By Expertmus | Rublev Museum LiveJournal
January 3, 2012 Anno Domini

A well-known Russian writer commented on the New Year’s greetings of the Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, who called on the “Dragon” to help himself and Russian citizens …

From the editor . Recall that the famous Orthodox writer Vladimir Krupin was not included in the composition of the Patriarchal Council for Culture, approved at the meeting of the Holy Synod on July 26, 2010, in connection with his sharp assessment of the ecumenical statement of the head of the DECR, Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, that the dialogue between Orthodox and Catholics advances because “times and people have changed”, which the Russian writer regarded as apostasy, because, in his opinion, it smacks of Protestantism and removes us from Christ: http://expertmus.livejournal.com/57270.html

On December 31, 2011, Vladimir Putin congratulated Russian citizens on the New Year and wished them well-being and prosperity in the New Year.

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The website of the Government of Russia published the text of his congratulations, part of which caused extreme bewilderment among Orthodox Christians. “By the way, the coming year is the year of the Dragon according to the Eastern calendar,” Putin said. – I was born just in the year of the Dragon. As a rule, these are the good times we have always had. I hope that this time the Dragon will bring good luck, well-being and prosperity to every Russian family, to all our citizens.”

This strange passage from the Russian Prime Minister’s New Year’s congratulatory speech to the Russkaya Narodnaya Liniya news agency was commented by the well-known Russian writer, co-chairman of the Writers’ Union of Russia Vladimir Krupin:

“With this statement, Vladimir Putin demonstrated, if not maliciousness, then complete ignorance. It is not clear who writes these speeches to him, and why he himself is not aware of what he says to his fellow citizens?!

It is extremely strange that the man whom we have seen so many times praying and being baptized in the temple of God, called for help not God, but the Dragon, i.e. satan. This is some kind of wild paganism, some kind of complete occultism. But he could say how symbolic the year 2012 can be for us, because 12 is a wonderful apostolic number. He could say how symbolic it is that the new year begins on Sunday, i.e. from Sunday service, etc. It would be in Russian and Orthodox.

I feel very sorry for Putin and those who write his speeches. It is obvious that these people are in the devil’s captivity and reproduce the corresponding messages. Our Prime Minister and the future President were set up very well and a lot of votes of Russian citizens were taken away.

Thank God that the Lord does not leave us, and we are still living, despite the rampant madness and Satanism in the world and our country ….”

© Blog of the scientific team of the Andrei Rublev Museum. Experts cite as an example a churched community – the community of the Andrey Rublev Museum of Ancient Russian Culture and Art: http://rublev-museum.livejournal.com/392705.html

Source: https://rublev-museum.livejournal.com/272869.html

Disclaimer: This is not an endorsement of the Dimond brothers. 

By Tom Parfitt
London Telegraph
October 29, 2012

Two women were arrested on suspicion of prostitution after seven rooms were found in a building close to Sretensky Monastery where sexual services were offered from 1,750 roubles (£35) per hour.

By Dmitry Abramov
March 24, 2013 Anno Domini
Translated from the Russian

Who Baptized Putin?: On the History of the Formation of the Myth of Putin’s ‘Baptism’

Oddly enough, no one has yet paid attention to obvious inconsistencies in the available information about the date of the baptism of Vladimir Putin …

A dirty provocation against our amazing actor Andrei Panin, thrown into the Russian media shortly before his murder, gave rise to a number of insinuations in church publications and in the Orthodox segment of the Russian blogosphere: http://echo.msk.ru/blog/expertmus/1029734-echo/

Particular indignation of the fighters “for the purity of Orthodoxy” was caused by Panin’s participation in the film “A kiss not for the press” (2003), filmed according to the script … of Lyudmila Putina, where the alleged “unbaptized atheist” Panin played the role of Platov, the prototype of which was the seemingly baptized Putin: http://video.yandex.ru/users/rublev-museum/view/85/

Meanwhile, close friends of Andrei Panin and his fellow countrymen, deeply outraged by the mean slander in the press against the popular favorite, were able to provide a lot of details about his Orthodox faith, including the cherished desire of Panin, a descendant of the Don Cossacks, to pass the Velikoretsky religious procession with believing pilgrims! Some very curious details about the film “A kiss not for the press” also surfaced, which were published by screenwriter Yulia Glezarova (VGIK), in particular, the director of the “highly classified” film Olga Zhulina told her back in 2008 that “Putin’s picture is categorically not liked, he demanded that it be reshot with another actor in the lead role … Panin plays the role of Putin there “…

It would seem that in this regard, the media should have a lot of questions, and journalists would have to, as they say, “dig the earth”, in order to find out the reasons for the “monarch’s anger”, but no. But since Andrei Panin was baptized, then who needed to fan the elephant out of a fly, and why did the stumbling block end up on the confessional field?

