The Kremlin seems to take distinct and careful distances from the frenzy of the Russian Ecclesiastical Leadership, which tends to certify the rumored rupture in the relations between Russian President Vladimir Putin and the Russian Church.
Putin certainly does not want the independence of the Ukrainian Church from Moscow, since it is the last lever of Russian interventionism in Ukraine, a country that has become one of the greatest opponents of Russian imperialism. At the same time, however, it is certain that the Russian President did not want the whole issue to evolve in the way that the clumsy and obsessive manipulations of Moscow Kiril and, above all, Hilarion of Volokolamsk led it.
Putin wished to avert the crisis and prevent the Autocephaly of the Ukrainian Church from behind-the-scenes diplomatic pressure and actions and not of course reach the whole issue in a Schism, albeit unilateral at the moment, and in an international tug-of-war between the Ecumenical Patriarchate and the Russian Church ...
The tragic and pathetic failure of Kiril and Hilarion and the inevitable dissatisfaction of the Kremlin against them may in part explain the acute reaction of the Russian Church, the "interruption of ecclesial communion" and the other nonsense we have seen over the last few days ...
What is characteristic is that what the Russian Ecclesiastical Leaders deny, that is to say "the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople", the political leadership of Moscow says it with great ease ... Representative of Russian President Dmitry Peskov said on Tuesday, October 16, 2018: "It is natural to watch very carefully and with great concern how the relations between the Russian Orthodox Church and the Ecumenical Patriarchate evolve. That's what worries us"...
Finally, Mr. Peskov appeared to distinguish the careful distances from the manipulations of the Russian Ecclesiastical Leadership, saying: "Concerning the interests of the Russian Orthodox Church, the Church itself needs to clarify. We can not intervene in ecclesiastical affairs..." While expressing the religious reality in Russia, that the Orthodox Church is simply "one of the religions" and not what the ecclesiastical leaders of Moscow have shown as a virtual reality with their propaganda, he said: "Since orthodoxy is one of the main religions in Russia, then it is natural for us to be interested in how the relations of the Russian Orthodox Church with the other churches evolve."
It can easily be concluded that Vladimir Putin will not sacrifice himself for the sake of Kiril and Hilarion... He gave them the opportunity, and the resources, to carry out the issue "bloodlessly". They failed and led the Church of Russia in an unprecedented conflict with the Ecumenical Patriarchate.
The Ecumenical Patriarchate, however, is a world-class institution of immense prestige, with which the political leadership of Russia does not want to come to a definitive rupture... And this poses a great risk to the position of both Patriarch Kiril and Metropolitan Hilarion...
The events are historical and the developments are unpredictable.
