Cross Tuzik

Portrait of Prigozhin in the cassock: where did Metropolitan Leonid come from, who writes obscene poems on opponents of war, and now also denunciations of “his” “colleagues”

“When we talk about the enemies and traitors of Russia, the Russian Church, many people think that it is there, far, and is hardly. No friends, eat! And these are - before our eyes. The whole legion, including people of different specialties, statuses, ranks and titles. And now, when we are all fighting for the future, we support our warriors in the margins of military operations, we must understand that the enemy inside is no less dangerous and vile, ”wrote the Patriarchal Exarch of Africa on May 24 in his telegram channel, managing the North African, South African and Yerevan dioceses of the Russian Orthodox Church, Metropolitan Leonid (Gorbachev). The mercilessness of the Kremlin’s enemies, no condescension to the “hating us”, advance of the interests of Russia in Africa and everywhere, regardless of the canons and church tradition, the faith in Putin and the complete success of “Svo” - the content of his rhetoric of the last 15 months. He also writes “acute-satiric poems”, not shy of non-normative vocabulary, and denunciations of “traitors in the cassoons”-clergy of his ROC who dared to remind of the peacekeeping commandments of Christ. The exarch serves not in Africa, but next to the Old Square - in the Moscow church of all saints on the kulishki.

Novyevropa tells about the clergyman who combines the features of Vladimir Solovyov and Evgeny Prigozhin, and now he has begun a campaign to strengthen his own influence in the church.

The beginning of the path

Leonid Eduardovich Gorbachev was born in October 1968 in Stavropol, but soon his mother, Victoria Viktorovna, moved to Krasnodar, where she got a job at a music school. There, the future commissar grew in a cassock. He grew up without a father, and earned his first fees, serving in the St. George Church of Krasnodar. Immediately after school, Gorbachev entered a laboratory assistant in the “training” of military unit 26265, and then served in the Soviet army. Returning, he became the hypodiacon of the archbishop of the Krasnodar and Kuban Isidore, who blessed the young man to study at the Leningrad seminary. The study did not set: at first Gorbachev transferred to the correspondence department, and then into an external system. Nevertheless, Isidore in 1990 ordained 21-year-old Leonid to the priest and tonsured monasticism. Gorbachev will eventually receive his master's degree only at the end of 2021 at the Russian University of Friendship of Peoples, protecting the work of African Christians.

How Hieromonk Gorbachev served in the Catherine Cathedral of Krasnodar for about seven years,

Under the wing of Archbishop Isidore, but did not get along with local bandits, because of the threats of which he hastily left the city.

According to Isidore’s patronage in Moscow, the then Almighty Archbishop Arseny (Epifanov), who recommended Leonid in the “military department” of the Patriarchate, from where Gorbachev was sent to the Russian brigade of the UN peacekeeping in Bosnia and Herzegovina, helped the young cleric. There, according to the official website of the Moscow Patriarchate, the future exarch received the medal of the North Atlantic Alliance "For the Service of the World". In this capacity, Gorbachev was presented to the then “Minister of Foreign Affairs” of the Russian Orthodox Church to Metropolitan Kirill (Gundyaev), who took him to the department of external church ties (ACCS) and sent him to study at the Theological Faculty of Athenian University.

Gorbachev worked a bit in the inter-Orthodox Secretariat of the Association and in 2003 was sent to the Russian spiritual mission in Jerusalem, where he established himself well-and not only from the church side.

Egypt

The first large career jump in Leonid’s biography occurred on December 24, 2004, when the Russian Orthodox Church Synod appointed him a representative of the Moscow Patriarch under Patriarch of Alexandria, the rector of the Temples of the Russian Orthodox Church in Cairo and Alexandria in the Igumen San. The former clergyman of the Krasnodar diocese Adrian (Mamaev) quotes the enthusiasm of Mom Leonid, Victoria Viktorovna, regarding the so serious appointment of her son: “You can imagine, Lennya now has a residence of 450 meters, a servant, and the bishops of the Patriarch of All Africa kiss his hands.”

Later, President Dmitry Medvedev included Leonid in his delegation during a visit to the Patriarch Alexandria Theodore II. But in 2010, the “Arab Spring” began, which the messenger of Moscow, of course, did not accept. “Good times when there were quiet and grace in Egypt,” he recalled , suddenly “crazy, uncontrollable crowds” was replaced.

Leonid talks about the exploits of the Embassy of the Russian Federation, to whom he helped "take parishioners from dysfunctional areas ... to provide them with temporary housing."

In the "troubled" days, the Egyptian police launched a new type of "business": Russian and Ukrainian male tourists began to be detained under insignificant pretexts, sometimes throwing drugs, demanding solid amounts for the liberation of "criminals". Several unfortunates who were in prison for foreigners managed to transfer letters to the representative office of the Russian Orthodox Church under Patriarch of Alexandria, as they believed to help the church and desperately achieve support from diplomats. The parishioner of the Russian temple in Cairo Vitaly Romanov began to visit prisoners and was able to transfer their letters to the temple. According to the former assistant Leonid Deacon Mikhail (the author of the “Crusader blog ” in LiveJournal), the father “ordered to immediately cancel the publication of letters and delete the scanned texts, giving the original personally to him. I foolishly done so ... In fact, I threw letters into the dark well, from where nothing goes anywhere. " For the ability to keep secrets and not create conflicts with the authorities of the country of stay, the embassy provided Gorbachev with a representative of a representative class with diplomatic numbers and even with a flagpole on the wing.