Oddly enough, no one has yet paid attention to the obvious inconsistencies in the available information about the date of the baptism of Vladimir Putin. For the first time, news that, it turns out, Yeltsin’s successor as president of Russia, Putin, is a believer, spread all over the world after his first meeting with Bush Jr. on June 16, 2001 in Ljubljana (Slovenia). In his memoir Decision Points, George W. Bush recalls the story of Vladimir Putin’s pectoral cross: “He seemed somewhat tense and began to speak while glancing at the notes. A few minutes later, I interrupted his monologue with a question: “Is it true that your mother gave you the cross that you consecrated in Jerusalem?” … From the expression on Putin’s face, I saw that he was shocked when Peter, the translator, translated my question. I explained that I had read about it somewhere and would like to know the details. I didn’t tell him that I learned about it from intelligence sources. Putin quickly came to his senses and told this story. His expression and voice softened as he remembered hanging a cross in his dacha, which was subsequently burned down. When the firefighters arrived, he told them that the only thing dear to him was the cross. He spoke with feeling about how the fireman opened his palm, and there was a cross. And he said, “It should have been.”

As George W. Bush confessed to the famous American analyst Peggy Noonan after this meeting, “Putin seems to believe in a higher power.” And to the entire journalistic corps, Bush Jr. said that he saw the “soul” of Putin, looking into the eyes of the new Russian president, which seemed to him “honest and credible”: “I looked him straight in the eyes and was able to catch the movement of his soul” (Ian Traynor . Bush and Putin: the end of the affair? // The Guardian, 16.08.2001).

True, the psychic abilities of the American president caused sarcastic grins from Hillary Clinton, who remarked that

“President Bush looked into Putin’s eyes and saw a kindred spirit, however, I would like to remind you that Putin was a KGB employee and he has no soul by definition.”

Earlier, Putin told the story of his pectoral cross in an interview with CNN host Larry King in September 2000: “There is a curious story after which I decided to always wear this cross on myself. I have a dacha near St. Petersburg, and there was a fire there, something shorted out in the sauna. Before going into the sauna, I took off the cross, and when the fire started, I jumped out with my comrades, practically naked, because everything happened unexpectedly. I must say that the cross was very dear to me. Mom gave it to me, and the fire was very serious. I thought there would not even be a trace of the cross, it was, you know, such a simple aluminum cross. My surprise was boundless when a worker came, rummaged in what was left of the house, unclenched his fist, and there was a cross. The house burned down completely. It was amazing. Now I am not parting with him “…

And Bush Jr. probably learned additional details of the story with Putin’s cross from the book “From the First Person”, which Vladimir Putin dictated to Natalya Timakova, Natalya Gevorkyan, and Andrei Kolesnikov as soon as he became president of Russia. The original electronic version of the text of this book with photographs first appeared on the website of the Vagrius publishing house on March 13, 2000, marking the beginning of world Putin studies: http://www.vagrius.com/html/books/putin/

Published in the book “From the First Person”, the first “version” of Putin’s biography, “cast” by him personally, is also posted on the Kremlin website, where the story with the cross is allotted only a few lines: plant named after Egorov. He was immediately given a room from the plant in a communal apartment, in an ordinary St. Petersburg house, in Baskov Lane, this is in the center … pensioners lived in our apartment, though not for long. My baptism is connected with them. Baba’s neighbor Anya was a devout person, she went to church, and when I was born, she and my mother secretly baptized me with her father, a party member, secretary of the party organization of the workshop. In 1993, when I was already working at the Leningrad City Council, I went to Israel as part of an official delegation. And my mother gave me my baptismal cross so that I could consecrate it on the Holy Sepulcher. I complied with her request, then put on this cross and since then I have not removed it “: http://archive.kremlin.ru/articles/bookchapter1.shtml

The 1996 fire at Putin’s dacha (according to him, “the house was built for 6 years”), which Viktor Zubkov helped Putin to acquire, in the notorious OZERO cooperative (established on November 11, 1996) on the shore of Lake Komsomolskoye, 120 km from Peter is mentioned in the book “From the First Person”, but there is no trace of the cross that miraculously survived the fire there: http://archive.kremlin.ru/articles/bookchapter6.shtml

As you can see, Larry King, and after him, Bush Jr. became the first listeners to whom Putin told this whole sentimental story, which was then widely spread all over the world …

The second “Putin” version of the story with the cross was brought to the attention of a wide Russian reader in December 2001 by Natalya Timakova, who by that time had become the first deputy. Head of the Press Service of the President of the Russian Federation. Journalists of the popular weekly Sobesednik A. Levin, M. Yakovlev and N. Guzheva told their readers from her words that during the fire on August 12, 1996, “Putin thought that there was no trace of a simple aluminum cross – before going to the sauna, he always took it off and left it with his clothes in the locker room. But when a worker who came to clear the rubble dug into what was left of the house and unclenched his fist, there was no limit to the surprise of the future president. In his outstretched hand, Vladimir Vladimirovich saw his cross, safe and sound. Since then, Putin has not parted with him.”

