He is not a demon for you

The story of Pasha Mercedes-sent under the house arrest of the scandalous governor of the Kiev Pechersk Lavra, who is radical even by the standards of Moscow

Lavra prisoner

At the request of the SBU, the court in Kyiv appointed the governor of the Kiev Pechersk Lavra (according to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate) to Metropolitan Paul (in the world-Peter Lebed) a preventive measure in the form of house arrest. The hierarch, which in the last days falls into the top of news tapes, is suspected of committing crimes under Art. 161 (incitement of interfaith hostility) and 436-2 (denial of Russian aggression) of the Criminal Code of Ukraine.

The reason for the suspicion was numerous insults against the autocephalous Orthodox Church of Ukraine (PCU), which Pavel admitted in his sermons. He called the National Church recognized by the Patriarchate of the Patriarchate “Group of Athells,“ Demons ”and“ Samosvyaty ”. Most recently, he accused the president and authorities of Ukraine of killing “babies and millions of people”, and on the eve of his arrest threatened Vladimir Zelensky, his family and “pack” with suffering and eternal destruction. Along with threats and even violence in relation to journalists, these statements can become the subject of another criminal proceedings against the governor, whom the Ukrainian media for addiction to luxury call only “Pasha Mercedes” .

The Minister of Culture of Ukraine Alexander Tkachenko complained to the police on the unauthorized seizure of buildings and property of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra National Reserve, which terminated on March 29 an agreement with the UOC-MP on free use of all objects in the Lavra. The followers of the Moscow Patriarchate appealed this action in court. The lawsuit was adopted for proceedings in the economic court of Kyiv, the preliminary meeting was scheduled for April 26. However, the court refused to claim “interim measures” in the lawsuit-that is, to suspend the process of acceptance and transfer of Lavra property ...

What is the secret of Paul's extraordinary self -confidence when, by balancing on the verge of a foul, he challenges the entire leadership of Ukraine over and over again? We tell the biography of a scandalous clergyman.

The secret of success

Pavel will soon turn 62, and about half of his life he leads the largest monastery throughout the post -Soviet space. Until the age of 21, Peter Lebid was a simple village guy from the Mlynovsky district of the Rivne region - he studied at the technical school of Soviet trade and served in the army. Metropolitan recalls that short -lived period of biography with nostalgia: “They loved me very much in trade - I had peas, mayonnaise, sausages and condensed milk. Weddings, funeral - everyone came to me. "

But the doors to the fairy tale were truly opened in 1984, after entering the Moscow Theological Seminary. At the age of 26 in Lutsk, Peter becomes a priest and soon receives an appointment to the ancient Assumption Church of the village of Nizhkinichi, the Ivanichevsky district of the Volyn region. Soon, as Yuri Velinets told reporters, under the guise of repairs, Peter Pavel dismantled the temple iconostasis of the 17th century, created by the allegedly famous master of Ukrainian Baroque Iov Consterial. Partially, the iconostasis was burned, but part of the icons and family coats of arms of the Kiseel clan hit the black market, where we could be estimated at tens of thousands of dollars. For Ukraine, the era of the collapse of the USSR is a very tangible amount, “starting capital”.

After this story, a modest rural priest accepts monasticism with the name Pavel and at the age of 30 is being built to the rank of archimandrite. Right from the arrival in the Deaf Volynsky village, bypassing all the intermediate steps of the church career, on March 30, 1994 he was appointed to the post of governor of the Holy Assumption of the Kiev Pechersk Lavra, where at that time there were already several of his own archimandrites who had been striking in the monastery from the very moment of its restoration in 1988. In contrast to them, the Viceroy-Vister at that moment did not even have a higher education-he will graduate from the Kyiv Theological Academy only in 1996. On his 36th birthday, in 1997, Pavel becomes a bishop, after another 6 years-an archbishop, and after another 8-a metropolitan. Moreover, he immediately gets into the highest caste of the Metropolitans of the UOC -MP - appointed by a permanent member of its sacred synod.

Knocking and raiding

Not distinguished by good manners or deep education, but possessing a natural mark of the Volyn peasant, Pavel quickly acquires his connections in the capital, builds his own “candle factory”-a giant international business empire under the brand of the famous laurel-and begins a political career. In 2007, the governor suddenly supports the Communist Party of Ukraine, associated with Soviet persecutions for religion, but soon nominates his candidacy in Kyivrad from the “Party of Regions” Viktor Yanukovych. In the metropolitan parliament, he met until Yanukovych’s flight in 2014, however, he personally did not go to meetings, but gave his card to voting a faction partners (in Ukraine such deputies are called Knopkokai). Entering the top of the then party in power helped Paul to expand his ties with Moscow - the newly elected Patriarch Kirill (Gundyaev) appoints him a member of the inter -gran presence of the Russian Orthodox Church, and in 2011 Pavel receives the Order of Friendship from Putin's hands.

