Translated material
Nikolai Mitrokhin: “If the priest managed to take part in the gay pride parade, then he looks organic at the consecration of the Sorokinsky “caterpillar””
Candidate of Historical Sciences, author of the book "The Russian Orthodox Church: the current state and current problems” (M., 2004) Nikolai Mitrokhin commented for the SOVA Center the participation of the Yekaterinburg priest in seeing off volunteers leaving for the Donbass.
Seeing off the Yekaterinburg militias to the Donbass and participation in their rite of "fraternization" of the Orthodox priest Vladimir Zaitsev are remarkable for several reasons. Firstly, before us is the first in Russia openly presented to the public case of sending militias to the territory of Donbass. Secondly, this is the first such event with a clear participation of local authorities. And thirdly, this is the first case of official participation in such an event by a representative of the Russian Orthodox Church, and not marginal, but rather high rank: Fr. Vladimir is the former head of the Missionary Department of one of the largest dioceses. However, he is not only was present, but blessed those going to Donbass and provided them with some political message.
If the central authorities do not take any action (on that there is no hope), it is possible that the example of Yekaterinburg may be followed and other regions. From a political point of view, it is important that Russia stopped hide the fact of sending volunteers to the territory of Donbass, although earlier officially if she did not deny this fact, she did not encourage it publicly. In a more global context, Russia, having renounced its membership in the CFE Treaty (Treaty Conventional Forces in Europe) and by conducting an unprecedented exercises on its territory, thus decided to show what it can do next steps to unleash the conflict in the Donbass.
From an ecclesiastical point of view, it is important that if the Moscow Patriarchate will not refute the participation of his priest in seeing off the volunteers, it will mean that the Russian Orthodox Church, which has so far officially preserved neutrality, begins to support one of the parties to the conflict in the Donbass. This will have implications for the parishes of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church in Moscow patriarchy, whose position will worsen. And to an even greater extent it will have consequences for the leadership of the UOC-MP, since it will be necessary to get out of this situation just to him.
The path of Vladimir Zaitsev clearly shows how similar priests appear in the church: these are people imbued with a militaristic spirit from childhood and politically educated. In numerous interviews, the priest characterizes himself as a former bully brought up in school military-patriotic circles. Then he graduated from the Faculty of History Ural State University - many ideologists of Russian nationalism are historians by training. In his further activities, Fr. Vladimir was also firmly connected with militaristic circles: he was a military priest of special forces, who repeatedly traveled to Chechnya.
In addition, he actively participated in "anti-sectarian" activities and was even fined for organization of Dvorkin's unofficial lecture in Yekaterinburg. He also accepted participation in the gay parade, which happened in Yekaterinburg in 2005, when, after priests passed behind the columns of clubs of the corresponding theme, consecrating the "defiled" earth. In Yekaterinburg, Zaitsev has unequivocal reputation. For example, here is what locals wrote about him in 2014 journalists: “Priest Vladimir came as a public defender Zaitsev. In the 2000s, he actively collaborated with the Roizman Foundation and led organization "Orthodox student brotherhood". Members of the “brotherhood”, with the “connivance” of Zaitsev, together with representatives of the “City Without Drugs”, carried out provocative actions related to the use of violence against persons non-traditional sexual orientation, representatives of other religious confessions, etc. Criminal prosecution on the fact of the actions of the Orthodox there were no student fraternity and "fondovtsy", perhaps because in the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation they had not yet introduced an article on extremism” .
It is obvious that for such a person his militaristic and nationalistic beliefs are more important than Orthodox ones, and he clearly does not intends to stop there. When a priest of this rank blesses people organizing something similar at the same time to the famous "caterpillar" from Sorokin's novel "The Day of the Oprichnik" and Sufi dhikr, but with neo-pagan symbols, it is obvious that as a priest he is insolvent and perhaps it is better for him to look for himself in another field.
And yet it is interesting how the hierarchy, which advocates improving the quality of theological education and the rejection of superstitions and pagan traditions, would comment on the participation of a specialist in the fight against "sects" in round dance, walking "in the sun" with stomping and shouting, presumably, "Rus!".
However, the priest is in a certain way consistent in his deeds: if he managed to take part in the gay parade, then at the consecration of Sorokinskaya "caterpillars" it looks organic. Same article in other threads: