MOSCOW - Russian authorities were trying to coax more than two dozen members of a doomsday cult into leaving a booby-trapped cave on Friday.
At least 29 members of a group calling itself the True Russian Orthodox Church were holed up in what officials described as a cave or bunker near the village of Nikolskoye, some 400 kilometres southeast of Moscow.
The cultists are reportedly awaiting the end of the world, which they expect to occur next spring, officials said.
They have threatened to blow themselves up with about 400 litres of stockpiled gasoline if authorities try to force them out.
"Any forceful action is dangerous,'' said regional spokesman Yevgeny Guseynov.
However, Guseynov said doctors and others were trying to persuade the cult members to leave.
Pyotr Kuznetsov, the group's self-declared prophet was not with his followers.
Officials said he was undergoing psychiatric evaluation Friday after being charged with setting up a religious organization associated with violence.
The 29 people -- including four children, one only 18 months old -- were stocked with food and other supplies.
On Thursday, black-clad Russian Orthodox monks carefully descended into the snow-covered gully to try to make contact with the cult, but members refused to speak with clergy.
They were exchanging letters with Kuznetsov, however, and were in contact with doctors and officials, who promised food or medical supplies if needed.
Kuznetsov blessed his followers before sending them into the cave earlier this month. Most of the adults were women, the Russian newspaper Izvestia reported.
Kuznetsov, 43, a trained engineer from a deeply religious family, declared himself a prophet several years ago, left his family, and settled in Nikolskoye. He began writing books, borrowing from a mixture of established beliefs, and visited monasteries in Russia and Belarus, recruiting followers, Guseynov said.
Kuznetsov said his group believed that, in the afterlife, they would be judging whether others deserved heaven or hell, Izvestia reported Friday.
Followers of his group are not allowed to watch television, listen to the radio or handle money, media reports said.
Anna Vabishchevich said her 41-year-old son, Alexander, and his wife and two teenage daughters were among the cult members. She said she was sending two relatives from Belarus to try to convince him to at least send the girls home.
She told The Associated Press that her son, a railway worker, came under Kuznetsov's influence several years ago. He stopped eating food packaged with the universal product code -- which the cult regards as the mark of the Antichrist, she said.
"My son was kind and now he is mentally ill; it's like he is hypnotized,'' she said between sobs.
Alexander Dvorkin of the Moscow-based independent Centre of Religious Studies said Kuznetsov's followers were in serious danger and "any wrong move'' by authorities could cost lives.
"Their minds are being manipulated, they are under the strong influence of their leader,'' he said.
Dvorkin said that there are about 10 similar, nominally Christian cults in Russia, with members living in isolation under the influence of a leader.
He said authorities have so far been doing little or nothing about these cults and that he hoped the crisis with Kuznetsov's group would force them to act.
Russian Orthodox Church spokesman Georgy Ryabov said the emergence of Kuznetsov's cult was a consequence of "the absence of a system of spiritual and moral education'' in Russia.
"All Christians of Russia have to pray for them so they awaken and understand their mistake,'' Ryabov said.
