Post-Soviet Russia’s Resurgent Church

The Russian Orthodox Church has re-emerged as a powerful political entity in the Putin
era, and its influence shapes Moscow’s relations in other parts of the region, analyst
Lauren Goodrich says. (TRT 4:25)

Note: The following document is a transcript of a recorded

interview. It has been formatted with subheads for the benefit of
readers, but the content is a faithful reproduction of the
speaker’s diction and grammar.

After the fall of the Soviet Union, religion was a very scary and powerful thing. No one
was quite sure how it would evolve. Russian leader Boris Yeltsin was terrified of religion,
despite being Russian Orthodox himself. In 1997, Yeltsin grew worried that the West
would infiltrate Russia via non-Orthodox Christianity. Yeltsin was watching a flood of
missionaries from the Lutherans, the Methodists, Mormons, Jehovah’s Witnesses, all
enter the country underneath “mission work.” So in 1997, Yeltsin banned all foreign
Christian groups, only allowing Orthodoxy, along with Islam and Judaism, in the country.

Under Putin’s Patronage

The Russian Orthodox Church has had a huge revival since the fall of the Soviet Union,
underneath Vladimir Putin. Putin is deeply religious, despite having been a loyal KGB
agent his entire life. As Russia began to recuperate from the chaotic 1990s and decided
that it wanted to resurge its power not only domestically but also internationally, Putin
knew the Church would be key. So Putin has dumped a great deal of effort and money
into restoring the church physically and psychologically. Bringing people back into the
Church has been a major Kremlin effort. Also, organizing the various Orthodox churches
back within the Soviet Union back within the Russian Orthodox Church has been a big
priority.

Under Putin, the Russian Orthodox Church has for all intents and purposes returned to
returned to being a government agency. Putin has also used the church to unite beyond
the Soviet sphere. In 2007, Putin united the Russian Orthodox Church and the Russian
Orthodox Church Outside of Russia, ROCOR. There’s a belief tat this was due mainly to
the Kremlin’s wish to push its influence into those foreign countries, and also that Putin
would now use the ROCOR as a modern-day KGB listening post, with the largest
ROCORs in New York and Paris.

Patriarchal Politics
The current patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church, Kirill, unofficially worked for the
Soviet intelligence agencies. He has a very close relationship with the modern-day FSB
and previous KGB – and was rumored to have been an agent (I may want to add). This is
why when he came into the patriarchy, it was very controversial. This is one of the
reasons why we’ve seen such a revival of the old Soviet tactics of using the church as an
intelligence tool in modern day. Kirill is seen at most major state functions. He is seen
traveling with Putin and Medvedev frequently. He gives a lot of opinions on just basic
state matters instead of church matters. He has really proven that the church is a part of
the state, and isn’t its own entity in modern-day Russia.

Orthodox Relations in the Near Abroad

The Russian Orthodox Church is used in many of the other former Soviet states. Georgia
is an interesting one, because Georgia is a heavily pro-Western country. However, the
Georgian Orthodox Church and the Russian Orthodox Church are incredibly close,
probably the most out of any of the former Soviet states. So you have a people that hate
the Russians, but via faith, they’re very close to the Russians, and they listen to the
Russian Orthodox church very closely.

The Belorussian Orthodox Church and the Russian Orthodox church are brothers, they’re
almost one and the same. It’s almost laughable to try to call them separate churches at all.

There has been interesting shifts in having Russia now reunite with the Russian Orthodox
Church Outside of Russia, in that some interesting large-scale construction projects are
happening with Russian Orthodox churches expanding in Western countries. France is the
biggest example. There’s a brand-new, large Russian Orthodox Church that is under
construction there, that is now officially going to be the first large Russian Orthodox
Church Outside of Russia that’s underneath the Moscow patriarchy.

Russia and the other Orthodox churches that fell underneath Ottoman rule in modern day
are very close. Russia loves to use the Orthodox card when talking to countries such as
Serbia, Macedonia, Greece. Now, there is a cultural distinction. They each have their own
patriarchies, their own regional doctrines. However, there’s this very high-level, “Hey,
you’re Orthodox, hey, I’m Orthodox, let’s at least be friends” mentality that comes
through in foreign policy that you don’t see with most other foreign policy relationships.
It keeps at least an open communication between these countries, no matter how pro-
Western or pro-Eastern these countries are. It’s a starting point on their relationships.