Pastorskaya rebuke

The visit of Patriarch Kirill to Bulgaria exacerbated the relationship of Moscow and Sofia

On the 140th anniversary of the liberation of Bulgaria from the Ottoman yoke, local Russophiles dreamed of inviting President Putin. The dream has not come true. Patriarch Kirill arrived. In the course of the visit and participation in the festive events of the highest clearance of Russia, a scandal broke out, which still does not subside.

The reason was the replica of the patriarch at a meeting with the president of Bulgaria. In response to the thanksgiving words of Ruman Radev addressed to not only Russian, but also Romanians, Finns, Lithuanians, Poles, Ukrainians, other peoples who also participated in the liberation war, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church expressed his “disappointment that he heard the wrong historical interpretation of the events” of that time.

According to Cyril, there can be no “political and pragmatic reasons” to silence or falsely interpret the role of Russia. And he added: “We are for historical truth, Mr. President. We won this historical truth with our blood. ”

In turn, President Radev, noting that he respects “every drop of blood spilled on Bulgarian land”, emphasized:

“In no way, we do not underestimate the contribution of the Russian army to the liberation of Bulgaria, but the Russian army was multinational, and we honor the memory of every nation.”

It would seem that the parties spoke out, took note of opposite points of view, and the topic is closed. However, the instructive tone of Patriarch Kirill in the spirit of the "elder brother" caused in Bulgarian society a stormy discussion on how Russia's attitude to Bulgaria should be evaluated.

It should be noted that the soil for them in recent years has been well prepared by a number of ambiguous statements by Russian officials. Thus, President Putin, meeting with his colleague from Macedonia, said that writing to ancient Rus' came from the Macedonian land, crossing the Bulgarian kingdom from history, where the brothers Cyril and Methodius lived at the time of the creation of the Slavic alphabet.

The newly made vice-speaker of the State Duma, Peter Tolstoy, offended the Bulgarian, saying that Russia had long bought Bulgaria, because, they say, the Russians have already owned a significant part of the Bulgarian real estate. Which is actually far from true.

The representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova, generally claimed that in 1943, Bulgarian Jews from the Holocaust did not save the heroic efforts of the local intelligentsia and clergy, but the Soviet Army, which at that time was still thousands of kilometers from Bulgaria.

The reaction in Bulgarian society to such statements has always been painful and unequivocal: the Kremlin, constantly recalling its role of the “great liberator”, intervenes in the country's inner life without proper respect for the national self -awareness of the Bulgarian people. And this time, according to local observers, the high Moscow guest "overshadowed the national holiday in the anniversary year, threw a shadow to the memory of the soldiers (besides Christians) who heroically died for Bulgarian freedom, and opened a new wound in Russian-Bulgarian relations."

A special statement was made by the ex-President of Bulgaria Rosen Plevneliev, in which, in particular, he wrote: “I do not agree with Patriarch Kirill, who behaved as a mentor at an official dinner in the Holy Synod and imposed“ the correct interpretation of history ”, which became nothing more than another manipulation of history from Russia. In several of my speeches, I warned of imposing the ideology of aggressive pan -Slavic orthodox nationalism by president Putin. The Russian Orthodox Church today is completely subordinate to the state and is an inseparable part of the ambitions of President Putin about the division of spheres of influence. ”

Not without personal attacks on the Russian Patriarch. Vice Prime Minister Valery Simeov, coalition coalition coalition (OP), in an interview with Bulgarian television, called Cyril the “cigarette metropolitan” and “second-bit agent of the Soviet KGB”, who has a “personal aircraft and wears hours for 30 thousand euros”.

Simeonov’s ally of Simeonov and the leader of the Nationalist Party “Attach”, known for his pro-Odmoskovsky mood, Siderov, defended the head of the Russian Orthodox Church and demanded that the Deputy Prime Minister publicly apologize to Cyril and resign. Simeonov in a categorical form refused to apologize. The coalition was on the verge of a split, which could turn into a government crisis.

The Anti -Bulgarian Bacchanalia, which was arranged on the First Channel of Russian Television in the program of Vladimir Solovyov dated March 6, the so -called analysts and experts in international politics, did not remain unattended by the press of Bulgaria. They, accusing the whole Bulgarian people of ingratitude, admitted that the traitors and villains were "in power in the country.

Personally, President Radev, who had high hopes in Moscow, was sold to the West. Based on this, it is time to help the Bulgarians change their rulers.

The apologists of the “besieged fortress” and the thesis are “around the enemies” in the propaganda frenzy do not even want to notice how entire nations repel from themselves. But the Bulgarians, despite the fact that they have not wanted to put up with the role of an eternally teaching “younger brother” for a long time, are still very warm about the Russians, love our culture, literature, music. They carefully preserve the monuments and graves of Russian soldiers and officers who fell in the Russo-Turkish war. In almost every Bulgarian city there are streets named after Russian generals and diplomats, and no one is going to rename them. Bye.