While Putin’s regime was gathering votes for the referendum on constitutional amendments and extending his presidency for another 16 years, it became increasingly clear that this political magic would not save him. Today, not only is his overall public support «resetting,» as recent opinion polls confirm, but the quality of support for his regime is declining, not just among «liberals» or «Navalny supporters,» but among what his ideologue Vladislav Surkov called the «deep people,» who are supposed to be his pillar of support.
Earlier this spring, we wrote about the beginning of the destruction of this regime’s ideological vertical, which it is desperately trying to enshrine in the Constitution. But another story in this series has reached its climax in recent days. Ksenia Sobchak, a liberal figure close to the court, poured fuel on the growing conflict between the charismatic leader of the Sredneuralsky women’s monastery, Hegumen Sergei Romanov, who is becoming a leader of the Orthodox «deep people,» and the authorities of church and state. By provoking a conflict with the inhabitants of the monastery after entering as an uninvited guest, Sobchak was accidentally pushed by someone, after which she publicly announced to the world that she had been beaten and that there was an «Orthodox Taliban» in Russia.
Who is this «Orthodox Taliban» and who is its leader? Hegumen Sergei Romanov (pictured), a former investigator who served 13 years in prison for robbery and murder before becoming a priest in the 1990s, a builder of monasteries, and a preacher of the cult of the slain Tsar Nicholas II. He became the center of attraction for the corresponding audience — opponents of the tax authorities, believers in the Judeo-Masonic conspiracy, admirers of the Russian Empire and the «Orthodox Soviet Union» under the leadership of Joseph Stalin. In fact, many of these ideas have long been incorporated into the official state ideology, as evidenced by the recent construction of the Main Cathedral of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, about which we have written extensively. Therefore, both the Church and the state authorities turned a blind eye to the growing influence of this «authoritative priest» not only in the criminal, but also in the political establishment of the Russian Federation (although these phenomena are almost identical) — such as the former State Duma deputy and symbol of the «Russian Spring» Natalia Poklonskaya.
It would probably have continued this way, if the authoritative priest had not started to expose the most authoritative figure of the country, whose previous presidential terms are being «reset» these days. He accused him of everything, from fighting against the Church (due to the closure of churches during the pandemic) to wearing a military uniform and lighting a six-candle holder at the Western Wall, calling on «patriots in the army» to remove him from power.
However, it should be noted that Hegumen Sergei believes that he is not exposing Vladimir Putin himself, but his double, whom he believes has long been replaced by Judeo-Masonic forces. However, regardless of who is actually ruling in the guise of Putin and who is in power, such reservations do not make things easier for them. It is obvious that in a country where people are already arrested for liking and reposting, the presence of an anti-government religious-political preacher who relies on a network of monasteries and thousands of followers is unacceptable.
Therefore, it is not surprising that the church authorities finally decided to remove the leader of the «Orthodox Taliban» from his position as head of the Sredneuralsky Women’s Monastery, which serves as his stronghold. However, there is a problem — although this monastery is under the spiritual jurisdiction of the Russian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate, on a secular level it is a building located on private property. Unlike the church authorities, the owner of the property has not expressed any desire to get rid of Hegumen Sergei and his followers.
What to do in such a situation? Of course, the leadership of the Russian Orthodox Church can declare the rebellious priest «takfir,» but it has already declared them all «takfir,» starting with Patriarch Kirill. By the way, he relies on the support of the elders of Mount Athos, with whom the church leadership has also managed to spoil relations. Storming his monastery is problematic because it is on private property, apparently owned by his supporters. His personal liquidation is also problematic. Firstly, because he is in full view of his followers, and secondly, because it would only provide them with a martyr cult that could be exploited by the new, younger leaders in this environment.
Therefore, at present, the state and the tightly knit church elite are clearly confused by the loss of control over this «deep people» on whom they had recently planned to rely. Liberal figures close to the government, who are in power, are now joining in to discredit Sergei and his supporters. In such cases, as is often said, one can wish both sides a complete and final victory in this battle — the «orthodox Stalinists» and the power-hungry liberals.
It is not difficult to imagine that if the first Muslims were in the same position, gathered in a madrasa where their imam called for the overthrow of Putin, they would be subjected not only to the National Guard, but also to heavy artillery and aviation. This does not mean that we wish the same to the followers of the cult of Nicholas II and Stalin — they do not pose a threat to us as long as they worship them in their own environment and do not try to impose them on us through the state. In this sense, such «Orthodox fundamentalists» are much less of a problem for us than the «respectable» circles of the Russian Orthodox Church who try to impose the same ideas from above, but in a slightly more glamorous form, relying on the support of the state in exchange for the support that the church gives to the state.
As for the power-hungry liberals who are currently targeting Sergei and his followers, it should be understood that they are doing so from positions that allow them to do the same to all religions, as they have done to Islam and Muslims in the past. Despite the fact that the root of the concept of «liberalism» is the word «freedom», far from fighting for freedom against censorship and persecution of dissenters, these circles themselves want to establish censorship and harass dissenters, especially those who disagree with their «progressive values» — feminism, LGBT, etc.
The most comfortable situation for Russian Muslims would be one in which neither the worshippers of cults of white kings and red dictators nor the followers of new religions such as feminism and LGBT can impose their beliefs on the rest of society, and each family and community can live according to its own values without facing the onslaught of the National Guard or the CTO.