The publication in “Interlocutor” (12.12.2001) appeared just before Putin’s visit as president of Russia together with his wife Lyudmila to Great Britain, on the eve of Catholic Christmas, on December 21, 2001: http://expertmus.livejournal.com/80939.html

It is hardly accidental that the main topic of the article “Putin was baptized in secret” for the first time was Putin’s attitude to faith and the Church, and his former classmates assured “Interlocutor” that they had never noticed their school friend not only looking into the church, but also wearing a cross?! The article quotes the words of a classmate of the president, Iosif Dolnikov:

“I can safely say that Putin did not attend church. And I have never seen a cross on him either.”

The president’s cousin Lyubov Shelomova repeated the same to journalists:

“I don’t remember that Volodya’s parents were believers. Vladimir’s father was a staunch communist, and his mother also did not show any particular inclination towards the church.”

However, Natalya Timakova decided to refute this eyewitness testimony, referring to the following revelation of Putin: “As Vladimir Vladimirovich said, in their communal apartment in Baskov Lane there was a pensioner neighbor, Baba Anya, a very devout woman. And then one day she and Maria Ivanovna (mother of Vladimir Vladimirovich – ed.) Secretly took him to the church and christened him. The president does not remember the temple—he was then five months old. ”Putin was born on October 7, 1952, therefore, baptism took place on March 7, but there is no memory of Vladimir in the church calendar on this day …”

The authors of the article in “Interlocutor” were the first among Russian journalists to identify in 2001 the proposed place of baptism of the future president near Baskov Lane—the Transfiguration Cathedral, the rector of which is … the elder brother of the current Patriarch Kirill, Archpriest Nikolai Gundyaev! The chairman of the parish council of the cathedral, Archpriest Boris Glebov, to whom the “Interlocutor” referred, then informed them that they saw Putin in their cathedral only once, when they served a panikhida for Anatoly Sobchak on February 24, 2000.

In the same article, “Putin was baptized secretly” in 2001, the testimony of Abbot Theophan (Lukyanov), deputy head of the Russian Spiritual Mission in Jerusalem (since 1999), was published that during Sobchak’s trip to Israel in 1993 “Vladimir Putin … expressed a desire to consecrate his pectoral cross on the Holy Sepulcher. He said that his mother asked him about it. During the service he put the cross on the stone of the Tomb, and after the service he took it away ”…

http://youtube.googleapis.com/v/O5h3RP6Rqn0&source=uds

A completely different version of Putin’s baptism appeared after the tragic death of Patriarch Alexy II on December 5, 2008, in early January 2012, i.e. more than 10 years later (!), when Vladimir Putin, as Prime Minister of the Russian Federation, visited the very Transfiguration Cathedral of St. Petersburg on Christmas Day (Putin tells of secret christening at Orthodox Christmas, 07/01/2012). This time, Putin told the country’s leading news agencies (see video: http://youtu.be/O5h3RP6Rqn0) that right after the war, his parents lived right in front of the cathedral, and then his father was given a room in Baskov Lane, five min. walking from the temple, and in childhood, according to him, they “often” spun “with friends at the cathedral: they were attracted by the monumentality and beauty of the structure”: http://ria.ru/society/20120107/534058131.html#ixzz2OMacaRjP

But the most cardinal innovation in the second version of Putin’s baptism in 2012 was the date of baptism in the Transfiguration Cathedral: “I was baptized here, a month and a half after my birth”. As Putin emphasized, according to the mother’s stories, the priest said that the Archangel Michael was honored that day and he was also called Mikhail, so he suggested giving the child this name, “but my mother said that she had already registered the name Vladimir,” added Vladimir Putin. The priest agreed and showed in the church the icon of Prince Vladimir, patronizing this name: http://www.interfax-religion.ru/?act=news&div=43682

It is strange that none of the journalists—neither secular nor ecclesiastical—have guessed so far to find out which of the priests of the Transfiguration Cathedral named Mikhail could baptize on November 21, 1952, on the feast of the Archangel Michael, the future president of Russia, which, in essence is not difficult. As we were able to establish for the first time, the priest Mikhail Vasilyevich Gundyaev, the father of the current Patriarch Kirill, became Putin’s godfather! It is even stranger that no one is interested in the birth books of the Transfiguration Cathedral with records of baptism for the period indicated by Putin, stored in the Central State Archives of St. Petersburg (TsGA SPb)!

And such archival probes are simply necessary after Sobchak’s widow Lyudmila Narusova, immediately after her expulsion from the Federation Council, in an interview with Novaya Gazeta on November 8, 2012, reported sensational news, which was blasted by the absolute majority of the media. According to Narusova, Putin was unbaptized and was baptized only in Jerusalem when they went there with Anatoly Sobchak in 1993: “before that, he said that he could not be baptized, and, as far as I remember, always wore a simple cross”!