Argentina

On May 29, 2013, the decision of the Synod Leonid was appointed Bishop of Argentinean and South American. The bishop’s rank in the Russian Orthodox Church is considered the “charisma of power”, and often ordinary clergy - priests and deacons - suffer from the tyranny of bishops. “Once, Bishop Leonid arrived for his subordinate foreman-foreigner (Chilesu),” recalls Deacon Mikhail, who moved with Leonid from Cairo to Buenos Aires. - And when he, in terms of simplicity of sincere with a smile, held out his hand to him, then in response he heard: “You will poke his hands, I am a bishop, they take a blessing from me.” Now this guilty pop is banned. ”

Leonid was withdrawn from Argentina to Russia in the summer of 2016-just before the beginning of the “ cocaine case ”, when 362 kg of drugs were found in the arm of the Russian Embassy in Buenos Aires. The defendants in the case are held by the founders of the organization Moral (Mecenas Ortodoxos Rusos En America Latin - “Russian Orthodox philanthropists in Latin America”) Bliznyuk and Chikalo, the guard and mechanic of the embassy. Although the scandal erupted after Leonid’s departure, he was probably aware of the activities of the church roof, and the volume of a batch of drugs discovered by the police speaks of a well -established drug trafficking channel through near -church structures.

Ossetia

On June 3, 2016, the Synod appointed Leonid Bishop of Vladikavkaz and Alan. Leonid immediately had a difficult relationship with the Ossetian nationalists. And against the background of preparations for the celebration of the 1000th anniversary of the Baptism of Alania, friction grew into a conflict with the head of North Ossetia Vyacheslav Bitarov and the local intelligentsia. At first, the claims came down to insufficient financing of the celebrations, but it soon became clear that during the restoration of the Holy Georgian Cathedral in Vladikavkaz, the ancient Ossetian frescoes were destroyed.

The conflict spilled out after Leonid’s sermon in November 2019, when he accused the Ossetian people of religious ignorance

and mixing the elements of folk paganism to Christianity. The board of the National Forum of Alania in his statement stated that Leonid insulted the dignity of the Ossetian people, sacred to him, and "gave a signal to unleash the next repression." In response, the bishop was “deconing”, having given out the secret of his successful career and unsinkability: “Of course, we would like these processes to be a special supervision of the relevant authorities. In general, I met with many people in Moscow, and they hear us. Let's hope that they will always hear us. ”

Exarch Africa

After several scandals, Leonid grew up in the eyes of the patriarch to the whole "anti -crisis manager." And at the meeting on December 29, 2021, the Synod appointed him to the most problematic section - the exarch of Africa, that is, the church leader of the territory that since ancient times belonged to the ancient Alexandria Patriarchate. According to the official version, the Russian Orthodox Church was offended by the Alexandria Patriarchate for recognizing the autocephaly of the Ukrainian Church, that is, its independence from Moscow. However, the geography of the activities of the African exarchate surprisingly coincided with the Wagner PMC interests-the first parishes appeared in the Central African Republic. As the New Gazeta wrote , the interests of the founder of the PMC Prigozhin, in addition to the TsA, extend to Libya, Zimbabwe, Congo, Mozambique, Madagascar, Guinea, Guinea-Bisau, Angola and Sudan. In some of these countries, structures are also created under the cover of the Russian Orthodox Church. The church does not publish a full list of its African “acquisitions”, talking about 400, then about 800 newly joined or those who want to join black priests. On the official website of the exarchate Africa, information is posted only about 12 parishes. The lure of priests from the Alexandria Patriarchate in the Russian Orthodox Church and the maintenance of newly accepted communities is a very costly matter, while in pursuit of the quantity, clergy with the most confusing canonical status are accepted.

On November 22, last year, condemning Leonid's activities in his canonical territory, the Synod of the Alexandria Patriarchate deprived him of the sacred dignity. Already this year, this decision was officially supported by the Elladskaya and Bulgarian churches. The reaction of the defendant himself is difficult to call adequate:

“These pink Greek dreams are in the same trend with the statements of the leading Western politicians of the world level, when the gynecologist“ builds ”and heads the European Council, the housewife commands the army and so on.”

Leonid made it clear that his mission in Africa is not so much religious as political : “Neither this nor other decisions from the outside will affect the service of my church, my fatherland ... I am sure that Russia will pass all the trials ... Preaching the social and political equality of relations between countries and peoples.”

