Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill, a close supporter of President Vladimir Putin, worked for Soviet intelligence while living in Switzerland in the 1970s. This is what two Swiss newspapers write, referring to declassified archives, France Press reported.
According to the Maten Dimanche and Sontagszeitung dailies, a federal police file on the current spiritual leader of the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) confirms that “Monsignor Kirill,” as he is named in the document, “belongs to the KGB,” the main intelligence service of USSR.
The two media have seen the file in the Swiss federal archives.
In the early 1970s, the patriarch, who fervently supports the Russian invasion of Ukraine, lived in Geneva, where he officially represented the Moscow Patriarchate before the World (Ecumenical) Council of Churches.
Kiril – then under the operational pseudonym Mihailov – was also tasked with influencing this council, into which the KGB had planted agents in the 1970s and 1980s.
The Soviet Union set itself the goal of persuading the Geneva institution to condemn the USA and its allies and to more moderately criticize the lack of religious freedom in the USSR, the newspapers remind and point out that the Russian Orthodox Church “refuses any comment on Cyril’s espionage activities in Geneva”.
The World Council of Churches told them that there was “no information” on the subject. “Le Matin Dimanche” sought the patriarch’s nephew Mikhail Gundyaev, who replaced him as the representative of the Moscow Patriarchate in Geneva; Gundyaev claims that Kiril “was not an agent”, although he was “strictly controlled” by the KGB.
And this “has not affected the sincerity of his participation in the ecumenical activity regarding other churches,” he emphasized to the newspaper.
The publication also states that Patriarch Kirill is very fond of Switzerland, where he went “at least 43 times”, for example to go skiing and even broke his leg on one of the slopes in the country in 2007. “Religious diplomacy, espionage and financial activity they constantly returned Cyril (. . .) to the Alps or to the shores of (Lake) Leman,” said the material quoted by BTA.
Patriarch Kirill of Moscow delivered a speech on February 2 praising President Vladimir Putin as an example of an Orthodox ruler, unlike many Russian tsars. This happened during a lavish reception dedicated to the 14th anniversary of the patriarch’s enthronement.
“He is Orthodox, but not to gain some popularity, not to vote for him, but a true Orthodox person who accepts the holy Mysteries of Christ, who lives the life of the Church. In fact, the head of the Russian state is an Orthodox Christian. The tsars were not always as Orthodox as our president is now,” the patriarch said.
Patriarch Kirill called the relations between the Russian Church and the state unique and unique these days: “We have truly developed a unique form of church-state relations. We must thank God for the historical path we have taken and for this system of church-state relations, which is characterized by complete agreement between church and state on the most important and decisive issues related to the life of our country and our society “.
For his part, Putin thanked Patriarch Kirill for his work, “especially among Russian youth, in which he educates moral and patriotic ideals.”
In his speech, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church launched one of Putin’s main points of support, which aims to consolidate Russian society in the complex military situation with an unclear outcome. “We are facing difficult times – says Patriarch Kirill – and our main struggle is the struggle for our independence, actual complete independence from the influence of the world centers of political power, which rule a large part of the world. And Russia will remain an island of freedom, and our church enjoys this freedom and determines its own course.”
The words of Patriarch Kirill sound strange against the background of arrests and persecutions against Russian priests who dare to speak about the incompatibility of war with the Gospel of Christ.
The “symphony” between church and state in Russia is actually the result of putting the church at the service of Kremlin politics. Because of the collaboration with the “Orthodox President”, the Russian Orthodox Church distorts and changes the meaning of the Gospel, consciously supporting the ideology of the unique role of Russia and Putin to contain the forces of evil in the world.
The Russian Church has been assigned an important ideological role in attracting and motivating young men to the front in Ukraine, as well as in reducing public tension over the many killed and missing, as well as the drastic drop in living standards and economic decline.
Because of V. Putin’s decision almost a year ago to invade Ukraine, over a hundred thousand Russian and Ukrainian men lost their lives and left tens of thousands of broken families, widows and orphans. So are young men crippled for life. According to official data, nearly thirty thousand civilians were killed in Ukraine – men, women, children and the elderly. Several million are the refugees from Ukraine, mainly women and children, which means more than one million separated families. Tens of thousands of young men have left Russia, unwilling to be mobilized and sent to the front in Ukraine – this means once again separated families and many personal tragedies.
Against the background of the living tragedy of millions of Christian families, the Moscow Patriarch claims that the actions of the Russian regime aim at “the protection of traditional values and above all of the Christian family” and therefore the church supports them. “Today, the Russian Church is on the front line in the struggle to preserve the Christian faith and Christian values against the whole apostate world,” he declared and thanked Putin for “the help given to the church.”
According to the propaganda supported by the Moscow Patriarchate, the idea of family is more important than the family itself, and it must be preserved even at the cost of breaking up very specific families. They are all inevitable victims, and the families who lost their fathers and sons should be proud that their loved ones were killed in the name of such a noble cause.
The active role of Patriarch Kirill and the Russian Church in justifying the war and giving it the status of “holy” turns out to be one of the important levers of propaganda in Russian society, and also among some Orthodox outside Russia. They uncritically trust this church authority, forgetting Christ’s words: “woe to that man through whom temptation comes” (Matt. 18:7).
