Does Putin believe in God?

Conversation with Andrei Kuraev

At the end of 2023, the Ministry of Justice of Russia again updated the lists of foreign agents, entering them, among others, protodiacon and the famous Orthodox publicist Andrei Kuraev. In October, he moved to the Czech Republic.

Kuraev is one of the most consistent opponents of the public policy of the Russian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate. In 2020, the Diocesan Church Court deprived him of the sanctions for his critical statements. The decision entered into force in April 2023, when it was approved by the Patriarch of Moscow and All Rus' Kirill.

Andrei Kuraev is a prominent religious figure and missionary, laureate of many church awards. In theological disputes, he often had disagreements with the official position of the Russian Orthodox Church. In 2014, he publicly criticized the annexation of Crimea by Russia, and in 2022 he opposed the war of Russia in Ukraine and was fined for "discrediting the Russian army."

About why he decided to move to Prague, about conflicts in the Russian Orthodox Church and how to defeat the sin of despondency, Andrei Kuraev told in an interview with Radio Liberty:

Prague is the first abroad to open to me

-Once upon a time, several years of my childhood went here in Prague. This was the first abroad to open before me. Adults told me that this may be the most beautiful capital of Europe, but I could not believe it. It cannot be the best - and suddenly Soviet, and even so that I would get it right away. Since then, 50 years have passed - a whole life. I traveled a lot around Europe and I can say: in beauty, only one European capital - Petersburg can compete with Prague.

Andrey Kuraev

- What did you dream about during your Prague childhood, do you remember a lot from that time?

I'm some wrong pioneer: I have no nostalgia

- I remember that it was 1973 and the country had just watched the Seventeen Moments of Spring, where Joseph Kobzon sang such tearful songs about love for his homeland. And here I am a Soviet child, and for me it, of course, was supposed to be the standard of perception of our Soviet homeland. And when I came here, I suddenly once noticed that I was some wrong pioneer: I have no nostalgia.

- This fall, you literally took the threat from the representative of the Russian Orthodox Church about your criminal prosecution and decided to leave Russia. At the same time, your conflict with the Russian Orthodox Church is protracted in nature, given all your statements of the last ten years. Why did you decide to leave only now and how difficult it was for you?

Remaining in Russia, you are deprived of the opportunity to plan your future

- Of course, I still disagree with this decision until the end, I have not reconciled with him so far. Why now? Because some have gone crazy. We will not show your finger, guess yourself. And he didn’t just go crazy, but defiantly went crazy. People are distributed terms and repressions that are absolutely and obviously disproportionate with their actions. That is, even if you consider their words and deeds criminal, it is still unthinkable. How is it for a word, like, judgment, not even a call to something, but just a personal assessment people get more terms than killers receive? And it seems that with a lower chance of an amnesty, because they are not socially close. Remaining in Russia, you are completely deprived of the opportunity to even plan your future at least a little bit. Because, going to bed, you can wake up from a call in the door of completely unwind guests. Sometimes not even a bell, but an explosion of this door or its hacking. Again, I want to have something private in my life, but when at any moment you can take a search with confiscation, this is not pleasing. So this is not me changed, but the country has changed. Sorry for her.

Ivan Voronin and Andrey Kuraev

- In an interview, you told how the KGB representative tried to recruit you. Were there repeated situations already in recent history?

I think I'm lucky

- The last torture was just in August 1991, three days before the coup. Then I was under the old Patriarch, but it was somehow clear that there were such such offers to be abandoned. But I was lucky because my main active life was in cultural. In the days of my youth, there was such a question on Armenian radio: what is a cults? Answer: Cults is a lumen between two cults. This was the cult of Stalin and the cult of Brezhnev, respectively, the cults-it is somewhere the Khrushchev thaw, so then it was understood. So my life fell into such cults - this is when the grip of Stalinism is weakened, and the developed Putinism is not yet strong. That is, my working age fell on these 30 years-from the mid-1980s to the mid-2010s. Therefore, I believe that I am lucky.

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- Now there is a feeling that you can state: we say the Russian Orthodox Church - we mean the Kremlin? At what point, in your opinion, did these institutions have grown up completely and became similar to their ideology and methods of repression?