Commissioner in the cassock

On January 23, 2023, Metropolitan Leonid was included in the sanctions list of Ukraine for “propaganda and support for war”. The victory in “Svo” turned out to be the core of his faith, and the enemies became their own brothers by faith - the hierarchs of the Ukrainian Church of the Moscow Patriarchate. The exarch threatens them to “drive a filthy broom” after the “liberation” of Kyiv. The typical rhetoric of the Patriarchal Exarch in relation to the state leadership of Ukraine: “There is no one to talk to there. The Nazi scum, which seized power ... They (the Ukrofashists) will all run away and find a refuge behind the ocean ... The rest is awaited by a completely unenviable fate. " The Russian metropolitan calls for the murder of the entire leadership of Ukraine: "If they are engaged in terror at the state level, then everyone who is involved in decision -making must be eliminated." As expected, mournful about the martyrdom of Daria Dugina and Vladlen Tatar, not forgetting to praise the FSB:

“Special services work, this is visible. I want the tribunals to work further. ” The inquisitive conditions of detention in Russian pre -trial detention centers and in zones the hierarch considers the obvious advantage of the "Russian world"

And calls: “periodically show the conditions of the content of these in the colonies. Who was in contact, he understands what I am talking about. The rest can be seen on the Internet, although this will not convey the entire range of sensations. ” And he concludes: “No indulgence and amnesties! No exchanges and pardon! ”

Leonid hates not only Ukraine, but also, as expected, America and in general the whole West. “They will beat you,” he recently turned to the Americans. “And everyone will beat you soon.” Because fiercely hate and despise ... The sunset of less than a 300-year-old gangster association is nearing. " And here the metropolitan sets out his ideas about the West: “In power, there are abstracted Russophobes and those who do not blink through the eye to erase Russia from the world map. Therefore, we are not building any contractual illusions, and pink glasses are not in trend now. There is a civilization war for the right to live ... Russia for these vultures as a bone across the throat. They are nonhumans. "

With no less passion, Leonid of internal enemies reveals and exposes and denounces, including in the ranks of the Russian Orthodox Church. In his programmatic speech on the Komsomolskaya Pravda radio, he called on: "To end with all the negative enemies within Russia, who decompose, but thank God, many have left." On May 9, the hierarch published a swearing rhyme of his own essay, where he put into the mouth of the “former actor” Dmitry Nazarov, who “does not like the Russian people”, a replica: “I condemned the Victory Day today / poured a stop, spells, caviar / doctors - you will probably die, I will die.” In general, all the "poetry" of the Patriarchal Exarch is devoted to hatred of enemies. Here , from the fresh:

"Artists, comedians and singers,

Politicians, priests, others,

How February was packed in a gloom,

Forcing his mouth to tear the ends with his homeland ...

The final of the events ahead, it is long,

We clarified the prologue. Oh!

You need not a producer, but a proctologist,

Better - a lady is a sweet lady with a scythe! "

A week ago, Leonid posted in social networks a denunciation of the most, perhaps, known in the modern Russian Orthodox Church, Bibleist, Doctor of Philology Andrei Desnitsky, who agreed to perform in the Russian -speaking anti -war community of Reforum Space Vilnius. Within the framework of the same platform, but already in Berlin, the hierarch is scribbling, the cleric of the Spanish-Portuguese diocese of the Russian Orthodox Church Prota acts. Andrey Kordochkin, known for his anti -war position. “When we all fight for the future, we support our warriors in the margins of military operations,” Leonid sums up, “we must understand that the enemy inside is no less dangerous and vile. And if he cannot be defeated and the “Avgian stables” will not be cleaned, it will be very difficult to ... Reforum Space - the office of Mikhail Khodorkovsky, which is financed by the US State Department. ”

The other day, the Metropolitan crossed the unspoken “red line” prohibiting one hierarch of the Russian Orthodox Church to publicly attack another, and thereby began his, so to speak, election campaign in Prigozhinsky style. The object of the attack was chosen to begin with a bishop of the Kafsky Peter (Prutyan), nourishing parishes of the Russian Orthodox Church in Portugal. The Metropolitan introduced him into the category of “traitors in the cassors”, drawing attention to the interview, which Peter gave the American Catholic site The Pillar three months ago. “According to Bishop Peter,” Leonid reports, “people in the West are definitely better informed about the situation in Ukraine than the Russians. Bishop Peter spoke about the head of the Russian Orthodox Church. ” The post ends with the call to “clean the Avigiev stables” already in the bishop of the Moscow Patriarchate.

The disgraced Moscow Protodeacon Andrei Kuraev characterizes Metropolitan Leonid as "a completely career oriented predator." “In nature, everything is honest. What I got, then ate, ”writes Kuraev. The purpose of Leonid’s attack on Bishop Peter is the immediate supervisor of the latter, the young, recently appointed chairman of the Association Metropolitan Anthony (Sevryuk). “So, he entered the struggle for the chair of the chairman of the Association and clearly has“ warranty letters ”from someone not from the patriarchy,” concludes Fr. Andrey. - Anthony is a hundred percent creature of Cyril ... Leonid connects his hopes with other centers of influence (the All -African Wagner, Chekists, etc.). Leonid goes to the scandal, publicly intervenes in the affairs of someone else's diocese, and sacrifices the interests of the church to its career ambitions. ”