Personal Confessors Increasingly Important at Top of Russian Politics and Society

Paul Goble

            Staunton, April 7 – Metropolitan Tikhon of Pskov, now the odds-on favorite to succeed Patriarch Kirill as head of the Moscow Patriarchate, achieved that status because of his role as the personal confessor to Vladimir Putin. But Tikhon is not the only personal confessor near the top of Russia. Instead, he is one of many; and the phenomenon is becoming ever more important.

            In a report for MBK News, journalist Aleksandr Mavromatis points out that “in present-day Russia, personal confessors have appeared among many officials, well-known sportsmen and even entire government institutions.” And in that capacity, they are having an outsized influence (mbk-news.appspot.com/suzhet/duxovniki-rossii/).

            Tikhon met so often with Putin and has such definite views of his own that he became known in Moscow as “the Sechin in robes” (medium.com/@mbkmedia/сечин-в-рясе-как-тихон-шевкунов-стал-главным-идеологом-российской-реакции-fd30c88467f). Among appointments he pushed were Olga Vasilyeva as education minister and Anna Kuznetsova as children’s ombudsman.

            To limit his influence, Kirill “exiled” Tikhon to Pskov; but that didn’t work: Pskov under Tikhon has become a center of pilgrimage and Putin has visited, an especially significant development given that the Kremlin leader met with Tikhon after Kirill had lost the Russian Orthodox Church in Ukraine.

            No less well-known as a confessor near the top of the political pyramid is Father Sergii (Romanov) who works with Natalya Poklonskaya, the former procurator of Crimea who is now in the Duma. His background is notorious – he was convicted of various crimes in the 1980s and served time -- but now he is very influential.

            Father Sergii has also served as confessor to Russian hockey player Pavel Datsiuk and, before his death, Sverdlovsk criminal leader Timur Mirzoyev, with whom it is said, Sergii spent time together in the camps. He has also gained notoriety for casting out demons and fighting any moves toward digitalization of passports, which he says will lead to war. 

            Like the head of the Catholic Church, Patriarch Kirill has his own confessor, Father Iliy who gained notoriety by going further than most in promoting participation in the recent presidential elections with a clear message that Russians should vote for Putin, an approach that forced the Patriarchate to issue clarification.

            Some state corporations have their own personal confessors as well: Roskosmos has Archpriest Sergii who sports a blue corporate jacket and blesses not only those who work for that institution but their space ships and rockets, actions that have scandalized some, Mavromatis suggests.

            And Archpriest Andrey serves as a personal confessor to members of the Russian Olympic team and even continued to take confessions from those who had to compete under a neutral flag.

            Not all such people live modestly, the journalist says. One got into a car accident in which police found alcohol and three million rubles. He then threatened witnesses by saying “I am a servant of the church and tomorrow you will die.”  Later he tried to claim that his twin brother and not he was at the wheel.