2023 EWN Media. concentrate on moral-social life, on the drive for spiritual freedom'. A freelance television journalist, Boris Sobolyev, who travelled to Tallinn to film the story, has been unable to find a Russian news programme willing to air it. They shouldnt matter to him at all. It's very close. As a result, they hoped that the WCC would moderate its criticisms of the lack of religious freedom in the USSR. In The Moscow patriarchate is religiously elevating, symbolically representing and historically substantiating the political course of Putin and his inner-circle. He didn't come down from the sky. Le Matin Dimanche said Kirill has been a regular visitor to Switzerland throughout his life, indulging his passion for skiing and for Swiss watches worth tens of thousands of pounds, which he has been photographed wearing. Patriarch K[irill] is known as the cigarette Metropolitan of Russia. When approached for comment by the two papers,the Russian Church refused to comment on Kirills espionage activities in Geneva, they pointed out. He was with the KGB, has billions and is considered Putins sharpest ideological sword. A Sunday in early April, Patriarch Kirill is standing at the altar with his hands raised. Orthodox Party of the Soviet Union, we would obtain truly the ideal state, one In December 2016 he preached in the Russian Orthodox Church of the Resurrection in Zurich. All of this comes at ZERO cost to our readers. Four KGB agents . Patriarch Kirill at the Cathedral of Christ the Savior in Moscow, March 6, 2022. . Pope Francis (L) and Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill stand together after a meeting in Havana, February 12, 2016. And this month, in one of those little liturgical gestures that can cost Christians their lives, they did a very brave thing. It had the magical property of disappearing from sight, visible to onlookers only as a reflection. They aimed to encourage the institution to denounce the United States and its allies. its era . - Who is the man? This did not affect the sincerity of his commitment to ecumenical work with other churches, Goundiaev emphasised to the outlet. Since 1996, he has imported 14 billion excise-free cigarettes. Two news outlets in Switzerland claimed this Monday, February 6, to have uncovered proof that Patriarch Kirill, the current head of the Russian Orthodox Church, was previously a member of the KGB. By adopting it, our state will discover in itself a truly There is, however, a glimmer of hope that Russias bombs may finally blow the helmet of salvation off the head of this revolting man. the sealed cave where Christs body was placed following crucifixion. Greek Orthodox Theological Review 1-4 (2007) [c] 2010. You dont mess with Kirill, a fanatical supporter of Putins invasion of Ukraine, who was born 75 years ago as Vladimir Mikhailovich Gundyayev. In domestic politics, the Church has used formal institutions for promoting legislative changes which aim, for example, at condemning offending religious peoples feelings and decreasing punishments for domestic violence. Sorry, preview is currently unavailable. His watch costs 30,000. . They revealed that Kirill lived in Geneva in the early 1970s. named "Drozdov" (blackbird): KGB The floor they are standing on is made of metal, it was melted down from Nazi weapons. Do you not know what C[yril] and M[ethodius] are like?.. Enter your email to follow this blog and receive customized notifications of new posts by email. The "spiritual legacy of Putins era will have a long-lasting influence on Russian politics. Father Chaplin said: 'In recent times many anonymous photocopies of all sorts of pieces of paper have been circulated. Whom the West has long wanted to put on the list of those who support Putins war, but who has so far escaped this punishment thanks to Viktor Orbns blockade in Brussels? The KGB defector who was investigating the thought concerning the separation of powers (as the institutional embodiment of Drozdov positively recommended himself. But he also found time to relax. The Telegraph values your comments but kindly requests all posts are on topic, constructive and respectful. This means he was more than just an informer, of whom there were millions in the Soviet Union. Originally from Wales, Chris spent years on the Costa del Sol before moving to the Algarve where he is a web reporter for The Euro Weekly News covering international and Spanish national news. Russian idea did not acknowledge the central postulate of Western political If any Communism not to convert to a Western-style capitalist democracy but rather to Bulgarian court sides with official who called Patriarch Kirill KGB agent after his 2018 visit. A secret Soviet-era document uncovered in Estonia suggests that Patriarch Alexy II, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church and spiritual leader of tens of millions of Christians, was a fully fledged KGB agent. He has not spoken to the Patriarch of Constantinople since 2019, when he recognized the split-off Ukrainian Orthodox Church as independent; Pope Francis accused him of being an acolyte of Putin. rights, but rather the obligations of its members. __________. He does not come from Paradise and is not a messenger of the L[ord] - G[od] or J[esus] C[hrist]. He was very friendly but asked a lot of questions about exile and clergy members.. In the declaration, the two leaders say many worthy things but the money quote, the reason the Patriarch flew to Cuba, was the statement that Uniatism was not the way forward. "He has visited Switzerland at least 43 times," the Le Matin Dimanche said, adding that "in addition to his passion for skiing - in 2007 he broke his leg on a Swiss slope - religious diplomacy, espionage and financial matters have constantly brought Kirill back to the Alps or to the shores of Lake Geneva. Twice, however, it is noted that the priest is on a list of Soviet officials against whom measures have been taken. 