Alex Croft looks at how Sergei Torop, also known as Vissarion, ended up in jail after he was accused of harming his followers ...

Vissarion says that women should serve men, just as men serve God. Mothers look after the children, and the community's birth rate is far higher than in the rest of Russia.

"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.

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, who has proclaimed himself a new Christ, conducts a service during the Holiday of Good Fruit feast in the village of Obitel Rassveta, southeast of Russia's Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk.

Vissarion's religion is based on Russian Orthodoxy but mixes in elements of Buddhism, collectivism, and environmental values. 6 Vissarionites worship at a mass prayer in 2007.

Topline Russian authorities arrested cult leader Vissarion, who claims to be the reincarnation of Jesus Christ, and two of his aides, on accusations of "causing grievous bodily harm to two or more ...

Vissarion himself did not appear in public frequently and when he did, it was in a specially-designated Place of Confluence - at a distance. He lived on the hill along with his closest followers ...

Spiritual leader: Vissarion, as Sergei Torop is known, is head of the religion. Credit: SULLLIVAN/Washington Post photo by Kevin S “And it is a mistake to see Jesus as God.

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 ...