Vladyka and his resource

All state corporations in Russia donate Tikhon. Does he have a chance not to become a patriarch?

The movement of the “confessor of Putin” by Metropolitan Tikhon (Shevkunov) from Moscow to Pskov sharply increased the “federal rating” of this deeply depressed regional center. The hopes that the region connects with the most influential (after the patriarch?) The leader of the Russian Orthodox Church resulted in the proclamation of Tikhon by the “man of the Year of the Pskov Region”. But he is far from even the first anniversary of the ministry in the region.

Putin himself “blessed” the new, special status of the Pskov Metropolis, without any ceremonies, who came to his friend in the Pskov Pechora in November. After that, a real competition began among the VIPs in a visit to the Pskov Metropolis. Just the other day, on January 20, behind the closed doors of the Trinity Cathedral Pskov, Tikhon, who was non-cannically, had a non-81-year-old director Andrei Konchalovsky with actress Yulia Vysotskaya, who have been living together for more than 20 years, having given birth to two children. Nonecanonically - because for Konchalovsky it is the fifth marriage, and the Orthodox Church allows the wedding of only three. But Nikita Mikhalkov himself came to the celebration, the brother of the “newlywed”, before whom, according to the testimony of the banker Sergei Pugachev, Tikhon sincerely reverently

Pugachev, a former senator and owner of Interprombank, was the first major sponsor of Shevkunov’s projects back in the 90s. He disputes with the KGB General Nikolai Leonov the honor of dating the young archimandrite Tikhon with the young then Vladimir Putin. As a result, Pugachev quarreled with Putin, and therefore with Shevkunov. Once in a deaf emigration, he willingly shares his memories of both. In an interview, calling Tikhon a “monarchist-adventurer”, Pugachev gives a curious detail: “At the same time, he is very Soviet: loves Soviet songs, sobs under the march“ Slavs ”. It forces the choir of the Sretensky Monastery to perform Soviet songs. He has a vinaigrette in his head ...

He has, in my opinion, a terrible feature for the priest: official reading. " He really reads Putin, believes in his divine charisma ...

First of all - monasteries!

In Pskov, Tikhon found a rather broken church economy: the predecessor sent to rest, Metropolitan Eusebius (Savvin), could not cope with the diocesan administration. And in the Pskov region there are many unique ancient monasteries, not yet covered by the “Board of Trustees”, led by some Moscow official of the first size (there is now such a fashion-to lead the “Board of Trustees” of some famous monastery and “go into history” as her savior).

And Tikhon agreed with Deputy Prime Minister Alexei Gordeev on the allocation of 80 million rubles (according to preliminary data) for the restoration of the destructive Snowo and Mirozhsky monasteries. “Soon, I hope he (Gordeev) will come, and we will return to the consideration of the issue,” Tikhon told reporters on January 18. The Pskov river Great poses a threat to the ancient monasteries: if Snodogorsk slides into it with a high steep, then the Mirozhsky stands in the lowland, and the spring spills are flooded. And, by the way, the Preobrazhensky Cathedral of the Mirozhsky Monastery is the only one in Russia, where completely-from floor to dome-a painting of the Greek masters of the 30-40s of the XII century has been preserved. (That is, the era is still “to the foundation of Moscow”!).

But the main subject of concerns (and attracting Moscow funds) of the new Pskov Vladyka was the Pskov-Pechora Monastery, on the territory of which his bestseller is developing the “Nesy saints” (about him as a business project-a little lower).

Here, of course, 80 million will not be enough for anything at all. “God-building” (as it is written above their entrance) the caves of the monastery are about to collapse. Recently, the monastery authorities for some reason cut down the centuries-old trees that strengthened them with their roots, breaking an English lawn over the caves. “Kiselev-TV” in the Vesti Week program of December 23 in terrible colors described the condition of the caves: “Safe air, black mold, salt stains on the walls ... The worst thing is that the walls show off ... The slopes are crawling and the water is accumulating underground and threatens to destroy a unique monument.”

We are talking about multi -billion dollar investments to save the monastery.

In the meantime, Metropolitan Tikhon ordered the ban on the monastery of excursions by the guides with unusual monastery. At the same time, the fee for excursions increases, however, to those who do not want to pay, the Metropolitan offers to “write a statement”. The deputy of the Pskov Regional Assembly Lev Schlosberg sees the signs of arbitrariness in this, about which he officially informed the prosecutor's office. He states that a religious organization that enjoys the object of cultural heritage of federal significance introduced “restrictions on the access of citizens to the territory of the Pskovo-Pechersky Monastery”, which is federal state property. ” “A visit to the monastery by tourists who do not attribute themselves to pilgrims,” Schlosberg emphasizes, “is not officially provided.” And this despite the fact that before, even under the Soviet regime, it was the Pskovo-Pechora Monastery that was famous for absolutely openness.

