"Russian chauvinists turn to the Russian Orthodox Church in search of ideology," - the Head of the UGCC

This was stated by Patriarch Sviatoslav in an interview with Ukrainska Pravda.

"Let's remember how, during the Second World War, this atheist communist state discovered the potential to manipulate the religious sentiments of Soviet citizens through certain Church simulations. In this way, the institution, now known as the Russian Orthodox Church, was revived. I won't delve into the history of forming this institution, but it is a well-known fact that it was under the control of Soviet structures," noted His Beatitude Sviatoslav.

According to him, authorities have always used the ROC, inter alia, as an instrument for clearing the religious space of the state. For example, in 1946, the Stalin regime liquidated the UGCC and merged it into the ROC. In the post-war period, the communist authorities developed the External Church Relations Department of the ROC.

"Some scholars say there was an External Church Relations Department, and as a small addition to it, there was the Russian Orthodox Church. At that time, all representatives of Moscow Orthodoxy advocated for 'peace in the whole world,' traveling around the world, and fighting against the arms race. It was interesting to observe how Khrushchev, who closed Russian Orthodox churches in the Soviet Union, was expanding the network of the External Church Relations Department of the Russian Orthodox Church," he recalled.

For a long time, this department was headed by the current leader of the ROC, Kirill.

"Obviously, when Russian chauvinists began to feel a lack of ideology for Russian chauvinism, the Church, unfortunately, created the ideology of the Russian world, which it offered to the Putin state machine. And today, we have what we have," emphasized the Head of the UGCC.