Why
Orthodox Christians are losing faith in Putin
Priests and
churchgoers are standing up to the government.
By MARC
BENNETTS 12/24/19, 4:02 AM CET Updated 12/24/19, 1:04 PM CET
Russian
President Vladimir Putin with Patriarch Kirill of Moscow during an Easter
service in 2019 | Yuri Kochetkov/EPA
MOSCOW — As
Vladimir Putin prepared to return to the Kremlin for a third term of office in
2012, Patriarch Kirill, the powerful head of the Russian Orthodox Church,
described the ex-KGB officer’s rule as a “miracle of God.”
The
patriarch’s comments, made during a pre-election televised meeting with Putin,
were a stark illustration, critics said at the time, of the erosion of the
separation of church and state, as stipulated by Russia’s much-abused
post-Soviet constitution. Over the following years, Putin, who professes a deep
Orthodox belief, would shift to ultra-conservatism, positioning himself as a defender
of traditional Christian values.
Flash
forward to 2019, and while the institution of the Russian Orthodox Church
remains broadly loyal to the country’s secular authorities, the Kremlin’s
relations with some grassroots believers — once viewed as a bedrock of support
for Putin — are increasingly tense.
Not only
did Orthodox Christians make up a significant number of the scores of
protesters who took to the streets in pro-democracy protests across Russia this
year; many of them openly cited their faith as grounds for taking action.
The harsh
crackdown on demonstrators in Moscow — where opposition politicians were barred
from running in city elections, sparking mass unrest — was a turning point for
many.
“This is
the first time ever that the clergy of the Russian Orthodox Church have taken
collective action that was not sanctioned by the church authorities” — Ksenia
Luchenko, religion expert
“I joined
the protests this summer due to my religious beliefs,” said Elena Morgunova, a
27-year-old financial services worker in Moscow. “Jesus Christ said, ‘Love one
another as I have loved you’ and he died on the cross for us. You just cannot
be indifferent when you see people suffering, when you see unfair court
judgements.”
Their
willingness to join the pro-democracy rallies has put religious Russians in the
crosshairs of the wider crackdown on opposition figures. It has also prompted
an unprecedented response from individual religious leaders themselves, who are
increasingly putting their heads above the parapet to defend the values they
associate with their beliefs and which they see as being violated by the
Russian authorities.
In
September, Russian Orthodox priests signed an open letter condemning what they
called the “repressive” trials of more than two dozen protesters — the majority
of them in their twenties or thirties — who have been charged for participating
in the protests. To date, six of the protesters remain behind bars awaiting
trial, while eight more have been handed prison terms of up to five years.
“We appeal
to those with judicial power who serve in the law enforcement agencies of our
country. Many of you were baptized in the Orthodox Church and consider
yourselves believers. Judicial proceedings should not be repressive, courts
should not be used as a means of suppressing dissent and the use of force
should not be carried out with unjustified cruelty,” the letter, signed by
almost 200 priests, read.
Russian
Orthodox church buildings in central Moscow | Mladen Antonov/AFP via Getty
Images
The letter
was an unprecedented display of clerical independence. It rekindled memories of
dissident priests such as Father Gleb Yakunin, who campaigned for human rights
during the officially atheist Soviet era.
Vedomosti,
a daily business newspaper, called the move by the priests a "brave and
deeply Christian step” that was welcomed by large numbers of believers.
“This is
the first time ever that the clergy of the Russian Orthodox Church have taken
collective action that was not sanctioned by the church authorities,” Ksenia
Luchenko, a religion expert, wrote in a piece for the Carnegie Moscow Centre
think tank.
"The
letter is already inscribed in the church's history."
* * *
When Alexei
Minyailo, an Orthodox believer known for his charitable work and political
activism, was arrested in Moscow earlier this year, police officers raided his
apartment and confiscated a sign that read “Love is stronger than fear,” a
paraphrase of a Biblical verse.
Several
Orthodox priests attended his court hearings in a show of support, and charges
of calling for mass unrest were eventually dropped.