'As far as I understand, what's being said is that someone, somewhere, brought out into the open some kind of paper carrying neither the Patriarch's signature nor reliable information that he had any kind of involvement in this sort of activity,' said a Church spokesman, Father Vsevolod Chaplin. in Routledge Handbook of Religion and Security (New York: Routledge, 2012). For observers, there is no question that he amassed his fortune at the grace of Putin: not just because that is the case with all oligarchs, but because Kirill is doing Putin good service. Defend your country as only Russians can! he calls out to the soldiers. A Swiss police file on Patriarch Kirill, who has been head . Two news outlets in Switzerland claimed this Monday, February 6, to have uncovered proof that Patriarch Kirill, the current head of the Russian Orthodox Church, was previously a member of the KGB. According to these different traditions, the ROC works as mere supporter and ethical reinforcer of Moscows politics, not as a moral marker and persistent advocate of universal human rights, as is the case in the Western hemisphere. It even gives a specific date for his recruitment: February 28, 1958. In September 1971, while still a priest, Kirill, thought to have been a KGB asset in the Soviet Union, was posted as a representative of the Russian Orthodox Church to the World Council of . separation of functions between temporal and spiritual powers: the state guards the country against external foes and the Orthodox church settles the nation's The Novaya Gazeta estimates that up to eight billion dollars have grown from this to date money that does not just come from the sale of candles and icons. Corley adds: The documents also reveal that the KGB was aware Kirill was corresponding with Rome-based Catholic professor Eduard Huber, rector of the Pontifical Oriental Institute, even if the KGB backed away from attempting to recruit Huber as an agent. The now forgotten Huber was a Sovieteducated Jesuit priest; his Institute dealt with Eastern Catholic Churches, the largest of which is Ukrainian. According to federal police, Kyrill was a KGB agent. Gundyaev, 24, skiing in Switzerland in 1971. This hardly seems to affect Kirill. He lives by the belief that Moscow is the Third Rome, the last bastion against the depravity of the West that wants to re-educate Russia. He was in East Germany at the time of the 1991 collapse of the Soviet . In an effort to discredit Patriarch Filaret of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kyiv Patriarchate, who is odds on favorite to become the head of a single autocephalous Ukrainian Orthodox church, the Russian film director said that Filaret in Soviet times was an agent of the KGB with the code name " Antonov ." questions of theology and the international situation. material in the Estonian archives leaves no doubt about the patriarchs 10:41 AM, 5 February 2023 Switzerland's Sonntagszeitung and Le Matin Dimanche newspapers have studied de-classified archives to discover that Patriarch Kirill (Vladimir Gundyaev), head of the Russian Orthodox Church, used to spy for the KGB in Geneva in the 1970s under an alias of Mikhaylov. According to the Patriarch. Bartholomew I has also organised ecological seminars on Halki Island in cooperation with Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh. of life in place of the bourgeois one. both of these it opposed the 'principle of AUTHORITARIAN power'. It appeals to large parts of the Russian population to see the ROC in the function of the defender of its canonical territory, as well as of the cultural traditions of this religiously united Orthodox world. On the other hand, only a small minority actually takes an active role in the religious life of its church. Not so, according to the late Ion Mihai Pacepa, the Romanian general and confidant of President Ceausescu who was the highest-ranking defector from the Soviet bloc. Kirill is a known KGB/FSB agent code named "Mikhailov". In Russia only one small newspaper, the weekly Novaya Gazeta, has reported the Estonian find. Christians were present for this ceremony they offered no protest to this - Mikhail Find out more, Patriarch Kirill is said to have used the codename 'Mikhailov' while reportedly collecting information for the KGB in Switzerland, Kirill is now a close ally of Vladimir Putin, Russia coup latest: Wagner boss turns back troops, Putins Julius Caesar moment poses dangers for the West, Yevgeny Prigozhin: How caterer with a dark past became Putin's worst nightmare, Ukraine military leaders running out of popcorn as they follow Prigozhin mutiny, Everything we know so far about the Wagner 'coup' in Russia, Ukraine: The Latest - Wagner group advances on Moscow as Kremlin mobilizes defences. Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill, a close supporter of Russian President Vladimir Putin, worked for the Russian intelligence service in Switzerland in the 1970s, according to two Swiss newspapers, citing declassified archives. The "Russian World concept has been an important keyword both for representatives of the Kremlin and the Church alike in recent years. And this Socialism will be a new and The emphasis on conservative values functions as a partial support basis for the current state leadership, which benefits from the high level of trust that the Church enjoys as an institution. Academia.edu no longer supports Internet Explorer. Of all the countries in the world, it is perhaps the one I have visited most often," the patriarch explained in 2019 when he received the President of the Swiss Council of States, Jean-Ren Fournier, in Moscow. "Between religious diplomacy, espionage and finances, Kirill has continuously been drawn to the Alps and the shores of Lake Geneva," it said. Do remember to come back and checkThe Euro Weekly Newswebsite for all your up-to-date local and international news stories and remember, you can also follow us onFacebookandInstagram. inability of the secularized, materialistic and cosmopolitan West to come to underway and yet the world is somehow oblivious to the rise of the The Agent of Jesus Christ " : Participation of Fr. Nevertheless, Kirill is not sanctioned. . Kirill, who was the Moscow Patriarchs representative to the WCC in Geneva. On May 19, 2006, Kyrill received the Silver Rose of St. Nicholas award, which was created and donated by the Freiburg dogmatist Barbara Hallensleben. 18199/2018 on Emil Milanov's claim against former Deputy Prime Minister of Bulgaria Valeri Simeonov. Ostpolitik (the Vaticans normalisation of relations with countries behind the Iron Curtain, an approach rejected by Pope John Paul II) has been revived by Pope Francis. It was taken in 2009, the year Kirill succeeded the late Patriarch Alexy II as spiritual leader of 110 million Russian Orthodox Christians. Alexander Yanov in his 1987 book, The Russian Challenge and the Year 2000. In the course of this Russia would The newspaper reports that Kyrill has been to Switzerland again and again in recent years to receive medical treatment. All our print and online content always has been and always will be FREE OF CHARGE. For its part, the World Council of Churches said it had "no information" on the subject. Drozdov's reports, along with the KGB annual summaries after 1958, were taken to Moscow in 1991. Mikhail Gorbachev, USA Today, October 28th, 1996. Russia's patriarch Kirill: billionaire, ex-KGB agent, church leader By Editor Jun 4, 2022 He was with the KGB, has billions and is considered Putin's sharpest ideological sword. Having grown up in a family of priests in Leningrad, the 75-year-old, like most churchmen at the time, was with the KGB after his ordination. At this time, he officially represented Moscow at the World Council of Churches (WCC). Joining the dots between these claims is not easy, but it doesnt require us to believe that Kirill, any more than his friend Putin, was ever a devout communist. Patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church Kirill, whose real name is Vladimir Gundyaev, was a Soviet intelligence agent in Switzerland in the 1970s. by nations'. The evidence is set out in a paper entitled 'The Mikhailov Files: Patriarch Kirill and the KGB', published by the historian and human rights activist Felix Corley in 2018. . In the foreign policy context, the actors support each other in representing the distinctive Russian values that contradict the "Western ones a move that can be seen as a securitization process. EU-wide punitive measures against the patriarch failed because of Hungarys veto. Yet the evidence, in the 1958 annual report of the Estonian branch of the KGB, which was left behind in Tallinn when the Soviet authorities pulled out of the newly independent country in 1991, is compelling. Only on Thursday did Kyrill praise Russian President Putin: He is Orthodox, not to make himself popular, not to be elected, but a real Orthodox who receives the holy Christian sacraments and lives a church life. spiritual rebirth and a moral revolution. | All rights reserved. The Spiritual State of the Moscow Patriarchate in 1999-2001, A HISTORY OF THE ORTHODOX CHURCH IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY. 'To co-operate with a state which sets as its aim the destruction of religion is a great sin, and a betrayal of Christianity,' he said. The Its probably his patronymic that explains why for decades he was known as Mikhailov by his superiors. The story of Kirill I, whose real name is Vladimir Gundyaev, could not be more classic Soviet. socialist tradition.goes back to Jesus Christ, not (Karl) Marx." The SonntagsZeitung also reports on the financial interests of the Russian Orthodox Church in Switzerland. feelings tell me that someday a Slavic Orthodox tsar shall take the socialist These affirmations by Prof. Plnio, were confirmed by Lt. Gen. Ion Mihai Pacepa, an ex-agent of the Romanian Secret Service, who escaped to the U.S.: "Stalin started by implacably persecuting the Russian Schismatic Church. foundation of the world order conceived by God; that 'humankind is quantified Provided by The Daily Digest 15, No. question of the Orthodoxization of the entire world." 'He's described here as an agent,' said Mr Jurjo. Who is the man? This became known from the declassified police archives for the period from 1969 to 1989, according to the publication SonntagsZeitung. There will be a thorough investigation to determine why in this instance there was a crude violation of our internal ethical code [against digital manipulation], said his spokesman. Documents were found in Switzerland showing how the future Russian Patriarch Kirill spied for the KGB in 1970. According to the Sonntagszeitung and Le Matin Dimanche weeklies, a Swiss police file referred to the Russian patriarch as "Monsignor Kirill" and confirmed that he "worked for the KGB," which is now known as the FSB. But that in no way impaired the sincerity of his commitment to ecumenical work with other churches, the newspaper quoted him as saying. Patriarch This cunning man imported 14 billion worth of excise-less cigarettes and 4 billion worth of wine for the needs of the church, again avoiding excise taxes. There is no evidence that todays patriarch Cyril was involved in the Geneva oil business. 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