“Certified by the monastery” excursions - sounds quite peculiar. The journalist of MK-Pskov, a certain monk Khariton told in the caves, “on which icon the pectoral cross of Konstantin Khabensky and the Medallion of Tatyana Doronina are hanging, and on which-the ring of“ one TV presenter ”(Oksana Fedorova), who came to the monastery with the head of Pskov Ivan Zetsersky and asked the monks to pray, so that God would give her a girl.”

The stream went

The first large corporation, which officially redirected her charity flows to Pskov from Moscow, was RusHydro PJSC, which is part of Igor Sechin's interests. For 2019, RusHydro planned 15 million rubles of helping the Pskov diocese, which was told by The Bell. According to the Vestnik RusHydro magazine, since 2011 the corporation has helped the Sretensky monastery on the Lubyanka, which was the viceroy of which Tikhon, and the seminary located there, explaining his actions as follows: “Today we are investing with the patronage in the future priest, and tomorrow he will motivate people to create in his parish.” It is curious that Tikhon himself ended his own seminary, where he was the rector, only in 2004, after 10 years of governorship in the Sretensky monastery. In fact, the scenario faculty of VGIK, ended in 1982, remains his only full -fledged education.

The grandiose design of the construction of the Cathedral of New Martyrs on the site of the historical development of the XVII -XIX centuries, which was demolished by the monastery of the XVII - XIX centuries, helped to expand the circle of sponsors to Tikhon. On Sretensky Boulevard. Rosneft connected to the project, with pain perceived by the architectural community, in addition to RusHydro. Something was sacrificed by the Generals of the FSB working in the neighborhood.

“The temple erected on the Lubyanka for the new martyrs for the money of the children and the heirs of their tormentors,” the Achilles Orthodox site recognizes bitterly, “literally a repetition of the gospel history about the tombs of the prophets” that decorated them ...

Obviously, after Tikhon, the business holding “Don’t Holy Saints” also moves to Pskov. This is the name of his Bestseller book-a collection of short, with humor, stories about the life of the Pskov-Pechora monks of the 1980s, the era of neophytics then Goshi Shevkunov. She has already withstood 12 publications, the total circulation of which is approaching two million. As Tikhon admitted in an interview with RBC, only on this book he earned 370 million rubles, and there are still films and even cafes “Ned -made saints” all in the same Lubyanka.

A characteristic detail: the editor of the book was the current State Duma deputy and chief editor of the newspaper "Culture" Elena Yampolskaya. According to her, Tikhon handed her rather scattered records that she turned into a whole work. Yampolskaya does not hide her reverence in front of Stalin, who is rooted in her soul on ... Orthodoxy.

“Russia is able to keep two forces over the abyss,” the deputy argues. - The first is called God. The second is Stalin ...

This man, in my opinion, was sent, of course, by God in order to preserve Russia ... And personally, I will always be very grateful to him. ”

Here the place is to move on to the “historical parks” “Russia is my story”, which are invented by Tikhon and impose the ideology as a whole close to Yampolskaya, but, of course, more artistic and branched. This is the most grandiose church-political project of our time, against which even the Kirillovsky “200 temples of walking distance” fade. And he also comes with Tikhon in Pskov. On January 22, the New York Times drew attention to Megaproekt:

“The Russian nationalist project is the exhibition“ Russia is my history ”... exposed throughout the Russian Federation, it glorifies Russian despots, including Ivan the Terrible and Stalin, as great leaders, and the Decembrists put up with Western agents ... The message of the exhibition is that the size of Russia and geopolitical ambitions require a strong (even repressive) leader to strengthen the countries and confront its enemies and confront its enemies in the west. "

It is symbolic that the initiative group for the nomination of Vladimir Putin to the president for the third term gathered in the VDNH pavilion, allocated by Tikhon under this park of historical dreams. The Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation, when it was headed by the “True Chado” Olga Vasilieva, promoted the “Russia - My History” project in a higher education system. According to the Rain TV channel, only in 2017 and only one Gazprom sent to the Shevkunovsky project extinguishing the “strong leaders of Russia”, the bulk of its charity budget of 26 billion rubles. “In 2015, for his work on the project,” the TV channel recalls, “Shevkunov received a prime minister Dmitry Medvedev a prize in the field of culture.” Then the Ministry of Culture reported that the exhibitions are now held ... on behalf of Putin.

