Historian N. Mitrokhin refutes information from journalist A. Soldatov about the assessment of the personal condition of Patriarch Kirill

On March 19, 2012, Novaya Gazeta published a statement researcher at the Center for the Study of Eastern Europe at the Bremen Nikolay Mitrokhin University. He refutes the information contained in article by Alexander Soldatov “For what should the servant of God Cyril thank the “slave for galleys." What did the primate of the Russian Orthodox Church do in the “dashing 90s” (“Novaya Gazeta”, No. 16 February 15, 2012).

We are talking about an assessment of the state of Patriarch Kirill, speaking of which, A. Soldatov refers to the "monograph" of N. Mitrokhin, mentioning him as an employee of the Center for Shadow Economy Research at the Russian State University for the Humanities.

N. Mitrokhin himself notes that he has never been an employee this center, only his collection (not a monograph) “Economic activities of the ROC and its shadow component” in 2000. In 2004 there was published his monograph "ROC: Current State and Current Problems", one of the sections of which was devoted to the economic activities of the Church.

“Neither in the collection, nor in the monograph, nor in my other publications on the topic of church economics did not contain an assessment of personal wealth Metropolitan Kirill. But the collection contained information that could significantly clarify the information provided by Alexander Soldatov in his article. In particular, there was reference information on the MES company, in in particular, information about its founders, including neither Metropolitan Kirill nor the DECR headed by him had no relationship. The co-founder of MES was the financial and economic Department of the Moscow Patriarchy - an agency independent of the DECR, subordinate to either personally to the patriarch, or to the manager of the affairs of the Moscow Patriarchate, ”explained historian.

According to him, A. Soldatov had previously referred to his collection, assessing the state of the patriarch. In 2008, N. Mitrokhin spoke with a similar rebuttal.

Recall the outrage over the publication of the article A. Soldatov was expressed by the Synodal Information Department. Sources

• Nikolai Mitrokhin: I did not assess the personal condition of Patriarch Kirill // New Newspaper. 2012. March 19.
• Soldatov A. Why should the servant of God Cyril thank the “slave in the galleys” // There. February, 15.
• Alexander Soldatov responded to the criticism of the Russian Orthodox Church in connection with the article “For what should the servant of God Kirill thank the “slave in the galleys”” // There. February 22.