MOTHER OF GOD DRIVE PUTIN AWAY: – Kirill or Cyril (born 20 November 1946) is a Russian Orthodox bishop. He became Patriarch of Moscow and all Rus’ and Primate of the Russian Orthodox Church on 1 February 2009.
A close ally of Russian leader Vladimir Putin, Kirill has described Putin’s rule as “a miracle of God”. According to Putin, Kirill’s father baptized him. During his tenure as Patriarch of Moscow and all Rus’, Kirill has brought the Russian Orthodox Church closer to the Russian state.
Kirill’s relationship with Bartholomew I of Constantinople, Ecumenical Patriarch and the spiritual leader of Eastern Orthodox Christians worldwide, has been tense.
Kirill has lauded the Russian invasion of Ukraine, justifying the war as a struggle against “forces of evil”. The World Russian People’s Council under his leadership described the conflict as a “Holy War”.
Clergy in other Orthodox Churches have condemned his remarks, with Bartholomew I saying that Kirill’s support for Putin and the war were “damaging to the prestige of the whole of Orthodoxy”.
On 27 March 2024, World Russian People’s Council led by Kirill, published a declaration in support of Russia’s war in Ukraine. It characterized the conflict as a “Holy War”, stating: “from a spiritual and moral point of view, the special military operation is a Holy War, in which Russia and its people, are defending the single spiritual space of Holy Russia.”
The goal of military operation was claimed to be: “protecting the world from the onslaught of globalism and the victory of the West, which has fallen into Satanism.” The document stated that the entire territory of Ukraine should become “zone of Russia’s exclusive influence”.
After Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, Kirill praised the invasion. Kirill blamed the conflict on “gay parades” and made baseless claims that Ukraine was “exterminating” Russians in Donbass, Kirill’s remarks prompted clergy in some other Orthodox dioceses to condemn Kirill’s remarks and seek independence from the Moscow church.
A MIRACLE OF GOD: On 8 February 2012, at a meeting of religious leaders in Moscow, Kirill contrasted the economic and social chaos of the 1990s with the 2000s and said “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”, and likened anti-government protesters’ “demands” to “ear-piercing shrieks” and said the protesters represented a minority of Russians.”
Since 1970, the federal police of Switzerland had classified him as a KGB agent, under the name Mikhaïlov.
In cultural and social affairs, the Church under Kirill has collaborated closely with the Russian state under President Vladimir Putin.
Patriarch Kirill has backed the expansion of Russian power into Crimea and eastern Ukraine. Despite calling for the “speedy restoration of peace”, Patriarch Kirill also referred to Moscow’s opponents in Ukraine as “evil forces”, stating “we must not allow dark and hostile external forces to laugh at us.”
He has been described as a “committed nationalist of the imperial variety”, as someone “who thinks nothing of using the familiar words of a faith to their most egregious effect”.
In 2007 Kirill stated his goal of establishing a global Eastern Orthodox movement in Greece, Cyprus, Ukraine, Belarus, various Balkan states, Georgia, Armenia, and Moldova
In February 2012 Patriarch Kirill said that Putin’s rule is a miracle. He openly supported Putin’s presidential bid in 2012 and said that Putin corrected the historically wrong path of Russia after coming to power, and conducted a special prayer ceremony in honor of Putin’s re-election twice, on 7 May 2012 and in May 2018.
In his sermon on 28 May 2022, Kirill stated that Vladimir Lenin had “tragically” dismembered “the historical Russia” into different countries, signing decrees destroying the country, which was a terrible decision that still leads to consequences even today.
PUSSY RIOT: Three female members of the feminist group Pussy Riot were arrested in March 2012 for performing a song in Christ the Saviour Cathedral in Moscow during which they called on the Virgin Mary to “chase Putin out”.
The women were arrested for hooliganism and were later sentenced to two years’ imprisonment. The song contained profanities and was performed in front of the altar. This act was considered a desecration and offence by many of Orthodox believers in Russia, and depicted as such in media. Commenting on the case, Kirill said they were “doing the work of Satan” and should be punished. Pope Benedict XVI, who was pontiff of the Catholic Church at the time, supported the position of the Russian Orthodox Church on this issue.
