A Russian Orthodox Church deacon who left the church because of its stance on the jailing of members of the punk band Pussy Riot says he has been subjected to a campaign of smears and harassment.

Sergey Baranov was a deacon in the Orthodox Church, ordained to help lead services and assist congregations, for more than 15 years.

But after three members of Pussy Riot were handed two-year jail sentences for mounting a protest against president Vladimir Putin inside Moscow's main Orthodox cathedral, he very publicly left the church, asking to be defrocked in an open letter on his Facebook page.

The 37-year-old told the ABC the Pussy Riot sentence left him no choice.

"It was the very last straw when I realised that concepts such as mercy and forgiveness had been shredded to pieces," he said.

His anger extends to numerous other church scandals.

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They include fatal accidents involving priests in luxury cars, and a $30,000 watch which officials tried and failed to edit out of a picture of Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill.

There has long been debate about the deepening ties between the church and Mr Putin, and blogger and journalist Anton Nosik says the issue has burst into the open after the Pussy Riot verdict.

"The discussion of the virtues and the sins of the church has for once become very relevant, and very hot," he said.

"This is something new and this has much to do with the Pussy Riot sentence."

Sergey Baranov pulls no punches. The church, he says, is filled with hypocrites and liars, and the Pussy Riot verdict proves the church leadership and the Kremlin are now one and the same.

"The church-state merger is such that it causes not only mistrust amongst the people but the people think very negatively about that,” he said.

He is bracing for more consequences from his decision.

The church has threatened a clerical trial and regional officials have warned him to be quiet.

A rumour was spread online that he does not exist. He does.

He says he is still a Christian, but he can no longer serve a church that he says supports punishing political expression with prison.