In January this year, Patriarch Kirill held a ceremony in Moscow. Photo by AP
Patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC), Kirill, he was an important pillar and steadfast defender of the system created by Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, and is now a candidate for European Union (EU) sanctions for his support for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
“We don’t want to fight with anyone, Russia never attacks anyone. It’s amazing that a powerful and efficient country doesn’t attack anyone, it only defended its borders“, Said the Orthodox hierarch throughout the swing of the military campaign on Ukrainian territory.
Kirill, whose father allegedly baptized Putin, has all the ballots to be the first leader of a Church with tens of millions of parishioners. subject to international sanctions.
“The Patriarch personally decided to be one of the ideologists of the political system created by Putin, ”theologian Sergei Chapnin, who worked for fifteen years for the Moscow Patriarchate, told Efe.
Kirill in Moscow, in 2019. Photo Reuters
support for Russia
In his opinion, Kirill has become one of his main allies of the Kremlin leader “to the point of justifying the war in Ukraine.”
He, like Putin, also sees Ukraine and Belarus as Brotherhood ” that they should have remained under the rule of Moscow, and not as different countries.
The patriarch repeated declarations of support for Russia’s offensive in Ukraine. The European Commission wants to punish him, which it has already done to Putin and some Russian officials.
On Feb. 27, three days after the fight started, Kirill described “force of evil” critics of Russia’s ambitions in the neighboring country. In April, he called on the Russians to “come together” to fight “enemies outside and inside.”
“I would like to remind the authors of the sanctions initiatives that the Patriarch of Moscow and the whole of Russia Kirill came from a family that for decades was persecuted for his faith during the war -torn communist heresy “said Vladimir Legoida, one of the IOR spokespersons, on his Telegram channel.
He added that “the history of the Orthodox Church must be completely ignored in order to try to intimidate its clergy and its believers who are included in certain lists.”
Born on December 26, 1946 with the secular name of Vladimir Gundyayev, Kirill was inaugurated in 2009.
His career was devoid of its scandals: in 1997, when he was Metropolitan of Smolensk and Kaliningrad, the Moskovski Komsomoletsk newspaper published an article about the license granted to the IOR to import tobacco and alcohol duty-free. free, which is called Kirill the “tobacco metropolitan”.
With Pope Francis in Havana, in 2016. AP Photo
The would -be patriarch did not file a lawsuit against the newspaper or against the journalist to prevent, according to Metropolitan Iliarion, then bishop of Vienna and Austria, a scandal that would further damage the Church.
The free importation of tobacco and alcohol is a privilege granted to the IOR by the government of the first president of post-Vietnam Russia, Boris Yeltsin, to compensate him for the losses he suffered during the communist erawhere many intermediaries ultimately benefited.
The critics
One gift, a wristwatch he received a few years ago, put Kirill in the press spotlight in 2009 for reasons other than religion.
During a pastoral visit to Ukraine the local press revealed that it was a Breguet It costs a whopping $ 30,000.
Kirill, who swore poverty when he took off the monk’s clothes, insisted that the photo published by the Ukrainian press was staged and that in his clothes he could not wear a wristwatch during religious services.
