The Russian Orthodox Church "Soft Power"

And a man's foes shall be they of his own household.   Matthew 10:36
 
Awareness is half the battle of winning against an antagonist. Unfortunately, as Orthodox Christians, when it comes to Muscovite tactics, we are not only unaware, we are inept. Dealing with the Post-Soviet Russian Orthodox Church is fraught with challenges. Not least is succumbing to accusation of judgment of our Russian brothers and sisters. In expounding so zealously on the lost path of the Moscow Patriarchate leadership I endeavor not to lose sight of the flock these leaders direct. Remarking on patriarch Cyril and his collaborators is in no way a de facto charge critical of the Russian Church membership.

Russian propaganda is state-of-the-art again and one of its main beneficiaries and accomplices is the Moscow Patriarchate. The Kremlin's tentacles reach far and wide and disguised as religious culture and Russian faith. Patriarch Cyril chooses some of the most ruthless operators to be there to help him implement his vision. A vision which is not only uncanonical but is a new ecclesiology from an Orthodox perspective.

The Russia Orthodox Church or more accurately the Moscow Patriarchate is engaged in an active, worldwide propaganda campaign. As part of this campaign, the Moscow Patriarchate directly and through the MP Department of External Relations disseminates propaganda to Russian speakers in predominantly Orthodox nations throughout the Baltics, Ukraine, the Mediterranean and other nearby states through a variety of means, including traditional press (TV, print, radio) with an emphasis social media. In some cases, it has used this outreach to sow dissent against host and neighboring synods, as well as the Pan-Orthodox Synaxis and much of their ire is directed at the Patriarchate of Constantinople and specifically His All Holiness the Ecumenical Patriarchate.

How the Moscow Patriarchate is asserting itself in former Soviet republics outside Russia, especially in Estonia, Ukraine, Belarus, and Georgia… is alarming. And now these preeminence declarations are manifesting beyond its former Soviet/Czarist borders into Orthodox lands of its fanciful delusions of former grandeur: Turkey, Greece, Jerusalem, Korea, Australia, Western Europe… There also exists a subtle yet envigored focus on America holding no less than two jurisdictions; ROCOR (Russian Orthodox Church outside Russia) and a direct Moscow Patriarchate presence in the contiguous states. Not to mention a strong influence of other jurisdictions in the USA like Antioch, Russian influence in Syria cannot go understated.

Patriarch Cyril has utilized this technique with quite a bit of finesse “As Lev Gudkov pointed out, creating a feeling of external threat is an effective means to consolidate society: "The specter of an enemy is an extremely powerful means for creating internal cohesiveness and, solidarity with the authorities. As soon as this image of the enemy gets formed <…> there emerges a powerful mechanism for consolidation on the basis of the principle “us vs. them” and Constantinople via American conspiracies becomes the chief villain.

Merely Cyril’s extravagant folly or is there a more sinister game at play? The apoplectic Patriarch of Moscow says: “It’s not that a certain person [Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew] simply lost his mind. This is not a simple question between two religious’ opinions. The Russian Orthodox Church is... the bastion of Orthodox Christianity… in its perfect form.” The Moscow Patriarchate persists to unilaterally fabricate ecclesiology to supplement its narcissistic ambitions. Hierarchs in Greece say Moscow “cannot crudely halt the commemoration of another Primate naïvely because they disagree with the rights and privileges granted by an Ecumenical Councils.”

As I reiterate with emphasis and urgency the Russian "Firehose of Falsehood" is being utilized by the Moscow Patriarchate with vigor and honed focus on the Ecumenical Patriarchate. Distinctive Features of the contemporary Russian propaganda:
1.  High-volume and multichannel
2.  Rapid, continuous, and repetitive
3.  Lacks commitment to objective reality
4.  Lacks commitment to consistency.
 
This Muscovite “war of preference” is being waged in the minds of Orthodox Christians around the world with surgical accuracy. This propaganda is used to engage the battlefield with specificity. For example, in Greece the Moscow patriarchate uses its ‘Religious Tourism’ sector to only support pilgrimage to those Metropolises who have outright come out and condemned Ukraine and the Ecumenical Patriarchate. Allowing religious pilgrimage to only 3 metropolitan districts.

Ethnophyletism is not about a sense of pride in one’s cultural identity but rather the exclusion of “the other.” This ethnophyletist, racist attitude, is exactly what the Russian church is exploiting. Excluding the other whether Greek, African, Turkish, or Ukrainian. The MP is quoted as saying “fear not isolation” among other racist tropes.
Recently labeled "Putin's Espionage Church" the Moscow Patriarch’s use of the Kremlin’s pioneering fake social media accounts, “Trolls and Bots” are fully or partially automated, as well as those operated by humans, deserves closer examination. Russian Orthodox trolls and bots serve as force multipliers for disinformation operations.

We are leisurely dawdling behind in spectacular fashion. With no sense of urgency, we must develop recommendations in defense of the truth. Some seemingly obvious recommendations are encapsulated:
• Highlight and counter Russian Orthodox propaganda.
• Track the Moscow Patriarch media and develop analytic methods for response.
• Provide an alternative to Russian information by expanding and improving local content.
• Develop a network of “trusted” websites, news agencies, and individuals.
• Better tell the Ecumenical Patriarchate, GOARCH… story.
• Increase Russian-Language Programming.
• Create “Narrative Network” to promote accurate information.
• Expand and Improve Local and Original Content.
• Fund Content Creation and Russian-Language Journalists
• Empower Influencers on Social Media.
 
If awareness is half the battle, we’d better begin to educate and counter this propaganda to turn the tide of falsehood. Demagogues often blur the identity of truth: axiomatic truth, historical truth, theological truth, ecclesiological truth causing anxiety among the flock.

"Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus."       Philippians 4:6-7
 
 
Truth is on the side of the Ecumenical Patriarchate.