Perilous Times
Russia tycoon orders all his employees to find God and get
married after fires
A religion-obsessed Russian tycoon has ordered his employees to quickly
embrace the Russian Orthodox Church or lose their jobs.
By Andrew Osborn in Moscow
Published: 6:09PM BST 16 Aug 2010
The Telegraph UK
Vasily Boiko-The Great has told his staff to stop living in sin or be
sacked Photo: VOICES FROM RUSSIA
Vasily Boiko-The Great, who controls a major agricultural holding, has
written to his 6,500 employees, ordering those "living in sin" to get
married in church within two months or be fired.
The deadline, 14 October, is a Russian Orthodox festival. He has also
banned any of his employees or their wives from getting abortions,
saying he does not want to work with "killers."
The farming tycoon said he was forced to resort to extreme measures
after Russia was struck by an unprecedented drought and thousands of
wild fires this summer.
"Such an extreme situation is punishment for the Russian people's
sins," he told daily newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda. "I need to take
extreme measures including looking at the way my employees treat God."
Mr Boiko-The Great added the suffix to his surname by deed poll and
said he found God himself after a stint in jail on as yet unproven
fraud charges.
His employees have reacted with bemusement to his directive, while
government officials have warned the tycoon he risks breaking the
country's labour laws.
Mr Boiko-The Great said he was unfazed. "This is a private company and
people working here must follow the rules," he said.