Window on Eurasia: Moscow Patriarch has No Influence on Kremlin Policy, Filaret Says

Paul Goble

 

            Staunton, September 14 – Patriarch Kirill of the Russian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate has “no influence on Russian President Vladimir Putin or on Kremlin policy,” according to Patriarch Filaret, head of the Russian Orthodox Church of the Kyivan Patriarchate.

 

            Instead, Filaret said in Lviv yesterday, influence runs in the other direction because the Moscow Patriarchate is dependent on the Russian state just “as it always was both in Soviet times and in tsarist Russia” (nr2.com.ua/News/politics_and_society/Glava-UPC-Filaret-Golos-patriarha-Kirilla-nichego-ne-stoit-on-nahoditsya-v-zavisimosti-ot-gosudarstva-79942.html).

 

            And consequently, the Ukrainian patriarch continued, “under contemporary conditions, Patriarch Kirill cannot speak openly or truthfully” or hope to have any influence on the Kremlin. That is something which simply “cannot be.” As a result, “the voice of Patriarch Kirill does not count for anything” at least in the Kremlin.