In order to mobilize its population to participate in the war against Ukraine and to justify this crime, Russia uses various tools, among which church institutions occupy a special place. The Russian Orthodox Church is one of the ideological pillars of the “Russian world”. The Moscow Patriarchate blesses Russian soldiers for the war in Ukraine and justifies the aggression on religious grounds – there is a direct sacralization of Russia’s war against Ukraine.
On Tuesday, April 18, Ukrinform hosted a roundtable with the participation of scholars, analysts, government officials, the diplomatic corps, and clerics, entitled “Russia’s genocidal war against Ukraine and religion: foreign and domestic political aspects,” reports the press office of the State Service for Ethnopolicies and Freedom of Conscience.
“The events that began in 2014 and the full-scale invasion in February 2022 give us every reason to assert that the Russian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate is working with the Russian state machine in tandem, as a single system of ideological narratives and practical military actions. The concept of ‘Holy Russia’ developed by Patriarch Kirill was fully integrated into the state imperial ideology of ‘Russian world,’ serving as a justification for Russia’s aggression against our country. Ukraine, its religious communities have fully experienced the genocidal nature of this aggression,” Viktor Voinalovych, the first deputy head of Service, said during the roundtable.
Russia is not the bastion of religious freedom as the Kremlin claims. During the dialogue, the support of “traditional” religious organizations operating in Russia for the genocidal against Ukraine was analyzed. These include: Russian Orthodoxy, Islam, Buddhism, and Judaism. According to the survey, in 2021, 66% of Russians declared themselves supporters of Orthodoxy, 6% – Islam, 1% – Buddhism, and less than 1% – Judaism.
“The church most integrated into the Russo-Ukrainian war is the Russian Orthodox Church because it occupies a privileged position in the Russian Federation, runs the largest religious network and has the number of parishioners, developed together with state agencies the expansionist concept of the ‘Russian world,’ which contradicts the evangelical teaching and became the basis of the policy of destroying the Ukrainian state and the nation,” Andriy Ivanets, a leading researcher at the National Holodomor Genocide Museum, noted in his report.
Muslim organizations in Russia, the North Caucasus, as well as the “Spiritual Administration of the Muslims of the Republic of Crimea and Sevastopol” in the temporarily occupied Crimea are also actively involved in spreading Kremlin’s rhetoric, justifying the war against Ukraine, sacralizing it, and concealing Russia’s aggressive actions and its grave crimes. Some leaders of Muslim religious organizations in Russia directly call for the genocide of the Ukrainian nation.
As part of its imperial policy, Russia has also directly subjugated Muslim communities in the temporarily occupied territories of eastern Ukraine, which is a violation of Ukrainian legislation and entails other offenses and crimes.
Those who go beyond the freedom of the “traditional” four religions are subject to discriminatory laws and state surveillance in Russia that undermine their ability to practice their religion openly. There is practically no spiritual opposition to the Putin regime. The only example of an anti-war position was Shajin Lama of Kalmykia, who made a public anti-war statement, after which the Buddhist leader was declared a “foreign agent” and dismissed.
During the roundtable, the need was noted to continue and expand the practice of imposing sanctions on religious leaders and activists who support the criminal policy of the Russian Federation towards Ukraine and not only on representatives of the Russian Orthodox Church, but also on the Russian Orthodox Church, Muslim, and Jewish religious organizations who support the genocidal Russian policy towards Ukraine.
The main narratives of anti-Ukrainian religious propaganda as a means of aggression were characterized, the right to freedom of religion in Ukraine and church collaborationism were discussed, as well as the need for scientific study of the history of early Christianity in Crimea as a factor in countering disinformation. The participants emphasized the need to strengthen opposition to the Russian hybrid war in humanitarian and religious directions.
