Patriarch Kirill: “If the authorities remain insensitive to the expression of protests, this is a very bad sign”

On January 7, 2012, the Rossiya-1 TV channel aired a Christmas interview with Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia, in which he formulated his attitude towards protests against election fraud differently than in December 2011 .

This time, the patriarch recognized that “every person in a free society should have the right to express their opinion, including disagreement with the actions of the authorities,” and “lies should leave our lives, from political, economic, social life.”

At the same time, he suggested that among the protesters there could be many of those “who deceive their husband or wife, who lead a parallel life, who are dishonest in business.” “But if we create untruths in our lives - in our family lives, in our professional spheres, then why do we so ardently demand that the truth be preserved somewhere at the macro level?” - asked the interlocutor of the TV channel.

Nevertheless, the patriarch considers it important that “protests, expressed in the right way, lead to a correction of the political course.” “If the authorities remain insensitive to the expression of protests, this is a very bad sign - a sign of the authorities’ inability to self-adjust. The authorities must adjust, including by perceiving signals from the outside,” said the Primate of the Russian Orthodox Church.

On January 9, 2012, Nikolai Mitrokhin, a researcher at the Center for Eastern European Studies at the University of Bremen, commented on these statements in an interview with Radio Liberty. In his opinion, the change in the tone of the patriarch’s statements “is due to the fact that the patriarch, who is essentially a supporter of the modernization of the authoritarian plan, began to understand that a significant part of his team, on which he relies in his intra-church authoritarian modernization, is rather in the position of a protestor people." That is, “this statement is more in favor of our own people than in favor of national problems.”

The religious scholar does not believe that the Church is capable of playing a noticeable organizing role in mass protests or “forcing the authorities to do something, to give up something.” However, considering the patriarch himself as “part of Putin’s team,” N. Mitrokhin regards the change in his attitude towards the protest movement as “a significant factor, since this indicates the depth of progress within the Putin elite.” Sources

• Christmas interview with His Holiness Patriarch Kirill // Patriarchia.ru. 2012. January 9.
• Religious scholar Nikolai Mitrokhin - about the change of tone in the speeches of Patriarch Kirill // Radio Liberty. 2012. January 9.