ANDREY KUZICHKIN ⟩ The Putin regime once again revealed its ungodly nature

Rescue workers digging through the rubble of a building destroyed in the Sumy attack. Photo by FADEL SENNA and Roman PILIPEY / AFP / Scanpix​ Photo: Photo by FADEL SENNA and Roman PILIPEY / AFP / Scanpix

• The Russian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate is in the service of the Putin regime.
• The patriarch does not see bloodshed in Ukraine, but simply a religious-political game.
• The expectation of Christ's second coming has been turned into a bloody Palm Sunday.

The rocket attack on Sumy during the feast of the Entry of the Lord into Jerusalem, on the bright Palm Sunday, only confirmed the ungodly nature of the Putin regime, Andrey Kuzichkin, columnist and expert on Russia, writes.

The blasphemy and sacrilege of the Kremlin's policy is a dogma. The killing of dozens of people – women, children, the elderly, and soldiers – in the days of the Christian Lent and on the eve of the Holy Week feels like a sacrifice. And the blood of the victims, offered as gift to Moloch, is sprinkled on the altar that has become the foundation of the rebirth of neo-paganism and necro-imperialism in Russia. This is the true cost and real face of the Putin regime. And it is precisely in the service of this regime that the Russian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate stands. But other denominations as well – from Buddhists to Jews – have been turned into state and social institutions in Putin's Russia, serving the ruling chekist-oligarchic order.

The tragic deaths of peaceful inhabitants in Kryvyi Rih and Sumy have become yet another frontier dividing the world into condemners and justifiers. Sometimes God's judgment does not come after the end of the world, but before it. And those who mourn the victims, grieve for the dead and hate the killers in the Kremlin have risen to the right hand today.

The tragic deaths of peaceful inhabitants in Kryvyi Rih and Sumy have become yet another frontier dividing the world into condemners and justifiers.

To the left hand go those who celebrate yet another «victory» of Russia, hypocritically speak of a «stray hit,» and blame everyone but Putin for what happened. I believe we are waiting in vain for any words of condemnation, repentance, or calls for the Russian army to lay down its arms from Patriarch Kirill of the Russian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate. After all, these are the very weapons that the patriarch himself and his clergy bless – just as they bless Russian warriors to shed blood and kill Christians whose only «crime» is their desire for freedom and unwillingness to live under Moscow's rule.

How can the murder of Ukrainian citizens be condemned by a patriarch who, in his congratulatory message on March 27, the Day of the Russian National Guard, wrote: «By successfully solving various important tasks in the zone of the special military operation, members of the National Guard make a great contribution to strengthening the sovereignty of Russia.» Patriarch Kirill generously bestows various church awards on all Russian military leaders and diehard propagandists, including Margarita Simonyan, who received the Order of Saint Olga, Equal-of-the-Apostles, on her birthday on April 6. Simonyan, who has become a symbol of political crime and an instigator of hatred against Ukraine and the Ukrainian people, was honored by the patriarch «for her contribution to the consolidation of spiritual and moral values in the lives of modern people.» This is a mockery of the victims of war. It is very difficult to expect repentance from a man who creates and imposes a false world view on his diocese members.

This is what Patriarch Kirill said in a sermon on March 3, at the beginning of Lent: «Look what is happening in fraternal Ukraine! Our brothers and sisters are truly suffering there and are being persecuted just because they belong to the canonical Orthodox Church. And this is happening in Europe, in a country that swears allegiance to European values! Therefore, prayer for our suffering brothers and sisters in Ukraine must not be a formality. We must truly pray to the Lord to bring peace to the land of Ukraine and at the same time strengthen in faith, piety, and loyalty to the Church our brothers and sisters who are today subjected to undoubtedly very dangerous pressure with demands to leave canonical Orthodoxy and enter into communion with those who have no grace of God, but who only organize some kind of religious-political game.» So going by the patriarch's line of thought, it must be acknowledged that what is going on in Ukraine is not bloodshed, but only a «religious-political game.» And this is said by the head of the Russian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate in the fourth year of the fratricidal war unleashed by Russia. For him, it is just a game.

The Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate and the patriarch himself came out just as fervently in defense of Estonian Orthodox Christians against persecution. In the patriarch's address on April 11 to all Orthodox churches, national leaders, and international organizations, it is stated: «With deep concern, I inform you that on April 9, 2025, the Estonian parliament adopted amendments to the Churches and Congregations Act, which effectively aim to ban the Estonian Orthodox Christian Church – a self-governing church within the Moscow Patriarchate. This law, stripping it of legitimacy, violates the fundamental principle of freedom of conscience and religion, guaranteed by the Constitution of Estonia and relevant international agreements.»

The following conclusions can be drawn from this address: 1. For the Russian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate, avoiding loss of control over congregations abroad is more important than the loss of human lives in Ukraine – the latter does not seem to cause the Synod or the patriarch any deep concern. 2. The church's legal representatives either cannot or are unwilling to understand that what is happening is precisely an effort by the Estonian authorities to ensure real independence for the Estonian Orthodox Christian Church (EKÕK) from the Russian state, which has turned churches within its territory into Kremlin-controlled institutions and transformed the Russian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate into the political department of the Ministry of Defense. 3. There is not a single word in the law about banning Orthodoxy in Estonia. On the contrary, Estonian authorities have repeatedly assured that churches will retain their status and Orthodox priests will not be forced to offer prayers in honor of NATO. 4. Patriarch Kirill clearly fails to grasp that his authority as one of the leaders of the Christian world has been devalued, and that his words directed at the global community have lost all meaning.

After a brief delay, the Estonian Orthodox Christian Church issued a press release expressing «deep condolences to the people of Ukraine regarding the tragic events of Palm Sunday.» The text notes that people were killed in Sumy as a result of a rocket attack by Russian forces. However, this statement of fact was not followed by words of condemnation for Russia and its leadership for the war unleashed against Ukraine and its people. The phrase «The leadership of the autonomous EKÕK firmly condemns the war» can be equally applied to both Russia and Ukraine, as it is not specified who exactly started this war.

The EKÕK is at the epicenter of the Kremlin's religious-political games, and Moscow is using this church to destabilize the internal political situation in Estonia.

There were also no calls for President Putin to stop the bloodshed. Nor was there an appeal to the actual leader of the EKÕK, Patriarch Kirill, to pray for peace, not for the victory of Russian arms. Nor would it have been superfluous to ask the patriarch to influence and persuade President Putin, who has repeatedly been called a true Orthodox Christian by the leader of the Russian Orthodox Church, to stop the carnage in Ukraine. There was no room for this in the text of the EKÕK's appeal. However, there were many words about the unjust persecution of Estonian Orthodox believers subject to the authority of the Moscow patriarch.

It is understandable that the Estonian Orthodox Christian Church faces a difficult choice today: denying its ties with Russian politics, the church seeks to maintain canonical relations with the Moscow Patriarchate. However, since the Moscow Patriarchate is now one of Russia's instruments for influencing Orthodox churches abroad, the EKÕK is at the epicenter of the Kremlin's religious-political games, and Moscow is using this church to destabilize the internal political situation in Estonia. Of course, in the era of triumphant conformism, there are few who would be willing to accept death by fire and suffer for the sake of the true faith. But if no choice is made now between serving Good or Evil, our lives could very quickly turn into an all-out bloody Palm Sunday.