In November 2016, Shevkunov announced that the constant exhibitions of the exhibition “Russia is my story” will appear throughout the country. ” The central exposition in the 57th VDNH pavilion occupies 27.7 thousand square meters. m, for the sake of its maintenance, a special fund of humanitarian projects was created, and Norilskel acts as a general sponsor. In other regions of the Russian Federation, 25 Shevkunov “historical parks” with a total value of 10 billion rubles are built or already built. These funds are taken from local budgets and from sponsor companies, the largest of which was Gazprom. So, for example, an exhibition in Ufa, which opened in 2017, cost 300 million, 40% of which was covered by Gazprom. The most expensive center from this series is built in St. Petersburg - almost 1.5 billion rubles.

According to the Center for Anti -Corruption Research and Initiatives, Transpenseri International -Russia,

“Since 2013, almost 150 million rubles were allocated through the Presidential Grants system to create the exhibition content ... 1.5 billion was spent on the construction of the Pavilion at VDNH, where the budget financing received is absolutely uncompetitive, that is, in fact, a specific network of organizations was created for a few years in advance. It is quite difficult to imagine another similar structure, which could be so easily active in both Moscow and in the regions, and in four years to unhindestively grow into a federal project. ”

The Dream Park in Pskov Tikhon, of course, wanted to build the Great River on the most magnificent bank. But for some reason, the owner of the site did not agree with the governor-and the filmmaker Tikhon decided not to repeat the plot of Andrei Zvyagintsev’s film “Leviathan”. Now the center is planned to be built at the intersection of Riga Prospekt and Maxim Gorky Street. So, Gazprom, Rosneft and Norkel, - Welcome to Pskov!

"Pskov Spring" ...

Orthodox and Orthodox funds, which directly include Shevkunov, have amounts of an order of magnitude more modestly than the above -described astronomical capital. The Metropolitan belongs to the share in the Fund of Russian Culture and in the Foundation "Return". The Foundation of St. Vasily the Great, established by Konstantin Malofeev, is a little greater interest - a recognized sponsor of the Russian Spring of 2014 in the Donbass. Tikhon is a member of the Board of Trustees of this Fund, in particular, the pilgrimage of the Gifts of the Magi in the Crimea and Ukraine in the early 2014, with the direct participation of Igor Girkin-Strelkov, whose associates carried out the "gifts" "reconnaissance on the ground".

It is characteristic that it was on the Pskov land that the paratroopers-“ichtamnets” who fell victims of that bloody “spring” lie in the Nameless graves.

In 2012, the Fund announced the budget worth $ 40 million, and the report on the official website of the fund ends in 2015, when the main expense item was a fashionable elite gymnasium of St. Vasily the Great in the Odintsovo district of the Moscow Region, the corps of which is built on the model of the Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum. The fund fully provided the educational needs of the Sretensky seminary, when Tikhon was its rector. Among the “exotic”, but characteristic projects of the fund are the “Center for Paleo -Ethnological Research”, which, as it is written on the official website, conducts “a comprehensive study of the processes of ethnogenesis of ancient and modern peoples”, and financing by the ultra -right of the National Front Marine Le Pen.

Metropolitan Tikhon has one “educational” idea for the fund and in Pskov.

“Once Pskov could be proud of his applied art, his amazing school of restorers,” Vladyka recalled at the last press conference. - And now, too, artists, experts in applied art, but there are less and less. The Pskov diocese will have a lot of work on the restoration of our monuments ... It is a sin not to create its own Pskov restoration school, its own restoration workshops ... A boarding school will be created on the basis of the Art Lyceum, children from areas and other regions of Russia will live in it. ”

Metropolitan Tikhon (Shevkunov) is an absolutely unique phenomenon in the church and political life of modern Russia. If there are no great shocks, he has no chance not to become a patriarch.

No one shows such an ideal hit in all trends - political, mythological, psychological, financial - in Russia. Tikhon managed to connect all the largest corporations to his projects, while even the Patriarch is content with only some. He managed to make all influential people with his “spiritual children” - from the president to the head of the Security Council Nikolai Patrushev, the chairman of the Constitutional Court Vladimir Zorkin and TV presenter Andrei Malakhov. He is truly a “hero of our time” with all his vanity, social abysses and imperial complexes. And, of course, with a beautiful seasoning of the external, “unanimous” piety ...