Paul Goble
Staunton, August 29 – A senior Russian Orthodox priest in Yekaterinburg has attracted attention for declaring that “the state’s task is to annex lands to Russia, increase the size of the country’s territory, incorporate peoples and attract them to itself,” while holy people must “consecrate” such seized lands and pray over them.
Father Alen Bogdanov, the head of church school programs of the Yekaterinburg bishopric, made these comments on a YouTube clip that has gone viral in Russia (nakanune.ru/news/2021/8/30/22617667/, youtube.com/watch?v=g1XvIqhiQq0 and mk.ru/politics/2021/08/30/v-rpc-nazvali-zadachey-rossii-zakhvat-drugikh-narodov-i-territoriy.html).
The Yekaterinburg bishopric has not commented on Father Bogdanov’s remarks, but controversial Deacon Andrey Kurayev has suggested that such “feudal” views are now being taught to the Russian young in the post-Crimea period (facebook.com/diak.kuraev/posts/391073965721353).
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