Patriarch Kirill Is A Fascist, But He’s Been Careful In Discussing Putin’s War In Ukraine – OpEd

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Patriarch Kirill, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, is by personal conviction a Russian nationalist who “professes that kind of Russian fascism which was close to part of the Russian emigration in the 1920s and 1930s and is reflected in the works of Ivan Ilin,” Nikolay Mitrokhin says.

But despite that, the specialist on Russian Orthodoxy at Bremen University says, he and his church have been remarkably careful in their words about Putin’s war in Ukraine. Neither he nor the ROC MP’s Synod has spoken “direct words of support for the war or given it their official blessing” as such (graniru.org/Society/Religion/m.285145.html).

During the first month of the conflict, Kirill and his church leadership kept silent about the conflict, apparently because in the patriarch’s view, this was “the best way to avoid getting into a dispute with the authorities of the Russian Federation and Ukraine,” both of whom are important to the Russian church.

It was not until May 4, during a telephone conversation with Pope Francis that Kirill spoke in support of the Kremlin’s position on the Donbass and “partially justified Putin’s rhetoric about the causes of the war. But even in this case, it is incorrect to say that he ‘blessed the war in the Donbass,’” as many have asserted.

And even if he had, that by itself would not have represented the official position of the ROC MP. Only the Holy Synod or an assembly of the highest church leaders can do that; and those bodies have remained silent although individual churchmen have spoken out in support of the Russian side.

This needs to be remembered, Mitrokhin says, in evaluating calls to bring Kirill to trial for violating his religious affiliation or to ban the Russian church in Ukraine. The situation is at a minimum more complicated than his opponents and those who are against the UOC MP typically present the case.

Paul Goble

Paul Goble is a longtime specialist on ethnic and religious questions in Eurasia. Most recently, he was director of research and publications at the Azerbaijan Diplomatic Academy. Earlier, he served as vice dean for the social sciences and humanities at Audentes University in Tallinn and a senior research associate at the EuroCollege of the University of Tartu in Estonia. He has served in various capacities in the U.S. State Department, the Central Intelligence Agency and the International Broadcasting Bureau as well as at the Voice of America and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Mr. Goble maintains the Window on Eurasia blog and can be contacted directly at [email protected] .

One thought on “Patriarch Kirill Is A Fascist, But He’s Been Careful In Discussing Putin’s War In Ukraine – OpEd

  • June 10, 2022 at 10:27 pm
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    Kirill and the church leadership did not remain silent, when the Russia started the war. Kirill’s statements can be read in their official website: he gave his full support to the invasion from the beginning, and repeated the Kremlin’s official line in his sermons. “Russkiy mir” is an ideology which the church has helped to formulate to fill the vacuum left by th collapse of communism. The Russian Orthodox Church questions the independence of Ukraine. Therfore, unfortunately, it will not be accepted as a mediator, when serious efforts are made to end the war.

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