Patriarch Kirill: The Russian Orthodox Church leader who gave his blessing for the war in Ukraine

The European Union (EU) plans to continue to pressure Russian president Vladimir Putin by sanctioning those close to him, as the war rages on in Ukraine. The latest name on its draft blacklist is Patriarch Kirill, head of the Russian Orthodox Church.

The EU has proposed freezing the assets of Kirill and a travel ban, but the sanction needs the backing of EU states to be adopted.

But who is Kirill and how close is he to Putin?

Kirill is named on the draft EU sanctions list under his birth name, Vladimir Gundyayev. He has been described as “one of the most prominent supporters of the Russian military aggression against Ukraine”.

Blessing the war

The Orthodox Church leader reportedly blessed the Russian army and gave his blessing for the war. Images of Kirill at a service attended by military personnel have been posted by the Russian Orthodox Church.

The patriarch later delivered a sermon to back the country’s “special peacekeeping operation” days after the February 24 invasion.

“We have entered into a struggle that has not a physical, but a metaphysical significance,” he had said.

Kirill has since turned a blind eye toward atrocities committed by Russian forces in Ukraine. “Russia has never attacked anyone,” he said in a sermon on Tuesday, according to Orthodox Times, even as Ukraine continued to be shelled and bombarded.

He has time and again defended Moscow saying that Russian speakers in eastern Ukraine needed to be “liberated” and called the war a “religious cleansing operation”.

‘Putin’s altar boy’

In March, Pope Francis held a video meeting with the 75-year-old leader of the Russian Orthodox Church and warned against hiding behind religion to justify the conflict. Don’t be “Putin’s altar boy,” the Pope reportedly said to Kirill.

“Brother, we are not state clerics, we cannot use the language of politics but that of Jesus. We are pastors of the same holy people of God. Because of this, we must seek avenues of peace, to put an end to the firing of weapons,” the Pope said he told the Russian church head, according to an interview with the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera.

However, Kirill was listing off all the justifications for the war from a sheet of paper he was holding.

A homophobe like Putin

Patriarch Kirill has been a long-time ally of Putin. “In many ways, Putin’s invasion of Ukraine has become a holy war for Russia… And he has enlisted Kirill as his wingman, who shares his homophobic views,” says Foreign Policy.

The priest had referred to gay pride marches as an example of what outsiders were trying to force on the people of Donbas in eastern Ukraine, on whose behalf Moscow was ostensibly intervening, according to a report in Al Jazeera.

This is not the first time the patriarch has made a homophobic comment. He has in the past spoken out against countries legalising same-sex marriage, calling it a “dangerous sign of the Apocalypse” and cautioning against the dictatorship of free will.

He had lauded the law “against gay propaganda” that Putin had signed in 2013. The law banned the spreading of “propaganda of non-traditional sexual relations” among minors, in effect making it illegal to equate straight and gay relationships and distribute material on gay rights.

Justifying the rise of the Islamic State

Kirill had in 2016 blamed homosexuality on the rise of the Islamic State. “Many honest people” are joining the terrorist group IS to go fight in Syria because they are upset with the rise of LGBT rights, he had said.

“So what’s a Caliphate?” he said in the interview. “It is a society centered around faith and God where people follow religious laws. You are creating a civilisation that is new by comparison to the established one that is godless, secular and even radical in its secularism.”

Ardent Putin supporter

Kirill has remained a fervent supporter of Putin since 2012, that’s when their partnership began. When he won a fraudulent election that year, the Church leader described the Russian president as a “miracle of God”.

He had compared the period preceding Putin’s ascent to power to the 1941 Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union. “What were the 2000s then? Through a miracle of God, with the active participation of the country’s leadership, we managed to exit this horrible, systemic crisis,” Kirill had said.

An alleged former KGB staffer, the Orthodox Church leader has benefitted from his friendship with Putin so far.

He has faced questions about his wealth and in 2012 the Russian Orthodox Church was forced to apologise when it emerged a photograph of the patriarch had been doctored to remove a flashy gold Breguet watch worth $30,000.

Kirill has tried to wield influence over allies of Russia. When Moldova sought stronger ties with Europe, Orthodox clerics operating underneath the Moscow patriarchate campaigned against it, with one bishop telling the New York Times in 2016, “For me, Russia is the guardian of Christian values.” Last year Russian Orthodox leaders lambasted Montenegro’s leaders for supporting “eurointegration”, according to an article in Rolling Stone titled “How one priest turned putin’s invasion into a holy war”.

Under fire from Russian Orthodox churches

But the war has put Kirill in a tricky situation. Recently 280 Russian Orthodox priests signed a petition condemning the invasion. The Archbishop of Russian Orthodox churches in Western Europe has publicly urged Kirill to raise his voice against Russia’s “monstrous and senseless war.”

However, the priest remains largely unaffected. On Orthodox Easter, last month, he was seen embracing Putin. Partners in crime indeed.

With inputs from agencies

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