Kirill thought his status as post-Soviet patriarch would earn him a key role of peacemaker, according to people close to the church. But when Russia annexed Crimea in February 2014, a rift opened between Kirill\u2019s and Putin\u2019s conceptions of the \u201cRussian world\u201d. Keenly aware that Putin\u2019s actions severely undermined his authority in Ukraine, Kirill refused to absorb Crimea\u2019s parishes and boycotted a ceremony in the Kremlin to celebrate Russia\u2019s annexation.<\/p>\n
Later that year, Putin underscored the rift by declaring that the Crimean town of Khersones \u2014 where Vladimir the Great, the first Christian ruler of Rus, was baptised in 988AD \u2014 was \u201cRussia\u2019s Temple Mount\u201d.<\/p>\n
The notion has no grounding in Orthodox theology and, by implication, undermines the primacy of Kiev and the Lavra. According to Roman Lunkin, a senior researcher at the Russian Academy of Sciences in Moscow, it was an attempt to justify the annexation by presenting Putin as the protector of all Russian-speaking people.<\/p>\n
The growing divide between Ukraine and Russia was underscored by the war with \u00adMoscow-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine shortly afterwards, where more than 13,000 have died. Filaret backed Ukraine\u2019s offensive, saying the local population \u201cmust pay for their guilt [in rejecting Kiev\u2019s authority] through suffering and blood\u201d. Rebels in Donetsk, meanwhile, enjoyed support from Konstantin Malofeev, a Russian oligarch and prominent member of Moscow\u2019s Orthodox elite.<\/p>\n
Read it all<\/a>.<\/p>\n ‘Far from being an arcane squabble over centuries-old church doctrine, Patriarch Bartholomews decsn had geopolitical significance. The fallout has affected the lives of priests+politicians, of ordinary worshippers and oligarchs’ https:\/\/t.co\/wHSYRMQfFw<\/a> #religion<\/a> #orthodoxchurch<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Kendall Harmon (@KendallHarmon6) August 27, 2019<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n