The Weakening Russian Church

The international public agenda is preoccupied with the extremely distressing news coming from Gaza. Since the outbreak of the Palestine-Israel conflict, there have been fewer news reports and commentaries on the war in Ukraine, which we had become accustomed to. As neither the Russians nor the Ukrainians have been able to make significant progress on the war front, many commentators say that this war has reached a stalemate. However, we know that the war has many facets. While there may not be much to say about the war on the front lines, there is a loser in the religious aspect between these two countries, and that is Russia.

In October, the Ukrainian Parliament passed a bill in its first reading that provides for the banning of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, which is affiliated with the Moscow Patriarchate. The bill bans any religious organization linked to Russia. This law is a real blow to the Russian Orthodox Church, whose influence in Ukrainian territory will be significantly reduced. Some members of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church are suspected of inciting hatred on religious grounds and distributing materials that justify Russian aggression. There are 3 different entities within the Orthodox community in Ukraine:

The Ukrainian branch of the Moscow Patriarchate – The church with the largest congregation (pro-Russian)

Orthodox Church of Ukraine (pro-Western)

Kyiv Patriarchate (pro-Western)

Ukrainian Orthodox believers are divided between the Ukrainian Orthodox Church affiliated with the Moscow Patriarchate and the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, which became independent from Moscow and was recognized by the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople in 2019. Following the Russian invasion, some churches switched to the independent Orthodox Church of Ukraine. Russia has strongly criticized this law, which it views as persecution of Orthodox believers in Ukraine.

The loss of power of the Russian Orthodox Church is not limited to Ukraine. Another country it has lost is Moldova. Immediately after the aforementioned bill was voted on by the Ukrainian parliament, the Metropolitan of Moldova sent a letter to Russian Patriarch Kirill, stating that the Metropolis of Moldova was losing power due to Russia's war in Ukraine.

This letter was written approximately 2 years after the start of Russia's aggression against Ukraine, and it states that "the Russian world is alien to our national values" and that "the Republic of Moldova will soon unite with Romania." The Metropolitan of Moldova complained about more and more priests moving to the Metropolis of Bessarabia, which is affiliated with Romania, and being influenced by salaries of 800-900 euros and the social benefits offered by the Romanian state.

Following the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Russia lost its political control over former Soviet countries. However, the influence of the Russian Church had continued. It maintained its ideological and spiritual control in these countries. The Russian Church remained the most important component of Russia's soft power in former socialist countries. Through the Russian Orthodox Church, Putin represents and continues to promote a conservative ideology based on moral norms and traditional social values. According to him, these norms contradict the moral norms supported by Western countries.

The Russian Orthodox Church is accused of promoting ethnophyletism (the superiority of the Slavic race as an ethnic origin). According to the Russian Church's interpretation, the principle of the widely supported Russian World (Russkiy Mir) is that all Orthodox Christians belong to one church and one Orthodox nation. The Pan-Slavic project primarily targets Belarus, Ukraine, and Russia. The territories of these countries are also the territories of former Soviet countries. The territories of other Soviet countries are also accepted by the Russian Orthodox Church as an indisputable sphere of sovereignty, its "canonical territory."

The examples mentioned above are obvious signs that the influence of the Russian Orthodox Church in the former Soviet geography is weakening. It is clear that the church is in a process of fragmentation.