War is Peace, Freedom is Slavery, and Patriarch Kirill says Russia is ‘Leader of Free World’

Paul Goble

             Staunton, Nov. 20 – Just how Orwellian Russia has become under Vladimir Putin was highlighted today when Moscow Patriarch Kirill, on the occasion of his 75^th birthday, said that “Russia is the leader of the free world,” a place “free from the most powerful influences from outside that is developing along its own paths.”

             According to the Russian churchman, “Russia can serve as an example for other countries: We have many problems but these problems are resolvable. We do not have now any issues around which public interests clash and in which deep, irreconcilable contradictions have broken out” (smotrim.ru/live/channel/2961).

             “I view this as a manifestation of God’s mercy,” Kirill continued. What differences there are in Russia are entirely “normal and do not destroy the foundations of human life, the existence of the state and spiritual life.” Instead, they create the basis for the appearance of “new ideas and new projects directed at the further development of our Fatherland.”