MOSCOW, January 31. /TASS/. Russian authorities do not interfere in the affairs of the Church, including in Ukraine, but reserves the right to do everything to protect freedom of religion, Russian President Vladimir Putin said at an event dedicated to the 10th anniversary of the enthronement of Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia.
"Russian authorities believe that any interference in the affairs of the Church is absolutely unacceptable, we have always respected the independence of church life, particularly in a sovereign neighboring state," Putin said, when speaking about the church crisis in Ukraine. "Nevertheless, we reserve the right to respond and do everything possible to protect human rights, including freedom of religion," the Russian leader added.
Putin pointed out that "speculations, cheap politics and attempts to piggy-back on religious matters pull people apart and spark enmity and intolerance." According to the Russian president, "this kind of a project, which has nothing to do with faith, is fake through and through" and only relates to the struggle for power "is being implemented in Ukraine." "Regrettably, the Constantinople Patriarchate has been involved in it. In fact, it is a blatant interference in church life, and those who initiated it seem to have learned from the godless people of the last century, who expelled believers from churches and prosecuted the clergy," Putin said.
Church standoff in Ukraine
Ukraine’s current leadership has sought to create a local Orthodox church independent of the Moscow Patriarchate in the country since it came to power after the 2014 coup. Last April, Ukrainian President Pyotr Poroshenko sent a letter to Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople requesting autocephaly for the Ukrainian church. The Poroshenko regime cobbled together a "unification council" that was held in Kiev on December 15, which announced the creation of a new church, the so-called Orthodox Church of Ukraine. The Tomos of Autocephaly (a clerical decree on establishing an independent church) was handed over to its head, Metropolitan Epiphany, on January 6.
Both the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church and the Russian Orthodox Church consider the newly-established ecclesiastical institution to be schismatic.