The church always wanted to sit on a state budget

- In fact, representatives of the Church never wanted a branch of the state from the church. That is, even the revolutionary local cathedral of 1917-18 demanded that the head of the government be Orthodox. You see, the Bolsheviks are already in power, and they still write that "the head of government should be Orthodox, the Minister of Education must be Orthodox, comrades of the minister, this is the pre -revolutionary term, should also be Orthodox," and so on. Of course, they still wanted to sit on a state budget. And then, in the Soviet years, the heads of the Russian Church were always looking for what exactly they could be useful to the authorities, what else they could serve her. At first, the renovationists did the most vividly, their Christ was the first communist and so on, but soon the leaders of the Patriarchal Church, its heirs, also learned this rhetoric.

- Vladimir Putin believes in God, do you think?

They have a very comfortable god that does not bother them

- I think that both Putin and Patriarch Kirill are the same god - in the sense that this is a god who in their escapes and approves all decisions in advance. That is, just with their idleness, they have everything successfully, they created such an idol in their eyes. They have a very comfortable god that does not bother them, but, on the contrary, forces the rest to reckon with their praises.

- By the way about Cyril. You talked many times that he consistently and for a very long time opposed the autonomy of the Ukrainian Church. I will quote you: “For Cyril, Ukraine is the territory of his legal hunt. Including it to Kyiv, he went to the end,” and so on. It turns out that Cyril was an Imperial before it became the mainstream?

He had the need to change his image

- It is quite possible. In any case, for him it was necessary from the point of view of political technologies, as he believed. The fact is that he is literally such a church Shevardnadze, that is, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, oriented to the West. His youth is connected with the West, in Switzerland he was a representative at the World Council of Churches and so on. Filokatolic, ecumenist. And it was all very cool until the ceiling of his ambition was just the head of church diplomacy. And then he already had another goal. After all, he was young in the 90s, he was not even 50. But would he become a patriarch? Moreover, his mentor - Metropolitan Nicodemus Rotov strove for this. But I think that further Cyril, analyzing the situation, understands that this is no longer a Soviet Union: here the Patriarch is not appointed by a call from the KGB, this is a more or less elected procedure, and he has an unprofitable starting position. Never the head of the diplomatic department became a patriarch. At the same time, Cyril understood that he was hated in the church. He is hated by monks because he is such an ecumenist, a man of a not monastic warehouse. It is very difficult for Cyril to count on the fact that he can so simply gain the sympathies of this group of voters. Therefore, he nevertheless began to work on her field, that is, he had the need to change his image so that he was perceived not as the one who takes Orthodoxy for export, but the one who protects Orthodoxy.

This fall, he said that Tsar Peter founded Petersburg to protect Russia from the West, from Western cultural influence. In Peter, the real function for St. Petersburg has always been exactly the opposite - the city was created as a window to Europe. But it turns out, no, this is a safe armored door. Since Hegel, we understand: dialectics is dialectics. The door - it can be what connects, and what separates. So, Cyril decided to position himself as the one who protects Orthodoxy from the influence of the liberal West.

Patriarch Kirill and Vladimir Putin

- You actively supported the Metropolitan then Cyril before his election, including Mediyno, and some church figures believe that this played a decisive role in his further career. There are different assessments on this subject. You explained this by putting on the "best of evils." Many years have passed since then-right now, looking around, have you ever experienced guilt about this? Or could it be worse?

It was then that my outcome from this system began

-No, I don’t have any regret about it. That is, I am very grateful that the Lord turned my fate like that in those days. Because, in general, oddly enough, it was then that some of my outcome from this system began. And then suddenly a change of Patriarch occurs. I am writing an honest article on this topic, without any order. It was an amazing situation in the country in which we lived, it was a sensation - my article "Patriarch Kirill. It's time to get used to it." I just offered a certain alignment, the possibility of possible "papabel". For the Orthodox, it was a shock. That is, in the Western world it is in the order of things - long before the death of Pope, the press discusses who can be the next candidate. But at the same time there is a certain short list of cardinals, you need a certain age, proximity to the apparatus, experience, sympathy in the Cardinal Circle, and so on. But there these people are more or less public, there is material that can be analyzed. And we have seven from a casket, the same from the face. Plus, there was another argument to this, it was already more cultural. Kirill was then the leader of the sympathy of the intelligentsia, he had an image of a liberal, a pro -west man, and so on - and a man from the TV, says well. He had an image of such a liberal church figure.

