It is certainly true that in recent months many Western evangelists have been in Russia proclaiming the gospel to overflowing churches and halls. In the past 18 months, Kashpirovsky has become so well-known in Russia that the government's foreign ministry office recently held a press conference to tout his abilities before the world's media.
People halt work and leave dinner tables.
The next morning, his eerie talent is the talk of rush-hour subways. During the press conference, government officials treated reporters to several film clippings of Kashpirovsky's sessions. In some of the clippings, people offered testimonials to his power, saying their tumors shrank, scars and birthmarks faded, and pains disappeared. Kashpirovsky is careful to say his abilities are nonreligious. On this program the grey-haired mystic waves his hands on camera to cure viewers of whatever ails them, according to the previously mentioned Associated Press dispatch.