Human rights activists have called for the indictment of the head of the Russian Orthodox Church for inciting humanitarian crimes committed by the Russian army in Ukraine.
Willy Vautret, director of Human Rights Without Borders International, and Patricia Duval, a well-known advocate for the rights of religious communities, accused the spiritual leader of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Kirill of outspoken support for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and urged the International Criminal Court to convict him.
The two activists petitioned the ICC prosecutor calling for action to “hold Kirill accountable for inspiring, inciting, justifying, and aiding the commission of Russian war crimes in Ukraine,” according to the website.Moscow Times“Independent.
To support their accusations, Vouter and Duval cited a sermon Kirill gave at the Cathedral of Christ the Savior in Moscow on February 27, three days following the invasion began, in which he said the Russian invasion of Ukraine was a fight once morest “evil forces” that “fight the historical unity” between Russia and Ukraine.
On the 10th of this month, Kirill, a pillar of President Vladimir Putin’s regime, called for a rally around power to fight the country’s “external and internal enemies” in the midst of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The head of the Russian Orthodox Church, which includes regarding 150 million believers in the world, especially in Russia, delivered several sermons in support of the invasion of Ukraine.
Many criticize Patriarch Kirill for publicly supporting Putin in the March 2013 presidential elections and condemning the protest movement that was growing once morest the Kremlin, which made some feel that there is great collusion between church and state.
He was also targeted with criticism following press information suggested that he lives a luxurious lifestyle that does not conform much to the ideals of the Bible.
Patriarch Kirill, 73, has been at the head of the Russian Orthodox Church since 2009, which seeks to play an important role in society, even though it has been close to power since the Soviet era and during the presidency of Vladimir Putin.
Following in the footsteps of his father and grandfather, priests, Kirill joined the monastery in 1965 following a period of severe persecution in the church from former Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev.
Kirill, whose real name is Vladimir Gundyaev, became a monk in 1969, and when he turned twenty-five two years later, he was appointed as a representative of the Moscow Patriarchate in the Ecumenical Council of Churches in Geneva. This position is very important, because the delegates of the Patriarchate are called to deny the West’s accusation of the Soviet Union of religious persecution and to defend the Kremlin’s official view.