Patriarch Kirill and Minister of Defense of the Russian Federation Sergey Shoigu

And I thought that if he did not become a patriarch, then several more generations of the Russian intelligentsia would dream of a quiet and out loud that if then they made this paw of Cyril, then everything could be different. And in this case, there would be no conversation about Orthodoxy as a cultural phenomenon, but there would be only a conversation about personalities. He received this highest government, thank God, and if I helped him ... I don’t know, I definitely don’t think my role, but if I helped him, well, I still do not regret it. Because I believe that this is important for Russia's self -knowledge. There should be no excessive hopes. Here, look, they made the best in your desires and aspirations a patriarch - and what happened, what did you get? The fact is that by and large it does not matter who the patriarch. There are functionality, and this functionality - especially in the current conditions - there are certain requirements of the state to it. And it doesn’t matter who it is Cyril, Clement, name anyone else - they would fulfill all these requirements.

-We remember your high-profile further publications-about harassment in the Kazan seminary and in support of Punk-Molebn in the Cathedral of Christ the Savior. Is it possible to say that this was a game of ahead? I believe you knew very well how all this could end sooner or later.

For me this is the topic

- These are different facets of the same topic - church and violence, violence in the church, violence on behalf of the Church and the lawlessness of people within the church. For me, this is the topic of power, when, including sex, it turns out to be the subject of VIP consumption in the church. That is, ordinary monks, priests or even laity are impossible, and the bishops can. That is, one -sex sex for everyone is prohibited, and you can an elite group. This is such a strange social stratification, I also somehow do not like it in this matter completely, completely. It seems to me that this is part of this general culture of burning power and the uncontrolled power in the church environment.

And if so, then the question arises further: is it possible for such people to expand their powers? If you see that this is a person who is not built -in asceticism, political asceticism, he does not know how to put the limits to his powerful desires, how can one give him power, bring him closer to the state, give him police resources at his disposal? These are all dangerous things. So everything was like here.

- Another important topic is war and church. Last fall, Patriarch Kirill promised the remission of sins after death in the war. How much does this fit with the fundamental covenants of the Church?

You are fighting, which means you disgrace your soul

- The history of the church is rich, and in it you can find quotes for every taste, including the opposite. There are ancient church canons that are definitely against the heroization of war. And the rule of Vasily the Great, this is the 4th century, says that the soldier who returned from the war is subject to excommunication from the sacrament. Well, in those days this meant the same as excommunication. The logic is completely understandable that you cannot fight without hatred. That is, you are fighting - you hate, which means that you disgust your soul. In the Orthodox sense, sin is a wound that I cause primarily to myself. The firefighter, who carried the child from the fire, nevertheless received burns, so then it needs not only medals, but also in treatment. The same here: I came from the war - rehabilitation is needed so that there are no Afghan, Vietnamese syndromes and so on. But then, of course, the point of view triumphed, more convenient for Caesar, that going to war is a Christian duty and this is a feat. And if someone died, then do not worry, all the soldiers go to heaven. I am now watching the church press of the First World War, and there this template is in the order of things: who gave life for faith, the king and the Fatherland, the Lord will console in the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, you, relatives and fellow villagers, do not worry, you have a new prayer book in heaven. So this is not at all novelty, this, alas, is quite an old thing.

- This is, in fact, propaganda. Why should Patriarch Cyril lead her, be at the forefront of this movement, why encourage it?

Cyril does not say about the sins of the Putin generation

- Well, where will he go? Here is something else interesting for me. Here again, comparing those sermons of the First World War and modern - there is a huge very interesting difference between them. Those preachers spoke all the time in the spirit, including ancient Russian chroniclers, that war is the punishment of God for our sins. This topic is completely absent in Cyril's sermon. He is ready to call the Great Patriotic War for the sins of the Komsomol members - they say, his structure was persecuted, and for this 30 million citizens had to put their lives. And he does not speak about the sins of the Putin generation. That is, the topic that the Lord punished us with this war for our sins, not for the sins of Ukrainians or Anglo -Saxons, but for our sins - this topic is absent from modern priests. And this, it seems to me, is worthy of attention.

- Priests in the war. Judging by individual publications, periodically their work there comes to the work of the political instructor, including to explain to the person why he will go on the attack now. How acceptable is this?