Indeed, Putin has been to Israel several times: as Yakov Kedmi, ex-director (1992-99) of the government Bureau Nativ (1992-99) of the government Bureau “Nativ”, confirmed to the IzRus portal, for the first time Vladimir Putin accompanied Anatoly Sobchak as chairman of the Committee on Foreign Relations of the St. to Israel in 1993, and the second time he came with his wife and two daughters on vacation in 1996, becoming an employee of the administration of President Yeltsin. True, Israeli journalists Itama Eichner and Zvi Singer conveyed strange information to the Ynet news agency that Putin allegedly first came to Israel with his mother back in 1967: http://www.jewish.ru/news/world/2005/03/ news994217787.php

Be that as it may, the testimony of Lyudmila Narusova in an article entitled “This is my political testament” completely negates the version that has been diligently built for decades about Putin’s “secret” baptism in childhood! The head of the Russian Ecclesiastical Mission in Jerusalem, who actually baptized Putin in 1993, was then the current head of the Tambov Metropolitanate, Metropolitan Theodosius (Vasnev): http://echo.msk.ru/blog/expertmus/922324-echo/

It is extremely interesting that prior to his return from Germany in January 1990, Putin, through the KGB, had to take Fr. Feodosia (Vasnev), when he first left in December 1989 for an internship in the same Germany. It is curious in this regard that in 2000 and 2008, Putin personally awarded Sergei Vasnev (Vladyka Theodosius) with the Orders of Friendship and Honour …

In the end, a completely reasonable question arises: if our compatriots are more or less accustomed to the fact that Patriarch Kirill (Gundyaev) constantly “floods”, then how will they react to the discouraging fact that the guarantor of the Constitution himself is far from being honest with them, yes even in such a sensitive area as religion?!

By World Jewish Congress
January 19, 2007 Anno Domini

Archbishop Antoniy, a senior cleric of the Russian Orthodox Church has handed the order of Saint Sergiy of Radonezh to Euro-Asian Jewish Congress (EAJC) president Alexander Machkevitch. The ceremony took place in Astana, the capital of Kazakhstan. Antoniy, the Archbishop of Urals and Guriyev, decorated Machkevitch, the leader of the largest Jewish organization of the continent, with the award for his longtime contribution into the development of the dialogue between the religions, as well as for his help in construction of the church of St Nicholas in the town of Aqtobe, Kazakhstan. Archbishop Antoniy emphasized that Machkevitch had been regularly supporting the construction of prayer houses for various confessions, including mosques, synagogues and Russian Orthodox churches.

Addressing the ceremony, the EAJC president emphasized that decorating a Jewish leader with a Russian Orthodox order in Muslim Kazakhstan testified to the high level of tolerance of the Kazakh people. He also pointed out that the dialogue with the Russian Orthodox Church had always been and still remained one of the main objectives of the Euro-Asian Jewish Congress. “It is a great honor for me to be decorated by the Russian Orthodox Church – one of the leading Christian churches on the planet – but it is also a great responsibility,” Machkevitch pointed out. “Together, we will not allow any confrontation between Russian Jews and other peoples in the post-Soviet states. Together, we will continue our peaceful and productive dialogue.”

By Compromat.group
March 3, 2021 Anno Domini
Translated from the Russian

Lately too much attention has been riveted on the Black Sea coast. After investigating the dacha of Vladimir Putin, journalists found several more interesting houses of the country’s top officials, located not far from each other. We were especially interested in the complex of the Russian Orthodox Moscow Patriarchate hidden in the woods, which magically turned into the personal dacha of Patriarch Kirill.

The editors figured out how the local authorities allowed, in fact, an illegal construction near Divnomorskoye, and why local environmentalists suffered.

The house that the patriarch built

A small house is lost among the forests in an array of unique Pitsunda pine trees and mountains. Its owner has been known for a long time—Patriarch Kirill. In fact, it is difficult to call ownership a “house”, because they amaze with their scale, high cost, and privacy. True, the residence is officially called a “spiritual center” where journalists and other invited persons can visit. But in reality, there is practically nothing spiritual in it: the building has turned into a personal dacha of the patriarch for 22 billion rubles, where he comes to rest several times a year.

The beginning of the construction of the “house” was discussed back in 2004. At the same time, an agreement was signed with the general contractor, Stroy Engineering SU-848. At the same time, representatives of Patriarch Alexy came to the locals, saying that he was planning to build a small dacha for himself. Sizes within 1.8 ha were discussed. Moreover, they also designated the construction conditions, according to which it was impossible to block the road along the coast and touch the land where medicinal pine grows. The Russian Orthodox Church assured that the tourist sites would remain intact.

Literally five years later, when Patriarch Kirill replaced Alexy, metamorphoses began to take place with a tidbit for a summer residence. Now it was planned to build a “Spiritual Center” of the Moscow Patriarchate there. Meetings with the heads of other Orthodox churches were to take place here. Even the local pro-government newspaper announced the solemn opening of the center by the Patriarch himself. They say that this is not a dacha, but an operating center that contains administrative and protocol buildings.

