Against the backdrop of catastrophic failures in the war with Ukraine, which, cynically disguised with the word “special operation”, was unleashed by the Kremlin completely unreasonably and unjustifiably, Russia’s military and political leadership is frantically looking for a way to find a powerful ideological ground to fuel further hostilities in Ukraine.
Moscow needs a new ideological base, among other things, in order to significantly expand the scale of both internal mobilization of the population for war and to justify the involvement of a huge number of mercenaries from disadvantaged countries, who are the only ones who decided to maintain any kind of relations with Russia, which is sliding into the abyss of dictatorship and fascism.
To implement the plan, the Kremlin decided to involve the so-called traditional religious organizations operating in the Russian Federation, which have long been supervised by the national security agencies.
On March 29, the State Duma hosted a round table on the topic “World religions against the ideology of Nazism and fascism in the 21st century.”
Parliamentary media resources reported that the event was attended by Metropolitan of the Russian Orthodox Old-styler Church Korniliy, head of the Spiritual Assembly of Muslims of Russia Albir hazrat Krganov, Supreme Mufti, Chairman of the Central Spiritual Administration of Muslims of Russia Talgat Tadzhuddin, Deputy Chairman of the Synodal Department for Church Relations with the Public and Media of the Moscow Patriarchate of the Russian Orthodox Church Vakhtang Kipshidze, Head of the Department of the Federation of Jewish Communities of Russia for Cooperation with the Armed Forces, the Ministry of Emergency Situations and Law Enforcement Agencies of the Russian Federation Aaron Gurevich, Representative of the Buddhist Traditional Sangha of Russia Did Khambo-lama Dashinima Sodnomdorzhiev, Head of the Russian and New Nakhchivan Diocese of the Armenian Apostolic Church Archbishop Ezras, head of the Russian Pentecostals Sergei Ryakhovsky, and other members of religious organizations.
Representatives of the federal executive authorities, the academic community, so-called public figures, and representatives of the Kremlin-controlled mass media also attended the meeting.
“Today, the voice of traditional Russian religions was heard at the State Duma. All as one, without dividing into nationalities and religions, said no to Nazism and fascism raising its head. There is a military special operation ongoing in Ukraine, but the humanitarian and spiritual front is no less important now. More than ever, people need the voice of spiritual shepherds to tell between good and evil, to console themselves in grief, to find hope so that the world does not repeat the bloody mistakes of nationalism,” said Olga Timofeeva, chairwoman of the committee for the development of civil society and issues of public and religious associations.
In general, other participants followed the same line of false accusations of Nazism as regards Ukraine, propaganda slogans about “one people” and “primordial Russian lands” and the need to eradicate any (albeit fictional) oppression of Russian speakers around the world.
Among other participants, the ones that stood out were the so-called “representatives of Ukraine.” Although the State Duma website remained silent about this, other media reported that the abbot of the Ascension Monastery of the Luhansk diocese of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate (UOC-MP), Archimandrite Ioann (Sukhina), was the guest of honor of the event, that’s according to the Vedomosti newspaper.
This cleric has long been known for his close cooperation with propagandists promoting the “Russian World” concept and militants who are part of the “DPR/LPR” terrorist organizations. His address to the round table surpassed all his previous hypocritical statements and false accusations voiced against the Kyiv authorities.
He rushed to assure the attendees that, against the backdrop of a “military special operation” (war), a religious war had begun in Ukraine. According to the clergyman, a conflict is developing in the country between the Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU), which, as he disparagingly put it, was “proclaimed” in 2018, and the UOC-MP.
Ioann (Sukhina) argued that “people who refer to themselves as nationalists” are taking away the UOC parishes in Western Ukraine, radical nationalism dominates the religious environment, and the Moscow Patriarchate (in Ukraine) is constantly facing violence targeting its priests. He also recalled the draft law banning the activities of the Russian Orthodox Church in Ukraine, after which, as he suggests, there will simply be no believers left in the country.
“Our Church in Ukraine, headed by His Beatitude Metropolitan Onufriy, has humbly carried its cross throughout all these years, thus showing that we are not some hostile camp, that we love our homeland, that we love our people, whom we support, because there are millions of Ukrainian believers standing behind our church,” Ioann said.
The opinion of the “Ukrainian” priest was also supported by the coordinator of the Ukrainian expert group “European Dialogue,” Georgy Chizhov, who told Vedomosti that “many parishes shifted from the UOC-MP jurisdiction to that of the OCU. Now the process has reinvigorated as we are talking about two hundred parishes.” According to Chizhov, there are no withdrawals from the UOC at the level of dioceses yet, but “how the situation will develop remains unclear.”
The church has been seeing “manifestations of nationalism” in the religious sphere for quite a while, Vakhtang Kipshidze, deputy chairman of the ROC Synodal Department for Relations with the Public and Media, told the round table.
According to him, the OCU was created with the support of the Patriarchate of Constantinople and the United States as a religious structure, “rallying schismatics, united in their desire to adhere to extreme nationalism.”
“This quasi-religious structure was designed in order to create a counterbalance to the UOC-MP,” Kipshidze said. “Of course, all these phenomena could not but result in the growth of nationalism in its broadest sense, which led to a new surge of violence.”
The round table also discussed the bill “On the ban on the Moscow Patriarchate on the territory of Ukraine” and “a number of hostile actions against the UOC-MP priests.”
At the end of the round table, the participants expressed their support for the ongoing special operation and took the initiative to turn to Russian President Vladimir Putin with a proposal to hold an anti-fascist conference in Russia. They also expressed their willingness to jointly appeal to the UN Secretary General with a call to eliminate manifestations of discrimination against Russian speakers across the world.
Thus, with the round table held on March 29, the Kremlin began and is now widely promoting a propaganda campaign aimed to justify continued war against Ukraine, no matter how groundless and unsuccessful this so-called “special operation” is for Russia. Moscow has practically found an excuse to make up for the colossal losses of its own armed forces by calling on the nation to “defend Orthodoxy.” It is this no less unjustified slogan that should explain to the domestic audiences a new round of aggression against Ukraine and continue the process of dehumanizing Ukrainian authorities and the entire civilized Western world.
