Penza religious sect attracted public attention shutting themselves away in their underground bunker in November 2007. Cult member Sergey Nedogon, who left the cave earlier this month, has shown RT another shelter – one the sect leader told him

The idea was far less extreme. Group members could hide themselves away in the shelter in prayer but still return home at the end of the day.

There were supposed to be a series of shelters, each one disguised on the outside and decorated like a small church inside but then one day last autumn, the cult leader Pyotr Kuznetsov changed his mind.
 
“He said the Lord had told him we should build a large pit, so we could live in it in winter and summer,” Sergey Nedogon said.

And as the cult members moved in so did the television cameras, giving them what they least wanted – publicity.

It’s thought that the remaining nine may leave their cave next Sunday on Orthodox Easter.

Meanwhile, the sect leader, self-proclaimed prophet, Pyotr Kuznetsov, is in hospital recovering after a failed suicide attempt. After three weeks in hospital with a fractured skull he is finally talking but barely.

Doctors say Kuznetsov is getting better but it’ll be a long time before he’s fully recovered.