Friends and foes of Ukraine among religious leaders in Russia
Russian scholar Roman Lunkin analyzes the attitude of religious leaders about the war in Ukraine: Brief ‘rating’ of religious leaders in Russia by degree of loyalty to the Special operation in Ukraine. Human Rights Without Frontiers calls upon the EU, the US and the UK to extend their sanctions to the Russian religious leaders who support the war in Ukraine.
See Black List 2 below.
See HRWF Black List 1 here
Russia Religion News (14.03.2022) – The Russian religious studies scholar, sociologist, and political scientist Roman Lunkin composed a “brief rating of religious leaders of Russia by degree of their loyalty to the special operation in Ukraine,” the Christian megaportal inVictory reports, citing the Facebook account of the author.
As Lunkin observed, the list includes those whom he noticed and recalled.
Direct support
Director of Ecclesiastical Assembly of Muslims of Russia, Albir Krganov;
Supreme mufti of the Central Ecclesiastical Board of Muslims of Russia, Talgat Tadzhuddin;
Chairman of the Ecclesiastical Board of Muslims of the republic of Tatarstam, Kamil Samigullin;
Mufti of Bashkiria, Ainur Birgalin;
Patriarch of Moscow and all-Rus Kirill (from 11 March, when explanations of the conflict were stated in a letter to the World Council of Churches);
Metropolitan of the Russian Orthodox Old-ritualist Church Kornily;
Protestant bishop of the Russian Churches of Christians of Evangelical Faith, Pavel Zhelnovakov (Izhevsk);
Pastor of a protestant church in Kostroma, Andrei Gusev;
Orthodox historian and publicist Feliks Razumovsky;
Orthodox historian and publicist, priest Ilia Soloviev;
Between a call for peace and direct support
Bishop Sergei Riakhovsky, head of Pentecostal union of the Russian Affiliated Council of Christian of Evangelical Faith, member of the Public Chamber of the R.F.
Calls for peace only
Head of the Ecclesiastical Board of Muslims of the R.F., Ravil Gainutdin;
Chairman of the Ecclesiastical Board of Muslims of Crimea and Sevastopol, Emirali Ablaev;
Archbishop of Evangelical Lutheran Church of Russia, Ditrikh Brauer;
Bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Ingria, Ivan Laptev;
Rector of the Moscow Theological Institute, Sergei Yastrzhemsky;
Pastor of Church of Embassy of Jesus in Nizhny Novgorod;
Conference of Catholic Bishops of Russia and Archbishop Pavel Petstsi ;
Prayer for peace by Bishop Nikolai Dubinin;
Baptist pastor Evgeny Bakhmutsky (Moscow);
Head of Buddhist Traditional Sangkha of Russia, Pandito Khambo Lama Damba Aiusheev;
Detailed active position for cessation of the conflict
Chief rabbi of Russia, Berl Lazar;
Head of the Union of Baptists of Russia, Petr Mitskevich (he is also head of the Union of Baptists of the whole Eurasian space, Transcauasus, and Central Asia);
Bishop of Pentecostal Union of the Russian Church of Christians of Evangelical Faith, Eduard Grabovenko;
286 priests of the Russian Orthodox Church (appeal on 1 March 2022);
Against the military operation and condemnation of Russia and Russian Orthodox Church
Protestant opposition figures, Baptists Yury Sipko and Aleksei Markevich;
Orthodox activists and opposition figures Sergei Chapnin and Konstantin Eggert;
Pastor Albert Ratkin of the video channel Vsgliad s Nebesnoi;
Pastor of the “New Life” church in Ekaterinburg, Viktor Sudakov;
Archdeacon Andrei Kuraev.
Appeal to fellow countrymen by evangelical ministers of 3 March 2022
(as Aleksei Markevich notes, it was signed by about 500 persons, but it is impossible to confirm this now, since all signatures were secret inasmuch as, unlike the Orthodox appeal, the protestants essentially accused the Russian Federation of aggression). Apparently only the signatures of the principal signatories are public:
Yuri Ilchenko, Khabarovsk;
Evgeny Kokora, Novorossiisk;
Andrei Kravtsev, Nalchik;
Roman Nosach, St. Petersburg;
Aleksei Markevich, Moscow;
Pavel Togobitsky, Berdsk;
Viktor Fast, Solnechnyi;
Igor Shaifulin, Novosibirsk;
Mikhail Cherniavsky, Khabarovsk.
(tr. by PDS, posted 20 March 2022)
Photo: War ruins in Ukraine / Getty Images