The ruling regime of Russia in 2020 brought not only two crises — the oil crisis and the coronavirus crisis, but also a division within the power structure that the Kremlin has been building for the past two decades. The administrative division within the system is due to the fact that the Kremlin has transferred the main responsibility for combating the crisis to the regions, and the role of regional leaders, especially those who successfully cope with the crisis, is objectively strengthened against the backdrop of the weakening center, which is why many now talk about the disintegration of Putin’s Russia.
Equally important is the ideological split within the Russian system, which the Voice of Islam began to highlight as soon as the threat of the coronavirus came to Russia. It is a confrontation that has begun and is growing between the majority of society and that part of the state leadership that relies on the support of the Kremlin, especially the circles of the Russian Orthodox Church, which has long considered itself the ruling ideology and party.
The Kremlin is trying to distance itself as much as possible from this conflict, passing the responsibility for unpopular decisions to the regional authorities. Following its example, the leadership of the Russian Orthodox Church has chosen the same «hybrid» tactic — on the one hand, Patriarch Kirill has called on Orthodox believers to stay at home and not go to church, even on Easter. In practice, however, the question of closing or opening churches has been left to the discretion of local church hierarchs, many of whom, as we recently wrote, are urging Orthodox believers to come to church.
Moreover, the most militant circles of the Russian Orthodox Church have launched an information campaign against the government, directed primarily at regional authorities, accusing them of «persecuting Orthodoxy» and threatening to withdraw their support. And it is not to be thought that this is the initiative of some marginal people. Konstantin Malofeev, the man behind the «Tsargrad» TV channel, is not only an «investor» who once financed the Kremlin’s aggression against Ukraine, he is also one of the actual leaders of the World Russian People’s Assembly, which officially represents the public wing of the Russian Orthodox Church. And after him, Lieutenant General Leonid Reshetnikov, who until recently headed the Russian Institute for Strategic Studies, founded by Vladimir Putin himself, which prepares analyses for the presidential administration.
And today these people and the media associated with them openly accuse the part of government officials who are trying to protect the population from the coronavirus of fighting against Orthodoxy. This is what is said, for example, in today’s article on Tsargrad TV with the speaking title «How the Russian Orthodox majority is being crucified»: «The Russian Church has entered its Good Friday. For the first time in its thousand-year history, the authorities are denying the faithful access to the church… The farce began with the veneration of the relics of John the Baptist — Latynina called them «dried human remains,» and Andrei Kurayev (a furious «proto-deacon» who for some reason is still in office) called it a «cynical business project. Soon, the «most Christian» Governor Beglov, a great admirer of Mount Athos and the talking head of many temple-building projects, ordered the churches closed (without waiting for a signal from above). And then it began. The most active persecution in Telegram channels, in the media. The state trolls (looking like bots from the Moscow City Hall squad) came out. Liquid political scientists, liberal Russophobes and their supporters appeared. A wave of anger, insults, slander began — the kind that didn’t even happen during the years of Soviet rule. At least after Stalin…. Today’s nomenklatura has literally broken free. There are no more rules or restrictions. It turns out that they have neither God nor Party. Only fear for their «backsides» (let’s not be rude). And — animal hatred for the Church. They are infidels, the officials. And the state is atheistic. The ideology of the ruling group — in most cases — is atheism. More precisely, anti-theism. Because they do not believe in God, they fervently, fanatically believe that He does not exist. Well, or secretly, they believe and tremble. And they hate fiercely. They also hate the Church. And not just the Russian Orthodox Church (as they like to call it offensively). But the Church as a whole. That is, all of us — the Orthodox majority».
But on behalf of which majority do the hybrid information troops of the Russian Orthodox Church speak, from which Patriarch Kirill («they are not there») distances himself in public? As the data of the poll conducted today by the Public Opinion Foundation show, before the Orthodox Easter only 14% of respondents were in favor of holding services as usual, 55% were in favor of holding them behind closed doors, without parishioners, and 18% were even in favor of temporarily canceling them. That is, in a country with an «Orthodox majority», on behalf of which the Russian Orthodox Church and its lobbyists are accustomed to speak, there were more people who advocated the complete cancellation of church services in the current situation than those who advocated their continuation as usual.
Thus, the coronavirus crisis has exposed not only the material but also the ideological poverty of the current regime, which has relied on the ideology and circles of a minority of Russians.