The conflict over the city park and the construction of a church in Ekaterinburg has not subsided, even after the results of the recent VCIOM poll that seemed to put an end to it. According to the published data, 74% of the respondents considered the park an unsuitable location for the construction of a new church, which the local residents defended.
Shortly thereafter, the governor of the Sverdlovsk region, Yevgeny Kuivashev, wrote the following in his blog: «VCIOM published the results of the survey of Ekaterinburg residents on the construction of St. Catherine’s Church. 58% of the respondents said that the church should be built in another place, not in the park near the Drama Theater. 74% considered the choice of the location as unsuccessful. These data show that mistakes were made in the selection of the site and the opinions of the citizens were not fully taken into account. It is necessary to choose a more suitable place and build there the church of which the Orthodox citizens of Ekaterinburg have been dreaming for a long time. As you know, the administration of Ekaterinburg is currently collecting proposals from the citizens for a new location for the construction of the Church of St. Catherine. Then a survey will be conducted among the residents of Ekaterinburg. I believe that the data published by the VCIOM give reason to exclude the park near the Drama Theater from the list of possible locations for the church. I will appeal to the head of Ekaterinburg, Alexander Vysokinsky, not to include this site in the list of options during the survey. We have gone through this conflict, it is solved. We must find a new place for the church together».
It seemed that the issue was closed, as both the residents and the governor had expressed their positions. However, there is one corporation in the country that has become accustomed to dominating not only society, but also the state — the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC). Its representative, Vladimir Legoyda, head of the synodal department for relations with the media, stated that the media had misinterpreted the results of the survey. The Ekaterinburg diocese of the ROC also continued to stand its ground. In particular, Archpriest Maxim Minyaylo stated at a meeting with the mayor of Ekaterinburg today that «it is not too late to start educating the public about the church in the park, to at least legalize this idea.
Mayor Alexander Vysokinsky, who called on the ROC to abandon this site for the church, as recommended by the governor, finally stated that he was not ready to remove it from the list of sites that will be offered to citizens for selection. Yesterday, Vysokinsky also stated that the VCIOM survey did not have a decisive character. Therefore, the city authorities are currently preparing an official poll in special places, and the ROC, which insists on including the park in the list of sites for the construction of the church, plans to mobilize its parishioners to vote for this option.
Overall, the supporters of the ROC’s dominance in society and the state, as evidenced by the comments of their prominent representatives in the media, believe that they cannot back down on this issue because the clergy’s capitulation to civil society pressure could set a dangerous precedent that could undermine their positions. It is in this context that the ongoing repression against the participants of the protests in the park, presented as a «dialogue between the authorities and society», should be seen.
In particular, yesterday a well-known representative of Aleksey Navalny in the region, Leonid Volkov, was sentenced to 20 days’ imprisonment, essentially for broadcasting the protests on social media. The Council of the Orthodox Patriotic Society also called for repression and a shift to direct street action by church supporters.
Their statement, released today by one of the ROC’s hawks, Vsevolod Chaplin, reads in part: «Too many people are afraid of direct Orthodox popular action, including in the political sphere. But it is precisely in such action — the salvation of Russia …. we are more concerned about the future of Russia. If we want it not to be enslaved by an aggressive minority, not to be plunged into chaos and then divided and occupied, we must move towards popular action against the demons. We must take to the streets and speak out against the ‘Maidanites’. We need to picket their headquarters and sympathetic media….We need to create mass movements similar to the Union of the Russian People (Black Hundreds — note by AI) and shame anyone who obstructs or simply does not help».