Wolves in Sheep’s Clothing: The Russian Orthodox Church’s Threat to European Security and Democracy

Wolves in Sheep’s Clothing examines the Russian Orthodox Church’s historic devolution from a church to a mere peddler of political power as a state intelligence instrument. Today’s Russian Orthodox Church seeks to emerge as the most consequential syndicate of social influence across Europe in service to Vladimir Putin’s quest for empire. The Moscow Patriarchate’s breach of Orthodox unity over the reemergence of an autocephalous Orthodox Church of Ukraine under the jurisdiction of the Ecumenical Patriarch prioritizes Russian nationalism at the expense of traditional Christian values. The reasoning is neither ecclesial nor theological but a brazen attempt to prolong Russia’s social suzerainty over its neighbors and impose a European submission to the Russkiy Mir. Patriarch Kirill’s intention is to displace Constantinople as the centre of Orthodoxy and finally establish Moscow as the ‘New Rome’. Moscow’s geopolitical proposition is pregnant with peril. Moscow has the audacity to plead religious persecution by undermining their neighbors’ right to control their Orthodox churches while simultaneously banning the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church in Russian occupied territories. An inescapable conclusion emerges from it all: The Russian Orthodox Church is a potent and pernicious threat to European cohesion, security, and democracy.