Patriarch Kirill

Metropolitan Kirill of Smolensk and Kaliningrad, whose secular name is Vladimir Gundyayev, was elected as the 16th Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia on 27 January 2009 by the Local Council of the Russian Orthodox Church, succeeding Patriarch Alexy II, who died in December 2008 at the age of 79. The Local Council, made up of about 700 priests, monks, and laymen, chose Kirill over his rival, conservative nationalist Metropolitan Kliment, 59. Kirill received 508 votes in a secret ballot, while Kliment received 169 votes. Metropolitan Kliment of Kaluga and Borovsk had been seen as the favorite, because of his perceived moderation. Kliment, the church's chief diplomat, believes the church should not be independent of the state and would have continued Aleksy's policies in supporting all factions of the Kremlin coalition. Kirill, by contrast, was a radical choice. Metropolitan Kirill actually thinks that the patriarch has more authority than a tsar. Kirill believes the state must submit to the church. Of course, he doesn't say it openly. Under Metropolitan Kirill as patriarch, the church would attempt to become an independent institution that would, among other things, want to command the state. So out of self-preservation, the state was pushing for Kliment to become patriarch.

The Russian Orthodox Church enthroned on 01 February 2009 its new leader, Patriarch Kirill, at a ceremony held in the Christ the Savior Cathedral in Moscow. During the enthronement ceremony, senior bishops seated Kirill three times in the patriarch's chair at the center of the altar, chanting "Axios" (the Greek word for "Worthy") together with the clergy and the flock. After that, deacons replaced Kirill's archbishop's vestments with the patriarchal sakkos (tunic), the omophorion (a broad scarf) and the patriarchal mitre. The enthronement ceremony was attended by Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and other dignitaries.

His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia (secular name Vladimir M. Gundyaev) was born on November 20, 1946, in Leningrad. His father, Rev. Mikhail V. Gundyaev, died in 1974. His mother, Raisa V. Gundyaeva, a teacher of German, died in 1984. His grandfather, Rev. Vasily S. Gundyaev, a Solovki prisoner, was imprisoned and exiled in the 20s, 30s and 40s for his church activity and struggle against Renovationism [the renovationists seized power in the Russian Church in 1922 on a pro-communist platform]. After graduation from school, he entered the Leningrad Seminary and later the Leningrad Theological Academy, from which he graduated cum laude in 1970. On April 3, 1969, Metropolitan Nikodim (Rotov) of Leningrad and Novgorod tonsured him with the name of Kirill and on April 7 ordained him as hierodeacon and on June 1 as hieromonk. On February 25, 1991, Archbishop Kirill was elevated to the rank of metropolitan.

An articulate public speaker, Kirill was seen as a liberal figure in the largely traditionalist Russian church and led dialogue with the Vatican as head of the Russian Orthodox Church's external relations, the post he had occupied for more than two decades.

Pope Benedict XVI welcomed the election of Kirill as the new Russian Orthodox Church patriarch. "May the Almighty also bless your efforts to seek that fullness of communion which was the goal of Catholic-Orthodox collaboration and dialogue," Pope Benedict said in his message. Relations between the Russian Orthodox Church and the Vatican, which split almost 1,000 years ago, have been strained since the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991, mainly over accusations that the Catholic Church stepped up activities to convert believers. The Vatican has denied this. The dispute prevented Pope John Paul II, who died in 2005, from visiting Moscow and meeting with Alexy II.

As the church's long-standing external relations director, Kirill was Russian Orthodoxy's public face. Known to millions of people across Russia and beyond as Anchorman of the World of a Pastor TV program on the national First Channel, since 1994. He was seen as a modernizer more likely than his rivals to seek a measure of independence from the state and better relations with the Vatican.

Since Vladimir Putin returned to the Kremlin for a third presidential term in 2012, the patriarch, who has called the Russian president’s rule a “miracle of God,” has been seen as a close ally of the Russian president, as Putin himself has increasingly used the Orthodox Church to try to legitimize his actions.

In a speech on the annexation of Crimea in 2014, Putin characterized the peninsula as sacred land to Russians, referring to the baptism of Vladimir the Great in Kherson [part of present-day Ukraine] in 988. "His spiritual feat of adopting Orthodoxy," Putin said of Vladimir, "predetermined the overall basis of the culture, civilization and human values that unite the peoples of Russia, Ukraine and Belarus." Kirill has in turn blessed Putin’s foreign policy, such as in 2015 when a spokesman for the patriarch called Putin’s military campaign in Syria a “holy battle.”

In 2012 Pussy Riot, a feminist punk band that staged an anti-Putin demonstration in Moscow’s Cathedral of Christ the Savior. While many believers urged mercy and forgiveness for the three women on trial, Kirill publicly condemned such sentiments and declared that the women had been doing the work of the devil. For any believer, his remarks were not too far off the mark, as the clear intent of Pussy Riot had been to desecrate the most sacred of Orthodox cathedrals. In June 2013, Russia’s lower house of parliament, the State Duma, overwhelmingly passed legislation that criminalized acts committed “with the purpose of offending the feelings of religious believers.” Potential sentences for those convicted include steep fines and a prison sentence of up to two years.

The Russian Orthodox Church supported controversial bills, such as the ban on adoption of Russian children by American citizens and the so-called “gay propaganda law,” which bans the “promotion” of “non-traditional relationships” to minors. The new laws were believed to be an attempt to bolster Putin’s image of Russia as a bastion of “traditional values” and Christianity.

As for critics who express concern for human rights in Russia, Patriarch Kirill has a rebuttal. Speaking after a service in March of this year, the patriarch called belief in human rights that contradict the Bible a “global heresy.” He said “Many Christians have accepted these views and gave more priority to human rights than the word of God ... We must protect Orthodoxy from the heresy of our times."