Russian Gucci priest probed for flaunting designer goods on Instagram

A Russian Gucci priest who showed off the luxury items including Louis Vuitton bags and Gucci shoes on his Instagram account will face a disciplinary committee, an Orthodox Church spokesman said Monday.

Vyacheslav Baskakov deleted the images of himself posing in his frock with the designer goods after they were picked up by Russian media and shared online last week.

“Such actions are not acceptable. The Church requires modesty and temperance of its representatives,” Alexander Volkov, spokesman for Patriarch Kirill of Moscow, told AFP.

Volkov said the Gucci priest would face a disciplinary committee in the Tver region where he is based, north of the capital.

The spokesman stressed this was not a criminal probe and that the “vast majority of Russian Orthodox Church priests live very modestly”.

He did not give a date for any hearing nor comment on a likely punishment.