A military priest is needed to humanize a soldier

- In this war, a man for me died - father Mikhail Vasiliev. He posthumously received the title of Hero of Russia. This is my former student in Moscow State University, and we had a good relationship all our lives. He managed to spend almost a year at the front. And he was connected with the army a long time ago, he himself did not serve in the army, but he, already as a priest, graduated from the Academy of the General Staff. He has the order of courage for previous military events. It was he who, if anyone remembers, when there was a throw of Russian paratroopers into Protina during the Yugoslav war, there the priest was sitting on Bether armor - it was Father Mikhail, and so on. And now, in the spring of 2022, he said quite such good banners that I once said before that a military priest is needed, and is needed in order to humanize a soldier in order to remind them that war was war, and human duty, morality remain the same, they are not canceled. And therefore, excessive violence, that is, violence against wounded enemies, over prisoners, disarmed, over the civilian population and so on, and in general, you can’t look through the whole world through the flush of sight.

Unfortunately, military priests feed motivation for hatred

Unfortunately, if you look at the sermons that are from the lips of the military priests of the Russian side today, however, I think, too, they are not about that. Rather, they feed and give motivation for hatred. And this is especially true for Patriarch Kirill. That is, in fact, his sermons of recent years are an explanation, the sacralization of this war. The explanation why it wears the sacred status, because there, on the other side, the demonic principle, that is, it is the ultimate demonization of the enemy, there are satanists, it is a world evil, and in general, if they win, they will make your children gays and sell in gay clubs.

- How do you feel about the consecration of weapons - from a machine gun to the tank?

- I feel bad. Although this is an ancient custom. Sometimes colleagues lie that the weapon is not consecrated, but a soldier is consecrated, and the prayer that this weapon defends him so that he will return alive. That is, a prayer for a soldier going to war is a natural thing. Without this, it is impossible, this is the requirement of the soldier himself and his mother and his wife, if she is, and so on, this is understandable, yes. But the fact is that I specially climbed into the church treasures and saw there quite clearly: the gun was not sanctified, but simply a prayer for a soldier. If this was the consecration of the shield, it could be said that yes, this body armor is consecrated, and here, of course, is a defensive thing. But just all siblings, swords, daggers, and so on, are usually consecrated, up to rockets, which are clearly far far from flying somewhere in order to kill someone there.

- Over the past ten years, in my modest look, the Russian Orthodox Church specifically in Russia has done everything to push away potential adherents, especially from among young people. This archaicism is at least ... Is the church not interested in expanding the flock? Perhaps it was worth being softer, flexible, like a Vatican, like individual churches in the States?

The church seems that they are doing well

- No, the church did not do everything in this direction, much more. We have already said that the supply of "bottoms" is endless with us, so Patriarch Kirill, and his successors, and his servants will surprise us more than once. You see, they have a slightly different performance. It seems to them that everything is fine with them. Just the other day, Patriarch Kirill, at the Diocesan Council of the Moscow Diocese, said: "It is urgent to create student groups and students - Orthodox activists, that is, so that students themselves, not priests, but students to recruit their classmates to the ranks of the church." And it is necessary to provide these activists with access to the Patriarch, so he wants to meet them himself too. That is, everything is fine on his globe, and in those reports that give him, everything is fine there, everything is wonderful. The fact that sociological surveys among students show the fall of students' interest in the church - well, these polls do not reach him. He sees something else.

- Dwear is one of the sins. How can he not succumb, especially in the last two years?

Иногда унынию можно поддаваться, важно в нем не замыкаться

- Sometimes despondency is worth succumbing. This is a natural and inevitable human feeling. It is important not to close in it. Because despondency can tell the truth and be generated by truth, but the truth is useful. Again, what is the reason for despondency? If despondency due to the state of my health, then it is clear that the final of the life of each of us, in principle, is known. There is despondency from the behavior of loved ones. There is despondency due to the fact that there are no historical or personal career prospects. These are different things, and you need to respond to them differently. But in any case, the recipe is known. It is necessary to clearly divide the circumstances of life for what requires my reaction, and that which does not require my reaction. What requires my reaction is what I can change. This is a clear criterion-something depends on me or not. I can’t stop the hurricane, but I can close the window so that the hurricane does not burst into my kitchen or my bedroom. I can do this. And I can’t cancel the enemy. I can call my friends, say: "Caution, it seems, your village will also be hurt, do not forget to close the window and do not let the children out into the street." I can do this. Therefore, in order not to be disappointed, you do not have to be fascinated, including your seeming omnipotence: now I’ll say something now-and the world will change, but this is not so. But one of the outputs of despondency is a reassessment of values.