“In
Orthodoxy, there has long been a tradition of remaining silent. To pray, rather
than to act,” said Minyailo. “This is a harmful, distorted view of Orthodoxy.”
The
institution of the Russian Orthodox Church, however, has come out forcefully
against breaking the silence.
The
priests’ letter provoked an immediate rebuke, with the Church’s spokesman,
Vakhtang Kipshidze accusing the clerics of meddling in politics. At least one
of the signatories was reportedly barred from carrying out church services.
“The church
is a part of society. It cannot exist in a vacuum” — Oleg Batov, Orthodox
priest
“A
[political] struggle with the authorities has never been and will never be the
church’s mission,” Kipshidze said.
The priests
who signed the letter felt they had no choice, Father Oleg Batov, one of the
signatories, said in an interview at his 16th-century Church of the Dormition
of Theotokos, a short walk from the Kremlin.
“The church
is a part of society. It cannot exist in a vacuum,” Batov, wearing a traditional
black cassock and a large metal cross, said. Paraphrasing the words of St.
Augustine, an early Christian theologian, he added: “A state devoid of justice
is no better than a band of robbers.”
“There were
some cases when police officers preferred to resign, rather than take part in
the beating of peaceful protesters,” Batov said. “But, unfortunately, many took
sadistic pleasure from this. The church can only act as an awakener of people’s
Christian consciences.”
The
heavy-handed arrests at this summer’s election protests aren’t the only issue
to cause concern among the community.
Orthodox
Christians have also spoken out in support of eight people from Moscow and
surrounding towns who are facing up to 10 years in prison after being accused
of forming an “extremist” movement named New Greatness that allegedly plotted
the violent overthrow of the government.
The
defendants, two of whom were in their teens when they were arrested, deny the
charges, and say they were framed by an agent from the FSB intelligence agency
who infiltrated their online chats and provided funding for their “movement.”
Critics accuse FSB agents of inventing the charges to improve their crime
clear-up rates.
“This group
of young people discussed politics in McDonald's and dreamed of making our
country better, now they are accused of extremism. Why? Because some guys in
the FSB falsified the case,” said Morgunova, the Orthodox protester, who
recently demonstrated opposite the FSB headquarters with a sign depicting Jesus
Christ being crucified for the crime of “extremism.”
* * *
Perhaps the
most striking symbol of growing Christian resistance to Putin’s rule is the
dramatic conversion of Dmitry Tsorionov, the former leader of God’s Will, a
now-defunct radical Orthodox group that once vandalized “blasphemous” art
exhibitions and carried out physical attacks on liberal activists.
Tsorionov,
who went by the nickname Enteo, was the pin-up boy for a generation of
ultra-conservative Orthodox activists. He worked closely with leading church
figures, including Father Vsevolod Chaplin, Patriarch Kirill’s former
spokesman.
These days,
Tsorionov is currently in a relationship with Maria Alyokhina, an activist with
the Pussy Riot feminist art group. He’s more likely to be seen at opposition
protests or campaigning for the removal of reminders of the Soviet era from
Russia’s streets.
“Grotesque
propaganda and xenophobia since [the Kremlin’s annexation of] Crimea has made
many Russian Orthodox believers to realize that our society is heading in the
wrong direction, and it is not possible to identify with evil,” Tsorionov, 30,
said in an interview in central Moscow.
He also
accused the Kremlin of exploiting religion to whip up hatred against
Ukrainians. “Young people, with weapons in their hands, headed en masse to
southeastern Ukraine under the banner of Christ,” he said.
Like other
Orthodox opposition figures, Tsorionov says that while Putin, who often attends
church services, may genuinely believe in God, he has a twisted view of
Christianity that does not exclude ordering attacks on political opponents.
“Any person
can come to faith,” said Minyallo. “But we identify a tree by its fruits. And
the fruits of any actions by Putin and his inner circle make one thing clear —
they are not students of Christ. They are either deceiving themselves,
or others.”
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