Ukraine and the unholy alliance of Putin, Patriarch Kirill of Moscow
On February 27, 2022, the APF News Agency reported that the Patriarch of Moscow Kirill, supreme head of the Russian Orthodox Church, commenting on the Russian invasion of Ukraine, stated that Moscow’s opponents in Ukraine were “evil forces.”
Such a statement, issued by the head of one of the world’s largest Orthodox jurisdictions, is nothing less than a blatant lie and ferocious statement of hate. I would even go so far as to say that surely it is an abomination in the eyes of G-d Himself.
It is well known that Vladimir Putin and the Patriarch of Russia have been hand in glove for years, as they support each other in the desire for power that marks them both. This unholy alliance between the political and ecclesiastical authorities is virtually a rape of the
Church.
From a theological stance, the Church belongs to Christ, who is its only Lord and Ruler. Putin and Patriarch Kirill are turning the Church into the servant of power-hungry politicians.
For centuries, Ukraine was the victim of Russian cruelty and oppression. Stalin’s attack on Ukraine in the early 1930s, exacerbated by the Soviet-engineered famine, can be called nothing less than a genocide.
The Holodomor, which was a man-made famine that engulfed the Soviet republic of
Ukraine from 1932 to 1933, was part and parcel of Russia’s attempts to suppress and even annihilate the country.
At last, with the collapse of the Soviet Union in the 1990s, Ukraine was able to regain national independence and enjoy freedom from the burden of Russian domination.
But sadly, the Russian political system under the leadership of Vladimir Putin was not happy with this situation and still clung to the desire to bring Ukraine back under Russian control.
In an attempt to initiate this process, in February and March 2014, Russia invaded and annexed the Crimea from Ukraine, on the pretense that this action was in the interest of Russians living there.
In more recent years, there were ecclesiastical disagreements when many Ukrainians wished to have a Ukrainian Church free from the over-lordship of Moscow. And now Russia has attacked Ukraine with a force of well over 100,000 troops intent on spreading chaos and destruction.
How shall we assess this latest action? There are insufficient words to describe the evil savagery and brutality of Russia’s action. Putin’s Russia in 2022 has proven her right to be ranked among the worst tyrannical powers of human history. The name of Vladimir Putin
may rightly be ranked with Hitler, Mussolini and of course Stalin himself.
As for “his Holiness” Kirill, patriarch of Moscow who claims domination over millions of Orthodox Christians, how shall we describe him? “Supreme among the Antichrists” might be one possible title, but I would hope that even more appropriate titles could be devised.
For my part, I shall say only this: May the name of Kirill, patriarch of Moscow, be cursed by all men and women of good conscience. May he be deposed from his position and driven in shame from the patriarchal throne. As for Putin, he deserves to be tried for war crimes against Ukraine and punished accordingly to the full extent of the law.
No doubt there will be clergy and laity who will admire and support Putin and the patriarch. I can only state that such individuals are cancers on the Body of Christ and should be cut out and cast into outer darkness.
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The Rev. Dr. Vladimir Tobin is the parish founder of St. Vladimir Orthodox Church in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada.