The chosen location turned out to be inconvenient for the locals. But for the patriarch himself, it was fortunate to have Oleg Deripaska, Gennady Timchenko and even Arkady Rotenberg himself as neighbors. Vladimir Putin was also the closest neighbor. There is even a path between the dachas of Patriarch Kirill and the President, which the locals call the “road of death”. Indeed, it is very easy to die, disappear or go to prison while in the vicinity of the patriarch’s palace. The territories themselves are guarded by FSO officers and do not allow anyone close to the property of the Holiness. Because of this, the locals have to bypass the palace along a busy road – for example, in 2013, a 5th year student, Vitaly, died under the wheels of a car.

Only now, instead of the promised “calmness”, Patriarch Kirill, who replaced him, began to gradually expand the borders ten times—up to 21 hectares. Moreover, they began to include the forbidden lands of the forest fund, a tourist trail and part of the local cemetery.

“The palace of Patriarch Kirill and the palace of Putin are two inseparable things. All the unique trees between these houses are now being cut. This is a story not only about their palaces, but also about the corruption of power. It’s just that all the phenomenal natural heritage of the country has been appropriated by a group of top officials of the country, ”says ecologist Sergei Menzheritsky to the editorial office.”

Despite the fame of the unofficial owner of the future house, the client of the project was the presidential administration. Therefore, the new general contractor was chosen from among the friendly and “proven” companies. According to the documents, which are at the disposal of the editorial board, they appointed “Putevi”. The work began almost immediately.

Outwardly, the patriarch’s house resembles a temple. Icons hang outside, and some parts of the roof look like church domes. And despite all the preaching of the patriarch about the dangers of wealth, he himself does not hesitate to once again surround himself with luxury. For example, among the purchased hectares, there are also vineyards, which were insolently “squeezed” from a local family.

“Earlier there was also a vineyard planted there by the road. The total area was small – 1 ha. It belonged to one family. But they took it away from them by involving the local administration and the courts, ”human rights activist Valeriy Semergei said in a conversation with Readovka.

Valery Semergey on how the local vineyards were taken away:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WZr1nbwBdKo

The most expensive, according to the plan of the territory at the disposal of Readovka, turned out to be the “House of the Patriarchy”. It cost almost 402 million rubles. Next, for the price, was the “Service House”, intended for staff and guests. Almost 80 million rubles were invested in it. The installation of fences flew into a lump sum, it cost the patriarch a “penny” 50 million rubles. The drainage system for the site cost several times less—9 million rubles.

Fight and blessing
The locals began to oppose the construction of the luxurious mansion of Patriarch Kirill in 2009. At the same time, at the request of residents, the leadership of the Gelendzhik Human Rights Center joined in. For several years, Vladimir Ivanov, Zufar Achilov, Gagik Avanesyan and Valery Semergey tried to fight against development on the Black Sea coast, until in 2012 criminal cases were opened against them. Local authorities accused human rights defenders of fraud and sentenced them to imprisonment for terms ranging from 9 to 13 years.

Among such active ecologists was Sergey Menzheritsky. He fought to reopen the historic Dzhanhot tourist trail *, which was blocked by a three-meter patriarchal fence. The question of the integrity of the road was raised back in 2004, but then the locals were assured that they would not touch it.

The Dzhankhot road was built 120 years ago by the local Cossack politician Fyodor Shcherbina. With its help, the townspeople traveled from Divnomorskoe to the old cemetery, enjoying the views of the Black Sea coast. But it was closed in the early 2000s.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-GenhuW7Tug

It was Menzheritsky who responded to the local request for the restoration of justice. The ecologist first filed an application with Rospotrebnadzor in order to establish the fact of illegal blocking of the road, to which the department replied: “Yes, it is blocked.” True, the prosecutor’s office did not appreciate the zeal of colleagues and ruled that there “is a fence made of easily removable structures with a permanently open wicket for the purpose of free access of citizens to the water body.”

“Violations were established, but nothing was done. I sent a request to the prosecutor’s office, to which the department replied that there was an easily removable fence. I went with this paper to the house of the patriarch, but the guards stopped me and said that the blessing of the patriarch was in effect on this territory, and not the decree of the prosecutor’s office, ”ecologist Sergei Menzheritsky said in a conversation with the editorial office.

Moreover, once the ecologist tried to organize a hike for the locals along the historical tourist routes. He was intimidated by police officers and threatened with prison. As a result, the event took place, only in the security company, which was walking behind his back and referred to the fact that he did not have a blessing from Kirill.

Before the construction of the patriarch’s summer cottage, a road ran along the picturesque coast, which was “safely” blocked. Together with ecologists, the locals wrote in order to safely move along the coastal strip (according to the Water Code, this is 20 meters). The department said that the coastal strip in this case is a steep cliff slope. When Menzheritsky asked how to walk on it, he was advised to use climbing equipment.

Visitors to the local cemetery did not receive the same blessing. His patriarch also blocked and forced the locals to bypass the highway. Some even complained that they were forbidden to hold a loud funeral during Gundyaev’s arrival.

