Putin Using the Russian Orthodox Church for propaganda purposes. Photo under Creative Commons attribution license 4.0 courtesy of the website of the president of Russia.

(Also, Patriarch Kirill revealed as former KGB informant.)

Chrissy Stroop, prophetic in 2018, at Foreign Policy, on how and why Putin wants God — or at least the church — on his side. Excerpt:

One of the focuses of this renewed Christian imperialist fusion is Ukraine. Members of the Russian intellectual elite like Berdyaev (himself from the Kievan aristocracy) and Ilyin (a Muscovite) have always found Ukrainian national aspirations difficult or impossible to imagine. Today, the future of Ukraine has become inextricably bound up with the political struggles of a reinvigorated Russian Orthodox Church that Moscow mobilizes in pursuit of its foreign-policy goals.

Today, the future of Ukraine has become inextricably bound up with the political struggles of a reinvigorated Russian Orthodox Church that Moscow mobilizes in pursuit of its foreign-policy goals.

Around two-thirds of Ukrainians are Orthodox, but since 1991 believers have been split among three separate bodies. Only one of these, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate, is officially recognized by global Orthodoxy—and it falls under the jurisdiction of the Russian Orthodox Church, providing an important tool of influence for Moscow.

The Phanar, however, appears set to deal Russia an important blow in this regard by granting autocephaly, or self-government, to Ukrainian Orthodox Christians, establishing a new canonical Orthodox church in Ukraine outside of the Russian Orthodox Church’s authority.

An autocephalous Ukrainian Orthodox Church would be welcomed by most Ukrainians, who are struggling for their national sovereignty in the face of hybrid warfare waged by Russia that has claimed more than 10,000 lives. The Ukrainian parliament and President Petro Poroshenko have directly lobbied Bartholomew, and it is now being reported that the decision to grant Ukrainian autocephaly has already been made.

…

Russia’s new championing of so-called traditional values, such as homophobia and opposition to feminism and secularism, has received a powerful boost from the Orthodox Church—and from far-right fellow travelers in the West. (Chapnin himself was fired from his position as managing editor of the Journal of the Moscow Patriarchate for vocally expressing his critical views.) The ties between the Orthodox Church and the Russian state go all the way to the top; both Kirill and his predecessor were at least informants for the KGB during the Soviet era, if not full-blown agents. Today, Putin benefits from the backing of the Orthodox Church, an institution that, despite low levels of Russian piety and direct religious participation, enjoys considerable respect among the Russian people.

Glory to Ukraine!