By Alex Raufoglu

Copyright kyivpost

WASHINGTON DC – Veteran US Republican Senator Chuck Grassley on Friday accused the Russian Orthodox Church of acting as an agent of the state and supporting Russia’s invasion of Ukraine through propaganda and espionage.

Speaking on the Senate floor, Grassley, who holds the title of President pro tempore, said Vladimir Putin’s goal is to “re-establish the Soviet empire” and that the Russian Orthodox Church is a “leading perpetrator of persecution” against other Christian denominations.

Patriarch, or “KGB-agent”?

Grassley cited a recent report by the Free Russia Foundation, an organization of Russians seeking a “free, democratic, peaceful and prosperous Russia.”

The report, titled “The Russian Orthodox Church and the war,” alleges the church supports the invasion through “propaganda, ritual for the invaders, diplomatic manipulation and espionage.”

Grassley drew a historical parallel, noting that after initially persecuting Orthodox believers, Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin “co-opted the Russian Orthodox Church to support the Soviet state.”

“Today’s Russian Orthodox Church is dominated by leaders who came of age under the KGB-controlled church structure,” he said.

He further claimed the “current patriarch of Moscow was a KGB agent” and that he is close to Putin.

Denouncing ‘shocking’ statement

Grassley quoted a September 2022 sermon from the Patriarch Kirill I, who he said blessed the invasion.

“Anyone who dies in the performance of military duty sacrifices himself for the sake of others,” the Patriarch reportedly said, according to Grassley: “Therefore we believe that such a sacrifice washes away all sins previously committed.”

Grassley, a Christian, called the statement “shocking” and noted that the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, the first among equals in the Orthodox tradition, has said the Moscow Patriarch’s support for the war “is damaging to the prestige of the whole of Orthodoxy, because orthodoxy doesn’t support war, violence or terrorism.”

The senator dismissed what he called “propaganda claiming that the Russian Orthodox Church is somehow a victim of religious persecution in this war.”

Instead, he said the church is actively persecuting other faiths, a claim he said was supported by a meeting he had with 30 church leaders from Ukraine a year ago.