MARTI AAVIK ⟩ Läänemets playing double game with Orthodox believers for short-term gain

Nevsky Cathedral. Photo: Madis Veltman

• Based on Läänemets' statements, I assumed he would take effective action, this has not been the case
• The origins of the Nevsky church and the Kuremäe convent are in no way free from politics either.
• Subordination to Moscow, which is waging a war of aggression, is dearer than simple human values.

The Orthodox believers who are clawing on to their subordination to Moscow have every reason to be very grateful to the Republic of Estonia and our people, writes Marti Aavik, member of the board of The Right party.

The Socialist interior minister, Lauri Läänemets, promised already half a year ago that Orthodox churches in Estonia cannot continue operating under the authority of Patriarch Kirill of Russia, but there's still no decisive action. Just as the Socialists are vehemently opposed to depriving citizens of the aggressor states of their right to vote, there's apparently no full courage to address the church focused on glorifying war and killing, because they would very much like to get the votes that have slipped away from the Center Party in the local elections.

I fully agree with what Läänemets said to ERR back on April 5: «So what difference there is between a Muslim religious leader who says that all people in the Western world must be killed, and Patriarch Kirill in Moscow who says that all Ukrainians must be killed and that we are at holy war with all other religions.» Based on that, I expected Läänemets to take effective action, but unfortunately, this has not been the case.

Instead, the patriarch, who declares the conquest wars of Russians as sacred, has begun to humiliate and pressure the Estonian state through his local branches in Estonia. This is accompanied by PR talking points attempting to evoke sympathy, claiming that all decisions are made by the Orthodox believers living in Estonia, and that their mother church and its leader in Moscow present only their own personal viewpoints. Judging by what we heard on the ETV show «Impulss,» subordination to Moscow is almost without any significance. Yet, for some reason, they are clawing on to this «insignificant» relationship of subordination.

In fact, all Orthodox believers would have every reason to be very grateful to the Republic of Estonia and our people. At a time when churches and monasteries were burned down in Russia or used as horse stables and priests and monks were sent to die in the GULAG, the Pechory Monastery was able to operate in peace in the Republic of Estonia. However, there's no sign of gratitude anywhere. Instead, love is for the church restored by Stalin, the religious subdivision of the NKVD/KGB/FSB, which has been run by the Russian state's repressive apparatus since the communist era and used by it to achieve its goals both in Russia and abroad.

It's important to remember that even the origins of the Nevsky church and the Kuremäe convent are in no way free from politics or build on gentle religious sentiment. On the contrary! The driving force behind their establishment was Governor Sergei Shakhovskoy, a fanatical Russifier. His rule marked a period of particularly harsh national oppression for Estonians. Both the church and the convent were specifically established as symbols of Russia's supremacy. Also the choice of the church's name – Nevsky – unequivocally echoes the propaganda legend used already by the Russia of the tsars to glorify its westward conquests. In the prewar Republic of Estonia, they operated peacefully under the jurisdiction of the Patriarchate of Constantinople. When Stalin's forces occupied Estonia, the church and the convent were of course incorporated into the Stalinist church, of which the current Moscow Patriarchate is the spiritual successor.

Given the persistence with which the Estonian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate (MPEÕK) and the Kuremäe convent and the Nevsky church, which are under the direct authority of Moscow, are fighting to be under the authority of the patriarch of Moscow, who glorifies attacking other countries and killing other peoples, there is no doubt that the leaders of these ecclesiastical bodies do have very great interest in politics. The politics of conquest, to be precise. Otherwise, it would be humanly easy to break free from subordination to Moscow in every way and to engage sincerely in religious affairs.

Judging just by the messages that the spokespersons of MPEÕK have given to the Estonian public in the last six months, we indeed have the answer: subordination to Moscow, which is waging a war of aggression, is dearer to them than simple human values.

Whereas this Moscow church is calling the countries and people of the free world, including Estonia, and, for example, me and you, satanists against whom a «holy» war is waged. In view of how these «holy» murderers are behaving with Ukrainians now and knowing that the whole of Estonia is full of places where our people were killed by the authorities of that same country, it is anything but funny. In this context, the MPEÕK church officials clawing on to subordination to Moscow have no human justification to play devout and sufferers for faith.