Religious Rift Compounds Tensions Between Ukraine and Russia

The Russia File ^ | 2018 | Maxim Trudolyubov

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For President Putin, the Russian Orthodox Church does not have the same significance that the Ukrainian church has for Ukrainian politicians. For Putin, the Orthodox Church is a global, not a national, project. Orthodoxy has always been part of Russian rulers’ global designs, and today’s Kremlin is no exception.

The Russian church also serves as a proxy for most Russians’ identification as Russians. The share of those polled who call themselves “Orthodox,” about 75 percent, routinely coincides with the share of the ethnically Russian population of the Russian Federation. “Orthodoxy is a substitute for ethnic identification,” the sociologist Natalia Zorkaya said in an interview.

Ever since the idea of the “Third Rome” (the fallen Constantinople was the second), which holds that Russia is the successor to the original Rome as the center of Christianity, was proclaimed in sixteenth century, Russia’s rulers have sought to unite the global Orthodox under Moscow’s leadership. Even Joseph Stalin at the end of the World War II entertained the prospect of establishing an “Orthodox Vatican” in the capital of the Soviet Union. The plan did not work out, but neither was it forgotten.

Moscow seems to treat its defeat in the fight for the Ukrainian church the way it treated the loss of the pro-Moscow Viktor Yanukovych’s presidency in 2014. Russia’s possible responses, which are always meant by Moscow to be tit for tat, are likely to include attempts to get some controversial Orthodox issues, such as those of the unrecognized Montenegrin or Macedonian churches, resolved in Moscow’s favor. Russia will likely continue its attempts to build ties with loyal churches at the expense of the Constantinople Patriarchate. Using church politics to spread Russia’s influence in the Balkans and other regions will likely intensify.

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Euromaidan activist kisses the hand of Filaret, the Patriarch of Ukrainian Orthodox Church, Kyiv Patriarchate. Source: Wikimedia Commons.