“);}} var currDuration = $ (‘#’ + currId + ‘.jw-text-countdown’)[0].textContent; $ (‘#’ + currId + ‘.jw-title-secondary p’). text (currDuration); }} if ($ (“#embeb_f8PQqKpy”). children (). length> 0) {setTitle (“embeb_f8PQqKpy”); } else {jwplayer (“embeb_f8PQqKpy”). on (‘ready’, function (event) {setTitle (“embeb_f8PQqKpy”);}); } jwplayer (“embeb_f8PQqKpy”). on (‘pause’, function (event) {var passId = “embeb_f8PQqKpy”; var site = “clarin”; if (site == ‘clarin’) {if ($ (‘#customTitleFor ‘ + passId) .length == 0) {var title = jwplayer (“embeb_f8PQqKpy”). getPlaylist ()[0].title; // $ ($ (“#” + passId + “.genoaPlayerV3 .vjs-overlay.vjs-overlay-top.vjs-overlay-background”)). addClass (‘disabled’); $ (“#” + passId) .append (“
” + title +”
“); $ (“#customTitleFor ” + passId) .attr (‘style’, ‘display: block’); $ (“#” + passId +” .jw-media “). addClass (‘degraded’);} else {var curTitle = $ (“#customTitleFor” + passId)[0].textContent; var newTitle = jwplayer (“embeb_f8PQqKpy”). getPlaylist ()[0].title; if (newTitle! = curTitle) {$ (“#customTitleFor” + passId) .text (newTitle); } $ (“#customTitleFor” + passId) .attr (‘style’, ‘display: block’); $ (“#” + passId + “.jw-media”). addClass (‘degraded’); } // $ (“#” + passId + “.jw-controlbar”). addClass (‘disabled’); $ (“#” + passId + “.jw-svg-icon-play”). css (“display”, “block”); $ (“#” + passId + “.jw-svg-icon-pause”). css (“display”, “none”); } else {$ (“#” + passId + “.jw-media”). addClass (‘degraded’); $ (“#” + passId + “.jw-title”). css (‘display’, ‘block’); $ (“#” + passId + “.jw-controlbar”). css (‘display’, ‘none’); $ (“#” + passId + “.jw-display”). css (‘display’, ‘flex’); $ (“#” + passId + “.jw-display-icon-rewind”). css (‘display’, ‘none’); $ (“#” + passId + “.jw-display-icon-next”). css (‘display’, ‘none’); } sendData (jwplayer (“embeb_f8PQqKpy”). getPlaylist (), ‘pause’); }); jwplayer (“embeb_f8PQqKpy”). on (‘play’, function (event) {var passId = “embeb_f8PQqKpy”; var site = “clarin”; if (site == ‘clarin’) {if ($ (‘#customTitleFor’ + passId) .length! = 0) {$ (“#customTitleFor” + passId) .attr (‘style’, ‘display: none’); $ (“#” + passId + “.jw-media”). removeClass (‘degraded’);} // $ (“#” + passId + “.jw-controlbar”). removeClass (‘disabled’); $ (“#” + passId + “.jw-svg-icon-play” ) .css (“display”, “none”); $ (“#” + passId + “.jw-svg-icon-pause”). css (“display”, “block”);} else {$ (” #” + passId +” .jw-media “). removeClass (‘degraded’); $ (“#” + passId +” .jw-title “). css (‘display’, ‘none’); $ (” #” + passId +” .jw-controlbar “). css (‘display’, ‘block’); $ (“#” + passId +” .jw-display “). css (‘display’, ‘flex’) ; $ (“#” + passId + “.jw-display-icon-rewind”). css (‘display’, ‘none’); $ (“#” + passId + “.jw-display-icon-next” ) .css (‘display’, ‘none’);} sendData (jwplayer (“embeb_f8PQqKpy”). getPlaylist (), ‘resume’);}); jwplayer (“embeb_f8PQqKpy”). on (‘firstFrame’, function (event) {sendData (jwplayer (“embeb_f8PQqKpy”). getPlaylist (), ‘start’);}); jwplayer (“embeb_f8PQqKpy”). on (‘complete’, function (event) {sendData (jwplayer (“embeb_f8PQqKpy”). getPlaylist (), ‘complete’);}); jwplayer (“embeb_f8PQqKpy”). on (‘adStarted’, function (event) {sendData (jwplayer (“embeb_f8PQqKpy”). getPlaylist (), ‘adstart’);}); jwplayer (“embeb_f8PQqKpy”). on (‘adPlay’, function (event) {sendData (jwplayer (“embeb_f8PQqKpy”). getPlaylist (), ‘adplay’);}); jwplayer (“embeb_f8PQqKpy”). on (‘adPause’, function (event) {sendData (jwplayer (“embeb_f8PQqKpy”). getPlaylist (), ‘adpause’);}); jwplayer (“embeb_f8PQqKpy”). on (‘adComplete’, function (event) {sendData (jwplayer (“embeb_f8PQqKpy”). getPlaylist (), ‘adcomplete’);});
Source: Clarin
