Russian bishops multiply war support statements in Ukraine, while the number two of the Patriarchate of Moscow leads a diplomatic offensive to Western countries.
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The time is no longer silent in the ranks of the Russian Orthodox Church, but with explicit support and mixed with Vladimir Putin and Kirill, the Patriarch of Moscow and all the russies. For two weeks, several Russian bishops have spoken to approve the military offensive in Ukraine ordered by the Russian President. It is a new fact because, during the first five weeks of military operations, Kirill, although totally aligned behind the head of state, was the only one to speak officially. From the 24th of February, the Patriarch had brought a religious bond to the invasion of Ukraine, which held, according to him, a “metaphysical” dimension and which is delivered against the “forces of evil” hostile to the unity of the People and the Russian Church.
“It seems that we are dealing with a magnitude mobilization of the Russian episcopate, which is the rhetoric of Vladimir Putin and also carries out shields to protect the Kirill patriarch,” says Antoine Tangère, professor At the University of Lorraine, a specialist in Russian cultural and religious history. The researcher combines this wave of positions at the “generalized resumption of the company” operated by Russian power. Since the beginning of April, he has noted several unequivocal positions of religious leaders, as reported by Russian websites. One of these thuriferries is without surprises Tikhon Chevkounov.
“Communion of thought”
Ultraranationalist, famous very close to Vladimir Putin and the FSB, the Russian intelligence service, the metropolitan of Pskov thus interrogated the faithful of his diocese, April 8: “why a decision so heavy of consequences was taken by Our president? (…) On the basis of the experience of my discussions with him, I can say that if he had not considered that there were reasons of vital importance, an imminent danger for the Russian people, making this operation indispensable, he would not have committed it. (…) If he had not done so now, but later, Russia would have been attacked, with the risk of having millions of victims (…) Let us remember the beginning of the Great Patriotic War [the Second World War] in 1941 and the terrible losses we had then. “
The Bishop Sava, very high placed in the central administration of the Patriarchate of Moscow, registered against the idea that there would be pro and anti-guedurere. “There is no party of the war and the Peace Party, he told the Russian Interfax agency on April 7th. There is no one who would not want to live in peace. “But, he added,” Do we need peace at the price of the death of Russia, trampling of our ideals and, finally, from the “peaceful” extermination of the Russian people? “
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