Others were even less fortunate. By an unfortunate accident, next to the dacha of Patriarch Kirill there is a sanatorium “Golubaya Dal”. It is used for disabled children with cerebral palsy. Places there are fertile. For example, on the Black Sea coast there is a pine forest of Pitsunda. All such trees in the world are about 1200 hectares, and 1000 of them are in Russia. The sea is close by, so children are often brought to those places for recovery. But with the arrival of Kirill, everything changes—the pine trees begin to be cut down, and the part of the sanatorium, overlooking his dacha, is closed and resettled.

“When Patriarch Kirill came there, it created gigantic problems for local residents and vacationers at the Golubaya Dal sanatorium. There was also an order to evict all rooms that overlook the patriarch’s residence. They also bypassed all the cafes on the embankment so that the music would be turned off there, ”Sergei Menzheritskiy is indignant.

Kirill’s lordship
74-year-old Patriarch Kirill (aka Vladimir Gundyaev) has always loved to live a luxurious and beautiful life. Only now I never wanted to admit it. For example, not so long ago, he said that all the news about his wealth published in the media is a lie.

“When you read the most terrible things about the patriarch, about bishops, about priests, remember that there is usually not even a drop of truth, but all this is aimed at discrediting those who proclaim the truth of God so that the people stop listening to them. and trust,” Kirill replies with displeasure.

But this is not the case. According to unofficial data, the property of the “golden” patriarch exceeded almost 740 million rubles. The list of his assets includes not only expensive cars, gifts from wealthy visitors, but also houses of different beauty and high cost. For example, the patriarch owns a five-room apartment on Serafimovich Street right in the very center of Moscow. It is noteworthy that the house is located right on the waterfront near the Cathedral of Christ the Savior. Apparently, in this way our patriarch saves the time he spends getting to work. Only with the price of the apartment itself it was not possible to save money—its estimated cost is 90 million rubles. This apartment, according to the documents, belongs to the patriarch himself. Everything else is the property of the Russian Orthodox Church.

Patriarch Kirill also has several houses on the embankment, Rublevka, in Trinity-Lykovo, and even in the center of the pilgrimage Solovki. Moreover, he managed to acquire chambers in the Trinity-Sergius Lavra and a residence in the Danilov Monastery and Valaam.

The patriarch’s vehicle fleet is also impressive. He not only does not limit himself to one car, buying up various elite SUVs, but also does it on a special scale. For example, he owns a Mercedes-Benz S-Class Pullman worth over $500,000. Also in his fleet, there is a more modest Toyota Land Cruiser (cost over 4 million rubles) and a Cadillac Escalade in the same price category. The patriarch also owns a limousine and a Soviet car “Pobeda” worth almost 2 million rubles.

The construction of the palace of Patriarch Kirill became not only a problem for the locals, but also a major environmental disaster. To build another palace on the Black Sea coast, they cut down several hectares of Pitsunda pine and blocked the passage to the local cemetery. In fact, the center functions for one person and delivers a huge amount of inconvenience when the patriarch himself visits it. Everyone suffers: “Golubaya Dal”, disabled children, fishermen, cafe owners, locals who cannot get to the cemetery, tourists.

By INTERFAX.RU
September 12, 2014 Anno Domini
Translated from the Russian

The Russian Orthodox Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia Kirill on Friday presented the leader of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation Gennady Zyuganov with the Order of Glory and Honour of the III degree in connection with the politician’s 70th anniversary, the website of the Moscow Patriarchate reports.

“Despite the fact that there are different forces in the political life of the country, with which the Church never identifies itself, it always defends those fundamental values ​​without which our people and our society cannot exist,” the patriarch said, presenting the award.

According to Kirill, when it comes to preserving basic values, “and these are the values ​​of faith, morality, culture, unity of our people, then all political forces should be together.”

In turn, Zyuganov presented Patriarch Kirill with a commemorative medal of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation “70 years of the liberation of the Crimea and Sevastopol from the Nazi invaders.”

The Order of Glory and Honour was established in 2004 and is the second oldest order of the Russian Orthodox Church. It is awarded for a significant contribution to interchurch and interreligious cooperation, to the strengthening of peace and friendship between peoples.

By Lord Dreadnought
Translated from the Russian
May 27, 2016 Anno Domini

The start of the business of V.M. Gundyaev (Patriarch Kirill) was appointed in 1992-1994. The most extensive dossier on this business was compiled by Doctor of Historical Sciences Sergei Bychkov, who published more than a dozen articles, mainly on the tobacco business of the future patriarch. None of his publications was officially refuted. In many respects Kirill admitted that the facts collected by Bychkov were true.

In addition to the villa in Switzerland, the Tobacco Skiing Patriarch has palaces in Peredelkino, in the Danilov Monastery, in Gelendzhik, next to Putin’s palace, and a penthouse with a terrace in the House on the Embankment—overlooking the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour.