On February 21, 2012, as part of a protest movement against the re-election of Vladimir Putin, five women from the group entered the Cathedral of Christ the Savior of the Russian Orthodox Church in Moscow. There was no church service in session at the time, and only a few people were in the cathedral. Removing their winter clothes, they put on colorful balaclavas, ran up the steps leading to the altar, and began to jump, kick, and throw air punches. After less than a minute, they were escorted outside the building by guards. Film of the performance was later combined with footage shot at a different church, identified by Russian Orthodox Church spokesman Vsevolod Chaplin as the Epiphany Cathedral in Yelokhovo, to create a video clip for the song, which they entitled “Punk Prayer: Mother of God Drive Putin Away”.
The song, which they described as a punk moleben (supplicatory prayer), borrowed its opening melody and refrain from Sergei Rachmaninoff’s “Bogoroditse Devo, Raduisya” (Ave Maria), from the All Night Vigil. In the song, they invoked the name of the Virgin Mary, urging her to get rid of Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and to “become a feminist”, claiming that she would support them in their protests. They alluded to close ties between the church and the KGB (“Black robes, golden epaulettes”), criticized the subservience of many Russians to the church (“Parishioners crawl bowing”) and attacked the church’s traditionalist views on women (“So as not to offend His Holiness, women must bear children and love”).
They used the crude epithet “Sran Gospodnya”, which has been used to translate “holy shit” in Hollywood movies, but is rarely used in idiomatic Russian; it literally translates as “shit of the Lord”. They later explained “It is an idiomatic expression, related to the previous verse – about the fusion of Moscow patriarchy and the government. ‘Holy shit’ is our evaluation of the situation in the country.” They referred to Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill I, as a “suka” (bitch) and accused him of believing more in Putin than in God. – Wiki
VIOLENT RAPE AS A WEAPON OF WAR: – Russia is using the violent rape of Ukrainian civilians as a weapon to break the spirit of the nation, Ukrainian human rights lawyer Oleksandra Matviichuk has told the Mail’s ‘Apocalypse Now’ podcast. Matviichuk works to catalogue Russian war crimes in Ukraine, in hopes that once the invasion is repelled, those implicated will face justice.
She said her organisation, the Centre for Civil Liberties, has uncovered 84,000 instances of war crimes perpetrated by Putin’s war machine since the annexation of Crimea in 2014. For its tireless work preserving the stories of victims, The Centre for Civil Liberties was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2022.
In conversation with the Mail’s special correspondent David Patrikarakos, Matviichuk described the Russian army’s use of sexual violence as a ‘weapon of war’.
‘This crime has a very sensitive nature’, Matviichuk described.
‘Through the targeting of individuals, Russia can target entire communities. The survivors feel shame – so do their neighbours, their relatives, and their families.
‘They feel guilty because they couldn’t stop it. They feel fear that they could be subjected to the same treatment.
‘This complex mix of different feelings decreases social connections between members of different communities and helps Russia control the occupied regions.’
Matviichuk detailed some of the accounts of horrific sexual violence and torture she had gathered from Ukranians living behind Russian lines.
‘I spoke with hundreds of people who survived Russian captivity – men and women, civilian and military’, she began.
‘They told me horrible stories: how they were beaten, raped, smashed into wooden boxes.
‘Their fingers were cut, their nails ripped away. Nails were drilled into. Some were electrically shocked through their genitalia.
‘One woman told me how her eye was dug out with a spoon. There is no legitimate reason for doing such things. Russians are doing these horrible things only because they can.’
An expose by The Mail’s Andy Jehring cataloged concurring stories of senseless Russian brutality. He referred to one case where a 62-year-old widow was ordered at gunpoint to run around naked in the snow before being sexually violated with a Kalashnikov rifle.
A recent Human Rights Council report concluded that Russian authorities systematically used sexual violence as a form of torture against male and female detainees. Despite the horrors inflicted upon predominantly women, Matviichuk delivered a stirring account of female bravery in Ukraine.
‘I know enormous amounts of fantastic women in different fields of Ukrainian society’, Matviichuk said.
‘Women are on the frontlines of this battle for freedom and democracy because bravery has no gender.
‘In this war, we are fighting for our daughters. We want our daughters to never have to face a situation again where they must prove they are human beings.
‘Hope is not the same as having confidence that everything will be fine. Hope for me, is a deep understanding that all our efforts have a huge meaning.’ By JOSEPH PALMER for DM.
Apr 29, 2025 3:46:42 pm
