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The Kremlin has issued a new warning following a key step in the quest for an independent church recognized by Orthodox Christian leaders in Kiev, saying that Russia would protect the interests of the faithful in Ukraine if the historic split resulted in acts of violence. illegal or violence.
The spokesman of Russian President Vladimir Putin, Dmitry Peskov, made these comments on October 12, a day after Ukraine had obtained the approval of a synod led by the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, the world spiritual leader of Orthodox Christians based in Istanbul. establish an autocephalous – or independent – church.
This decision is a blow to Moscow and the Russian Orthodox Church, whose branch in Ukraine was long accepted by Barthélemy as a legitimate church. Russian politicians and church officials have repeatedly stated that they feared that a Ukrainian church would seek to seize property under the control of the Christian Church Orthodox affiliated with Moscow Ukraine.
"Russian secular authorities certainly can not intervene" in religious affairs, but the Putin government is attentive to the situation and will take "exclusively political and diplomatic" measures to protect the population against violence or illegal actions, said Peskov. "Russia, of course, defends the interests of Russians and Russian-speakers, as Putin has always said, in the same way (…) defends the interests of Orthodox Christians," he said.
"This is so the Ukrainian authorities are not able to keep the situation within the limits of the law, if it takes a lousy and violent turn," Peskov said.
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The historic movement towards an independent Ukrainian Orthodox church supported by the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Batholomew adds to the tension between Moscow and Kiev, already extremely intense since the takeover of Crimea by Russia in 2014, while a war between Russian-backed government forces and separatists continue in eastern Ukraine.
Russian officials sought to justify Moscow's interference in Ukraine citing what they said was the need to protect Russians and Russian-speakers.
In the October 11 announcement that he "would grant autocephaly to the Church of Ukraine", the Ecumenical Patriarchate called on Ukrainian rival churches to "avoid the appropriation" of monasteries, places of worship and other property "as any other act of violence and retaliation for the peace and love of Christ to prevail."
Patriarch Filaret, head of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kiev Patriarchate, who runs the campaign for independence, said in June that two large monasteries belonging to the Moscow-controlled church should change hands after autocephaly is secure. At a press conference held on October 11, he said: "Moscow wants a conflict, but we Ukrainians do not have one."
Bartholomew is considered the leader of the Orthodox community, with 300 million people worldwide, or "the first among his peers" of Eastern Orthodox clerics.
In a statement of 12 October, Metropolitan Antony, a director of the Ukrainian Church affiliated to Moscow, accused Bartholomew of "choosing the path of schism" and rejected the decision of the synod.
Antony also told clergy and believers that it "is forbidden to co-serve or pray" with the two rival churches in search of independence, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kiev Patriarchate and the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church.
"What happened yesterday at the synod of Istanbul shocked the whole of the Orthodox world," Antony said in a statement, adding, "In reality, nothing has changed for our church, we were, are and remain the only canonical church in Ukraine. "
On October 11, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko described the Synod's decision as "something we dreamed about, long-awaited and fought for forever."
The Russian Orthodox Church based in Moscow condemned it as "catastrophic". Aleksandr Volkov, a spokesman for the Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill, said in a televised statement that the Ecumenical Patriarchate "crossed a red line".