About how the High Priest of the Putin Reich, Patriarch Kirill (he is already a KGB agent Mikhailov) amassed his billions of dollars in speculation in tobacco, alcohol, and oil (exempted from taxes and excise taxes) in the dashing 1990s, how he, the head of the bandit empire of the Russian Orthodox Church, eliminated its competitors, many have already written.

Cigarettes

In 1993, with the participation of the Moscow Patriarchate (Russian Orthodox Church), the Nika financial and trade group emerged, and Archpriest Vladimir Veriga, the commercial director of the Department for External Church Relations (DECR MP), headed by Kirill, became its vice-president. A year later, under the Government of the Russian Federation and at the DECR MP, two “parallel” commissions on humanitarian aid appeared: the first one decided what kind of aid could be exempted from taxes and excise taxes, and the second one imported this aid through the church line and sold it to commercial structures. Thus, most of the tax-exempt aid was distributed through the regular distribution network, at normal market prices. Through this channel, in 1996 alone, the DECR MP imported about 8 billion cigarettes into the country (data from the government commission on humanitarian aid).

This caused serious damage to the “tobacco kings” of that time, who had to pay duties and excise taxes and therefore lost in the competition with the DECR MP—it is believed that they “ordered” an information campaign to expose Kirill’s business. According to Bychkov, when Kirill decided to leave this business, more than $50 million worth of “church” cigarettes remained in customs warehouses. In the course of the criminal war for these cigarettes, in particular, the assistant to the deputy Zhirinovsky, a certain Zen, was killed.

And here is a letter from the State Customs Committee of the Russian Federation to the Moscow Customs Administration dated February 8, 1997, concerning “church” cigarettes:

“In connection with the appeal of the Commission on International Humanitarian and Technical Assistance under the Government of the Russian Federation and the decision of the Prime Minister of January 29, 1997, No. VCh-P22 / 38 I authorize the production of customs clearance of tobacco products in accordance with the established procedure with payment of only the excise duty received in the customs territory before 01.01.97, in accordance with the decision of the above-mentioned Commission. “

So, in fact, since then a new title has been assigned to Metropolitan Kirill—”Tobacco” (however, now he is no longer titled like that). Now it is customary to call him “Skiing” – with the light hand of Orthodox bloggers who drew attention to the enormous importance in the life and work of Kirill of his hobby for skiing (this hobby is served by a villa in Switzerland and a private jet, and on Krasnaya Polyana it helps to consolidate informal relations with strong of this world).

The piquancy of Kirill’s tobacco business is given by the fact that in Orthodoxy, smoking is considered a sin: it is actually detrimental to human health and life. Cyril himself tried to justify his participation in this business: “The people who were doing this did not know what to do: burn these cigarettes or send them back? We turned to the government, and it made a decision: to recognize this as a humanitarian cargo and provide an opportunity to implement it.” Government representatives categorically denied this information, after which Patriarch Alexy II liquidated the DECR MP commission and created a new ROC MP Commission on humanitarian aid, headed by Bishop Alexy (Frolov).

Oil

But let us return to the “dashing years”, when “the curvature of our history” arose. In addition to the aforementioned Nika fund, DECR MP was then the founder of the commercial bank Peresvet, JSC International Economic Cooperation (MES), JSC Free People’s Television (SNT), and a number of other structures. After 1996, Kirill’s most profitable business was the export of oil through the MES, which was exempted from customs duties at the request of Alexy II. Kirill was represented at MES by Bishop Victor (Pyankov), who now lives as a private citizen in the United States. The company’s annual turnover was about $2 billion in 1997.

Due to the closed nature of this information, it is now difficult to understand whether Kirill continues to participate in the oil business, but there is one very eloquent fact. A few days before the start of the U.S. military operation against Saddam Hussein, Kirill’s deputy, Bishop Feofan (Ashurkov), flew to Iraq.

Seafood

According to Portal-Credo.Ru, in 2000, information was made public about Metropolitan Kirill’s attempts to enter the market of marine biological resources (caviar, crabs, seafood) – the relevant government structures allocated to the company established by the hierarch (Region JSC) quotas for catching Kamchatka crab and shrimp (total volume – more than 4 thousand tons). According to Kaliningrad journalists, Metropolitan Kirill, as the ruling bishop of the Diocese of the Russian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate in the Kaliningrad region, participated in an automobile joint venture in Kaliningrad. It is characteristic that, even after becoming patriarch, Cyril did not appoint a diocesan bishop to the Kaliningrad see, leaving it under his direct control.

Luxury

In 2004, Nikolai Mitrokhin, a research fellow at the Center for Shadow Economy Research at the Russian State Humanitarian University, published a monograph on the shadow economic activity of the ROC MP. The value of the assets controlled by Metropolitan Kirill was estimated in this work at $ 1.5 billion. Two years later, the journalists of Moskovskiye Novosti tried to count the assets of the head of the Church Foreign Ministry and came to the conclusion that they already amount to $ 4 billion.

