The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe has recognized the Russian Orthodox Church as an instrument of influence and propaganda of official Moscow. This was recorded in its resolution, which also calls for the recognition of Russian President Vladimir Putin as illegitimate.
This was reported by a member of the Ukrainian delegation to PACE, MP Yevhenia Kravchuk, according to Detector Media.
According to the MP, the Assembly pointed out that Vladimir Putin’s regime has committed to the neo-imperialistic ideology of Russkiy Mir (the “Russian world”), which the Kremlin has turned into a tool for promoting war, and the hierarchs of the Moscow Patriarchate of the Russian Orthodox Church, including Patriarch Kirill, have been championing the Russkiy Mir ideology, declaring the war against Ukraine and the “satanic” West as a “holy war of all Russians”.
"The PACE resolution on Navalny's death has become another powerful document supporting Ukraine and condemning Putin's aggression. Members of the Assembly adopted the resolution Alexei Navalny's death and the need to counter Vladimir Putin's totalitarian regime and its war on democracy". The Assembly called for: officially recognizing Putin's illegitimacy as president of the Russian Federation... recognizing the Russian Orthodox Church as an instrument of Russian influence and propaganda that has nothing to do with freedom of religion and expression," Kravchuk wrote on Facebook.
According to her, the PACE resolution emphasizes the fact that since coming to power, Putin has been building a regime aimed at waging a war against democracy and reshaping the European and world order established after the collapse of the former Soviet Union.
"The Assembly reaffirmed that the Russian Federation has become a de facto dictatorship under Putin's rule. It is noted that Putin has been in power continuously since 2000, and the amendments to the Russian Constitution (adopted in July 2020 and recognized as illegitimate by the Venice Commission and the Assembly) allow him to remain in office until 2036," Kravchuk explained.
She noted that PACE also called on the EU member states to strengthen the regime of sanctions against Russia as a state sponsor of terrorism, as well as sanctions against the Lukashenko regime in Belarus.
In addition, according to the MP, the resolution calls on the EU member states to create a special tribunal to investigate the crime of aggression against Ukraine as well as an international mechanism of compensation for its victims, to which frozen Russian assets should be immediately allocated.
The resolution calls on states to ensure that Russia is held accountable for the systematic use of torture and other forms of ill-treatment against thousands of prisoners in the Russian Federation, including Ukrainian political prisoners illegally held in Russian prisons since 2014, as well as Ukrainian prisoners of war.
"In addition, the Assembly emphasized that under international humanitarian law, Russian oil refineries should be considered legitimate military targets," Kravchuk added.
As reported previously, Estonian Minister of the Interior Affairs Lauri Läänemets announced his intention to propose to the Estonian parliament to recognize the Russian Orthodox Church as a terrorist organization.
It should also be noted that on March 27, 2024, in Moscow, the congress of the so-called World Russian People's Council, which operates under the auspices of the Russian Orthodox Church, approved a "decree" containing an open call for war against Ukraine and the West and for the genocide of the Ukrainian people.