{"id":211821,"date":"2024-12-29T22:09:43","date_gmt":"2024-12-29T20:09:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/df.news\/?p=211821"},"modified":"2024-12-31T12:10:39","modified_gmt":"2024-12-31T10:10:39","slug":"russian-priest-cynically-thanks-russia-for-not-sending-belarusians-to-fight-in-ukraine-yet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/df.news\/en\/2024\/12\/29\/russian-priest-cynically-thanks-russia-for-not-sending-belarusians-to-fight-in-ukraine-yet\/","title":{"rendered":"Russian priest cynically \u201cthanks\u201d Russia for not sending Belarusians to fight in Ukraine \u201cyet\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

In Grodno, Belarus, Russian archpriest Sergei Baranov made a cynical statement that Belarusians should be grateful to Russia for not deploying them to participate in the war against Ukraine. The statement was published on the Christian Vision<\/a> Telegram channel.<\/p>\n

According to the cleric, Belarusians should be grateful to the Russian leadership for not \u201cyet\u201d putting forward \u201charsh conditions\u201d regarding direct military participation in the aggression against Ukraine.<\/p>\n

Baranov claims: \u201cThe Belarusian people should be grateful that our (Russian) leadership does not set such strict, categorical conditions: \u2018help, intervene, otherwise we will be very offended, we will hold a grudge\u2019. Our government finds ways to somehow protect the Belarusian people from this for now. I think this is still the position of our government. And it seems to me that this is good, noble.\u201d<\/p>\n

These words sound like outright arrogant blackmail. Instead of condemning Russia\u2019s aggression against Ukraine, the priest actually justifies it, presenting Belarus\u2019s abstention from direct participation in the war as a \u201cnoble\u201d gesture. He ignores the fact that it was Russia that unleashed this war, violating international law and Ukraine\u2019s sovereignty.<\/p>\n

Baranov also tries to intimidate Belarusians with mythical \u201cenemies in the West,\u201d who, according to him, \u201cwould devour you. They would break your spine.\u201d He claims that only Russia \u201cdeter\u201d these threats and that \u201cBelarus itself would not have been able to cope\u201d. This thesis is part of Russian propaganda aimed at increasing Belarus\u2019 dependence on Russia and justifying Russia\u2019s military presence on Belarusian soil.<\/p>\n

The ROC priest also emphasized the importance of \u201cmoral assistance\u201d from Belarus for Russia, stating: \u201cWe may not need your military assistance now, but even moral assistance is costly for us, because we don\u2019t have many friends either. And sometimes just knowing that someone is on your side, at least morally, is already valuable.\u201d Thus, Russia seeks to use Belarus as a tool in its geopolitical game, even if it means moral pressure and manipulation.<\/p>\n

Archpriest Baranov\u2019s statement is another example of religion being exploited to justify Russia\u2019s aggressive policy. It demonstrates a contemptuous attitude towards the sovereignty of Belarus and a desire to keep it in the orbit of Russian influence. It is important to emphasize that the Belarusian people have the right to independently determine their future and do not need \u201cnoble\u201d gestures from the aggressor state.<\/p>\n

These statements demonstrate how the Russian church serves as an instrument to legitimize the Kremlin\u2019s imperial policy and justify aggression against neighboring states.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In Grodno, Belarus, Russian archpriest Sergei Baranov made a cynical statement that Belarusians should be grateful to Russia for not deploying them to participate in the war against Ukraine. The statement was published on the Christian Vision Telegram channel. According to the cleric, Belarusians should be grateful to the Russian leadership for not \u201cyet\u201d putting […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":211726,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"telegram_tosend":false,"telegram_tosend_message":"","telegram_tosend_target":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5142,5143],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-211821","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"category-security"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/df.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/photo_2024-12-29_20-14-57.jpg?fit=1280%2C853&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/df.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211821","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/df.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/df.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/df.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/df.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=211821"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/df.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211821\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":211822,"href":"https:\/\/df.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211821\/revisions\/211822"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/df.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/211726"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/df.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=211821"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/df.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=211821"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/df.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=211821"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}