The managerial style of the governor initially confined Ukrainian officials. “We just selected the buildings, and I do not hide it,” Pavel boasted with his characteristic simplicity in an interview. “So they tell us what we already have.” In addition to the dozens of buildings transferred in this way, Pavel self -built in the lower part of the Lavra another 36 - sometimes he simply demolished the dilapidated medieval monument and placed a remake in his place (this happened with the bram of the nearby caves). Activists discovered in 2015 a luxurious Paul mansion in an elite village on the territory of the rural community of Voronkov near Kiev (a search was later held there). Nearby is a slightly less luxurious mansion of the former treasurer of Lavra, and now the Metropolitan of the Vinnitsa UOC MP Barsanofia.

According to the “Avtomaydanovites”, the company “Cozy House” built these mansions as a “rollback” for its admission to extensive restoration work Lavra.

The metropolitan has its own house in the center of Kyiv, near the laurel.

During the serious illness of the then Primate of the UOC MP Metropolitan Vladimir (Sabodan), which was distinguished by pro -Ukrainian views, Pavel participated in the intrigue to seize the department of the Primate of the Church, hindered by Yanukovych's entourage. At first he became the head of the audit commission to verify the financial activity of the Kyiv Metropolis of the UOC MP, and then - the temporarily managing this metropolitan, which, in theory, opened the way to the head of the Primate.

However, Metropolitan Vladimir managed to return to the church management, he tried to shift Paul as a “conspirator” and send him to Chernigov. But Pavel had enough ties in the Yanukovych administration and among large oligarchs to keep his place. Later, he remained faithful to Yanukovych, supporting the violence of the security forces during the acceleration of Euromaidan.

We will die

The scandalous image of the Lavra governor in the Ukrainian media began to form when Pavel was carried away by the imposition of curses on behalf of the church on all officials and journalists who tried to interfere with his “business” - illegal construction in the laurel (by the way, she is included in the UNESCO World Heritage List!) Hotels, shops, cafes, and renting premises that the state transferred the UOC MP in Gratuitous use. Seeking the eviction from the Lavra of the Institute of Epidemiology and Infectious Diseases of the Academy of Medical Sciences of Ukraine, the Metropolitan complained that he was “disgusting” to be next to infected AIDS. When the national reserve tried to stop the unsystematic development of the laurel, threatening the collapse of its famous caves, Pavel uttered his spell on the camera: “Until the evening you will die - in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.” No one died (according to Paul, four died), but soon the searches came to the Metropolitan for the first time - the administration of Petro Poroshenko at the end of 2018 decided to slightly calm down the hierarch before granting Tomos about autocephaly of PEC (of course, Pavel, like the whole UOC -MP, does not recognize Tomos). In addition to the pro -Russian literature, objects of very delicate properties were also found in the suburban estate of Paul, hinting at certain practices that do not decorate the monks. However, the flared scandal was then furious.

Independence from Ukraine

However, the state is more interested in Paul’s political propaganda, whose headquarters he made the greatest shrine of the Ukrainian people, in fact, provoking the current confrontation around it. Even against the background of the official position of the Moscow Patriarchate, the eyes of the Lavra governor seem radical - in his opinion, after February 24, 2022, Ukrainians “reap the fruits” of their erroneous policy towards Russia. Earlier, Pavel did not recognize the entry of Crimea into Ukraine, ambiguously assessed the “desire of the Donbass for free choice”, and in the temples of the Lavra sang spiritual poems about the revival of Russia. In January of this year, Pavel was included in the Ukrainian sanctions list.

The leadership of the UOC -MP had a chance to civilized to solve the Paul problem. Experts and insiders suggested that at a meeting of the Synod of this Church, which was last legally passed on the territory of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra on March 20, planned to resign Paul and other suction metropolitans. But the Synod did not dare to change personnel, so the conflict of the UOC -MP and the Ukrainian state went into a more stringent stage. The former responsible editor of the Moscow Patriarchate Journal, Sergei Chapnin, who has now moved to the United States, suggests that the UOC-MP has been destroyed in the case of Paul, the Primate of the Church of the Church, should take on the structure of the evicted brethren of the Kiev Pechersk Lavra, but he decided to shift these costs to Pavel himself. It is noteworthy that in the ranks of the "defenders of the Lavra" gathered at its entrance and in the territory, Metropolitan Onufry did not appear in recent days.