Since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, the Russian Orthodox Church approves of the actions of the Russian authorities and the army, which kills peaceful Ukrainians and captures foreign territories. However, this structure does not have much influence on Russians.
Russian opposition journalist Igor Yakovenko spoke about this on Channel 24. He believes that the influence of the Russian Orthodox Church or its head, Patriarch Kirill, on the population of Russia is literally zero.
What does the church influence in Russia
However, the church still has a certain political influence.
Putin knows perfectly well who Gundyaev is (Vladimir Gundyaev is the real name of Patriarch Kirill – Channel 24). This is a KGB officer, no longer even an agent, but an officer in uniform,” Yakovenko noted.
He added that on the one hand, Putin treats Patriarch Kirill as his subordinate. But on the other hand, Gundyaev represents some other branch of power, with which the dictator still takes into account.
According to Yakovenko, Putin imitates external respect for the head of the church as a representative of a kind of spiritual branch of power, but in reality he knows his price very well. Gundyaev is included in the circle of the president, although not the closest, so he has a certain influence on him. At least Putin pretends to take him into account.
Patriarch Kirill asks not to mobilize priests
- Russian legislation does not exempt clergy from military service, and this contradicts the canons on the participation of the church in hostilities. And Russian Patriarch Kirill is very worried about this.
- He said that the church was released during the period of partial mobilization, but he asks the Kremlin to legally fix this provision for the clergy.
- When Kirill urged the Russians to “mobilize spiritually” so that “Russia and Ukraine could be reunited into a single sphere of the ROC”.