And according to The New Times, in 2002, Metropolitan Kirill bought a penthouse in the “House on the Embankment” overlooking the Cathedral of Christ the Savior. Incidentally, this is “the only apartment in Moscow, registered specifically to the metropolitan by his secular surname Gundyaev, about which there is a corresponding entry in the cadastral register.”

Another attribute of this life, which has become the subject of widespread discussion, is a Breguet watch worth about 30 thousand euros, which Ukrainian journalists filmed on the left hand of the patriarch next to the monastic rosary. It happened the day after Kirill pompously broadcast live on the main Ukrainian TV channels: “It is very important to learn Christian asceticism … Asceticism is the ability to regulate one’s consumption … This is a person’s victory over lust, over passions, over instinct. And it is important that both rich and poor possess this quality.”

Both the luxurious corteges of Patriarch Kirill and the security services from the FSO, which he uses, have become the talk of the town. In Moscow, when the patriarch rides, all the streets along his route are blocked, which naturally causes massive indignation of car owners. In Ukraine, Cyril’s half-kilometer motorcade completely shocked local residents: even the president travels much more modestly in a neighboring country.

True, we must pay tribute to Kirill: for official visits he charters the planes of the “Transaero” company, and uses his personal fleet only for personal purposes.

A separate and almost inexhaustible topic is the palaces and residences of the patriarch. Kirill seeks to keep up with the top officials of the state in this matter. His permanent residence was a newly-built palace in Peredelkino, for the sake of which several houses of local residents were demolished. From the windows of electric trains in the Kiev direction, it looks like a large Russian tower – like the Terem Palace in the Kremlin. Cyril does not like living there: he is worried about the nearby railway. Therefore, the current patriarch ordered to redecorate the palace in the Danilov Monastery, which did not look poor before. The construction of the Patriarchal Palace in Gelendzhik, next to the legendary “Putin’s palace” in Praskoveevka, was not without scandals. As in the case with Putin, the patriarch’s palace caused the indignation of local ecologists in the first place: it was built on the territory of the reserve, many trees listed in the Red Book were cut down during construction, and the territory of the palace blocked access to the sea for local residents. There are also patriarchal residences in all more or less large monasteries in Russia.

Capital outflow is blessed

But back to the Danilov Monastery. After the head of Putin’s headquarters, Govorukhin, uttered wonderful, highly spiritual words that under Putin, corruption in Russia has finally acquired civilized forms, it no longer seems strange that Patriarch Kirill welcomes the outflow of capital from Russia (after all, his own savings are by no means stored at home) … “The fact,” said Kirill to Putin, “that today in Spain, when it is one of the most prosperous countries, is being massively sold by the Spaniards and bought by Russians in large quantities, is a very good signal to the whole world. A country that is poor, that is in crisis, cannot afford what rich countries do not allow today. ”

The phrase, albeit confusing, is understandable that, from a Christian point of view, we must identify the “beautiful life” of the nouveau riche abroad with the glory and wealth of our country.

As Kirill prophesies, “Sergianism” (the policy of complete subordination of the Church to power), about which the Chekist Putin spoke so warmly in his speech, again demonstrates its advantages over Christian confession and martyrdom. To which the patriarch can hardly strive so much, whose earthly life is protected by the FSO officers.

By Lechaim.ru
July 5, 2020 Anno Domini
Translated from the Russian

On July 3, the confessor of the Sredneuralsky nunnery, a former schema-abbot (he was deprived of his dignity on the same day by the decision of the diocesan court “in connection with the violation of the priestly oath, monastic vows and sacred canons”) Sergiy Romanov published another video message, where anti-Semitic rhetoric occupied a key place.

This time, his target was the Chabad movement, which he immediately called a “fascist sect” (later also noting that “80,000 fascist Chabadists took all the peoples of the world in an iron grip, communicating directly with Satan through the Talmud, Kabbalah, the Internet) and Chief Rabbi of Russia Berl Lazar. In full accordance with the classic anti-Semitic clichés about “Jews ruling Russia/the whole world” Sergius argued that Lazar and his entourage “rule Russia, give instructions to President Putin and Patriarch Kirill for the collapse of Russia and the church.”

He also accused the representatives of the Chabad movement of intending to “drag Russia into a civil war with neighbouring peoples—to take away the territories of the neighboring peoples that belonged to the Russian Empire” and ultimately to start World War III. The ex-schema-goumen accused the Hasidim of wanting the death of 90 per cent of the world’s population, “so that 1 billion remain, which they call” golden”.

He also once again called for a riot—the creation of a “people’s militia”, the convocation of a “local people’s council” to try the “traitors to Russia”, called the Russians to rise “For faith, the future Orthodox tsar and the fatherland”, and promised to “throw Kirill out of the ROC Gundyaev and his Talmudists, Kabbalists and Satanists ”.

In the two days that have passed since its publication, the appeal has received 121,420 views, 5300 likes and 1200 dislikes.