Russians Likely More Upset by Orthodox Church’s Decision to Raise Prices for Services than by New Stories about Patriarch Kirill’s 'Secret' Wife

Paul Goble

            Staunton, Jan. 2 – Foreign observers have paid more attention to new documentation about Patriarch Kirill’s longtime “secret” wife (agents.media/sputnitsa-patriarha-bolee-50-let-kirilla-soprovozhdaet-tajnaya-grazhdanskaya-zhena/) than they have his church’s decision to boost prices for basic services (idelreal.org/a/russia-church-orthodox/33638578.html).

            But there are at least two reasons for thinking that Russians are more upset by the latter story than the former one. On the one hand, rumors about Kirill’s “secret” wife have been circulating and condemned for years, given that ROC rules preclude anyone who is not celibate from serving as a bishop let alone a patriarch.

            And on the other, the increased prices of church services for marriages, burials and baptisms hit Russians where they live.  One survey of 140 church websites that prices for these services had increased since Putin launched his expanded war in Ukraine by 107 percent, 71 percent, and 50 percent respectively.

            At a time when inflation is cutting into the standard of living of Russians in many sectors, these increases which outpace those for many other daily needs has infuriated many in the Russian Federation and likely will lead at least some to look even more skeptically at the church hierarchy than in the past and possibly even break with the church entirely.