The leader of a doomsday cult, whose followers have barricaded themselves underground in Russia, has been enlisted to help secure the release of several children from the site.

Twenty-nine devotees of Pyotr Kuznetsov, including four children, are holed up in a snow-covered hideout near the village of Nikolskoye, Penza, 400 miles southeast of Moscow. The sect members moved into the lair on November 7 and are awaiting the apocalypse which they believe will occur in May next year.

They claim to have gas canisters in the dug-out and have threatened to blow themselves up if forced to leave. But their self-declared prophet Kuznetsov, who is confined to a psychiatric hospital, has agreed to try to persuade them to free the children, the youngest of whom is only 18-months old.

Yevgeny Guseynow, head of internal policy in Penza, said Kuznetsov would be escorted to the site tomorrow to start talks with his followers. “He is ready to try to get the children out of there,” Guseynow said.

Boris Kulagin, a local MP, said some of the cult were adept former members of the Russian army with guns and were prepared to stay for the long haul. “They’ve got about four tonnes of food down there,” he said.

Vladimir Provotorov, head of the Bekovsky regional administration, said authorities had opened a criminal inquiry into the sect but were prepared to wait it out to avoid any fatalities.

Kuznetsov, 43, formed the sect in opposition to the Russian Orthodox Church, calling it the True Russian Orthodox Church. Followers do not watch television, handle money or listen to the radio and regard barcodes as a sign of the anti-Christ. Kuznetsov, an electrician, has been known to sleep in a coffin and formed the precepts of the cult from various religious texts.

The move to involve the cult leader in the operation could be seen as a last resort to get the members to comply with officials after clerics from the dominant Russian Orthodox Church made an unsuccessful plea to the followers to end the action on Sunday.

Since the downfall of Communism many sects have arisen in Russia in line with a growing belief in the power of clairvoyants.