MOSCOW -- Andrew Okhotin, a Baptist youth pastor, took the 10-hour flight from New York to Moscow in late March on a quick and joyful mission. He was going to deliver a $48,000 cash gift from American believers to Russian Baptists, visit for a few days with relatives and then return to the United States and his studies at Harvard Divinity School.
Nearly three months later, the 28-year-old Okhotin is still in Moscow, has yet to hand over the money, and, if Moscow prosecutors get their way, could spend the next five years in a Russian prison.
Russian customs inspectors claim Okhotin is a currency smuggler, who on March 29 deliberately chose the green, "nothing-to-declare" corridor at Moscow's main international airport, all the while carrying $48,000 in $100 and $50 bills in his beige backpack.
In fact, Okhotin says, he made an innocent mistake by stepping into the wrong corridor and, when asked, immediately reached into his jacket pocket and handed over a duly completed customs form he had filled out on the plane.
Learning just how much money Okhotin had, customs inspectors detained him for 12 hours as they interrogated him, offering twice to release him for bribes of $5,000 and $10,000, he says.
As the marathon session wore on without agreement, customs officer Irina Kondratskaya jotted down on a piece of paper her own home telephone number and the cell phone of a Moscow lawyer, saying, "Contact him, he'll tell you what to do," Okhotin recalls, later showing the slip of paper to a reporter.
The lawyer, Okhotin says, offered to get the charges dropped for $15,000.
"I've never heard a thing about this Okhotin you're talking about," the lawyer, Igor Tokarev, said initially in a Thursday (June 19) conversation, recalling a few minutes later that a Russian journalist had interviewed him the day before about the bribery allegations.
Reached at home Friday evening, Kondratskaya hotly denied any wrongdoing, "If Mr. Okhotin is accusing me of bribery, let him talk to my supervisors. I'm not commenting."
Whatever the facts, Okhotin's case has taken on a life of its own by slowly, organically provoking the prayerful indignation of evangelical Christians worldwide. Without any apparent unified effort or formal organization by Okhotin's supporters, the quiet Baptist with an earnest demeanor and a slight stoop has become a cause celebre. Supporters are
following his journey through the Russian legal system, his 27-day hunger strike and the prayer appeals on the K-Love Christian radio network, through e-mail and on Christian-oriented Web sites from Denmark to the United States to Russia.
"I think you have no idea how many people are praying. There is so much interest in this case. I think you could comfortably say hundreds of thousands of people," says Sue Clark, whose husband teaches at Wheaton College in Illinois, where 400 students signed a petition for Okhotin's release.
Aside from the perceived venality of Russian officials, the issue also seems to resonate deeply and poignantly in evangelical Christian circles worldwide because Okhotin's predicament brings back memories of Soviet-era religious repression, especially of Christians who were not members of state-approved denominations.
Indeed, Okhotin's father was a Soviet-era pastor in an underground Baptist church who was arrested for his religious work, convicted of anti-Soviet agitation and sent for 21/2 years to a prison near the Sea of Azov where he says his health was permanently damaged. The family -- Andrew Okhotin, his parents and his eight siblings -- emigrated to the United States in 1989.
From his home in San Diego, where he runs Russian Evangelist Missions, Okhotin's father, Vladimir, said he sees an eerie parallel with his own experience.
"They seized him like a Christian. Just as they went after me, they are going after him," said Vladimir Okhotin, 61, who refers to his son by his given name, Andrei. "Our goal is only that God gives Andrei the power to stand his ground and that the money gets to the people who need it. That is not just any money but money that came from poor people in some cases."
