid almost £80 to die in the graves, and claimed their heads were not completely buried, allowing them to breathe.
“The essence of the ritual is essentially a kind of reset,” she said.
“It’s a psychological trance ceremony where a person undergoes a complete reboot, a full cleansing.
“If someone has gone through certain life events, or wants to be completely reborn, to fully change their life — they opt for this extreme form of burial.”
Reports said participants were wrapped in rags and buried alive as part of a supposed rebirth or symbolic encounter with Hel, the Norse goddess of death.
Law enforcement were deciding how to proceed against the detained pair.
They could face up to seven years in jail, reported Novye Izvestia news outlet.
A shaman is a person believed to have access to, and influence in, the world of spirits, typically through rituals, visions, and healing practices.
This comes as a Russian rape cult leader who called himself an alien named Great Shaman was arrested in Argentina.
Konstantin Rudnev, 57, was handcuffed and dragged away by cops at Bariloche Airport as he attempted to flee to Brazil with six women.
Video shows the twisted guru — who once claimed to be a god from the star Sirius — being busted in a dramatic operation that saw 14 suspects snared at two airports over 1,000 miles apart in a joint swoop by Argentine authorities.
Rudnev — already convicted of rape and running a violent sex cult in Russia — reportedly tried to slit his throat with a razor as officers closed in, according to El Pais.
The shaman was ordered to dig out the two women from their 20-inch deep graves.[/caption]
The pair could face up to seven years in jail[/caption]
He was reportedly treated for his injuries and was pictured with a bandage around his neck.
He now faces fresh charges of human trafficking, sexual exploitation and drug offences, more than a decade after he was jailed for 11 years in Siberia for a string of abuse crimes involving female followers.
The bizarre cult, Ashram Shambala, founded in 1989 in Novosibirsk, brainwashed followers — mostly women — into surrendering their property.
They would reportedly cut ties with loved ones and take part in so-called “ritual orgies” in exchange for “salvation.”
Women were allegedly coerced into sex with Rudnev — while male followers were ordered to remain celibate.
The cult even flogged recordings of the encounters to fund operations and promised spiritual enlightenment via “women’s practices” and Eastern esotericism.
Thirteen more worshippers were gathered around a fire[/caption]
Yekaterina Koroleva was also detained on suspicion of running the sinister cult[/caption]
The women were wrapped like mummies and lowered into the soil[/caption]
