The centuries-old relationship between the Russian Orthodox Church and the many iterations of the country’s government has been a complex one. But since 2009, it has been clear that the man born as Vladimir Mikhailovich Gundyayev, who rose through the Church’s hierarchy to become Patriarch of Moscow and all Rus’ and Primate of the Russian Orthodox Church, lives in the pocket of President Vladimir Putin.

Describing Putin’s reign as “a miracle of God,” Kirill has worked to solidify the relationship between church and state, even justifying Russia’s war against Ukraine as a struggle against “forces of evil,” and describing it as a “Holy War.”

Conversely, and not surprisingly, his relationship with Patriarch Bartholomew I of Constantinople — the Ecumenical Patriarch and spiritual leader of Eastern Orthodox Christians throughout the world — has been described as “tense.” Bartholomew I has denounced Kirill’s support for Putin as “damaging to the prestige of the whole of Orthodoxy.” [Wikipedia.org.]

But, ignoring the disapproval of his spiritual leader, Kirill — knowing full well what side his khleb (bread) is buttered on — continues to do Putin’s bidding . . . including, since the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, disciplining and de-frocking Orthodox priests who dare speak out against Putin’s “special military operation.”

One such case is that of Father Aleksei Uminsky, for more than 20 years rector of a church in central Moscow. On January 4, 2024, three days before Russian Orthodox Christmas, he received a phone call instructing him to appear before the regional archpriest the following day. When he arrived, Uminsky was handed a decree suspending him from the ministry, thus revoking his authority to preach to his flock. [Valery Panyushkin and Systema, RFE/RL, May 26, 2026.]

Within an hour, Uminsky found himself standing before a four-member disciplinary committee demanding to know why he was not reading a prayer in support of the war as part of his services. The four men, who did not identify themselves, then confirmed his suspension and ordered him to remove the cross from around his neck. [Id.]

Following the Christmas holiday, Uminsky received repeated phone and email instructions to appear before a church court for a hearing on his potential defrocking. But a fellow priest warned him that he was slated to be arrested after the ecclesiastical trial, and he chose instead to leave Russia. Soon thereafter, he received an email notice that Patriarch Kirill had approved the diocesan court’s January 13th decision to defrock him for “refusing . . . to read the prayer for Holy Rus during the Divine Liturgy” — a prayer created by Kirill himself following the start of the war.

Now mandatory, the “prayer” says that “those who wish to wage war have risen up against Holy Rus” and asks God to “grant us victory by Your power.” When asked by the original disciplinary committee why he wasn’t reading the prayer, Uminsky had answered, “I don’t know what Holy Rus is.” [Id.]

For those who have any knowledge of Russian history, that answer makes perfect sense. But it is not what Putin — and, by extension, Kirill — wanted to hear.

There have been other cases like Father Uminsky’s. He and at least two others have had their ranks reinstated by Patriarch Bartholomew — a long and painstaking process. And though they have been reassigned, they remain separated from their long-time congregations. Uminsky now serves in a small church in Paris, where he is provided a small apartment above the church but no salary. He earns a living by giving lectures and sermons on social media. [Id.]

This is how men of peace are treated in Putin’s Russia. Had Father Uminsky not fled when he did, he likely would have wound up in a penal colony alongside the thousands of dissidents, journalists, and other political prisoners who have done nothing more than speak out against Putin’s illegal war of attrition.

These stories are nothing new in Russia. But it could happen anywhere . . . and we can’t say we haven’t been warned.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
5/27/26