Orthodox Russia doesn't take orders from Pope. Vatican can't convince Putin for a ceasefire

The Print

a day ago

Trump's idea of involving the Papal office in the Vatican, the highest seat of the Catholic Church, in the ceasefire talks was a blunder for several reasons. Russia's Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) and the Roman Catholic Church have been at loggerheads for over ten centuries, probably right from 988 when Grand Prince Vladimir was baptised. The theological split first appeared in 1054 when the then Pope Leo IX of Rome excommunicated Patriarch Michael Cerularius of Constantinople, who responded with his own excommunication of the Bishop of Rome, Pope Leo IX.
The election of the hitherto unknown Robert Francis Prevost, a quiet lawyer-bishop with years of experience in Church matters, as the vicar of Jesus Christ, the first American Pope, does not change the ground realities of the Russia-Ukraine conflict. Patriarch Kirill of Moscow, head of the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC), did not attend the funeral of Pope Francis, though the two held a meeting in 2016 in Cuba, after almost 10 centuries of schism. There is no reason why Pope Leo XIV would broker peace between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy just because the president of America wants him to do it.
Russia's rejection of Vatican-led ceasefire talks with Ukraine should come as a surprise only to those who are ignorant of the historic animosity between the two religious institutions, the Vatican and the Russian Orthodox Church. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov's clarification that it is a little 'awkward for Orthodox countries to discuss issues on a Catholic platform' should put at rest all efforts initiated by US President Donald Trump.
Division of churches
The October Revolution of 1917 further alienated the two Christian faiths, even as Moscow under the brutal atheist regime of Vladimir Lenin and Joseph Stalin stifled religious freedom. After deriding religion as the 'opium of the masses', Stalin launched the 'Godless Five-Year Plan', in 1928, leading to the purging of religion from the territories under the Soviet Union. While the Russian Orthodox Church was enlisted to arouse 'Russian patriotism' in 1942 in the wake of Nazi attack on the Soviet Union, the Spiritual Administration of the Muslims of Central Asia and Kazakhstan was established in 1943 during the Great Patriotic War.
Meanwhile, after the disintegration of the Soviet Union, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church—Kyiv Patriarchate (UOCKP), set up in 1992 by Ukrainian clergy, has been seeking independence from the Kremlin-based ROC. The conflict with Russia has forced the state to adopt a law to ban religious groups linked to Moscow, which the government has accused of complicity in 'Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine'. It is strange that the White House under Trump should expect Putin to sit with Zelensky in the Vatican and submit to the authority of the Holy See.
As for his stand on his Ukrainian counterpart—Putin called Zelenskyy 'an ethnic Jew, with Jewish roots, with Jewish origins' put up by his Western masters to cover up 'the antihuman essence' of the modern Ukrainian state and 'the glorification of Nazism'. And Trump expects Putin to shake hands with Zelenskyy in front of the Pope.
The US and the European Union members have been constantly accusing Russia under Putin of increasing the State's control over matters of faith, just as it has done in political matters and freedom. They have called Russian Orthodox Church officials as surrogates of Kremlin, working 'in symphony' with the State.
While the constitutionally 'secular' Russian state allows citizens to follow any faith of their choice or no faith at all, some Christian and Islamic groups have been banned. The leaders and followers of these groups have been labelled as 'foreign agents' under a 2022 law—arguably to protect the Russian Federation's sovereignty and security.
Also read: Don't allow terrorists to regroup. India's military pause with Pakistan can't last long
Russia-China-Turkey-Iran axis
Besides religious differences, there is another reason why Putin won't sit across the Pope in his Vatican office. In 2021, the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an arrest warrant against Putin, accusing him of serious war crimes following the Russian attack on Ukraine. More than 50 countries have supported the warrant, obliging them to arrest Putin if he happens to land in any one of these countries. Italy is one of them. Therefore, if Putin agrees to arrive at the Vatican to meet the Holy See, he will have to be arrested and probably handed over to the ICC. Alternatively, the ICC will have to withdraw the arrest warrant, thereby facilitating the meeting. But this will mean surrendering its legal autonomy, authority, jurisdiction, and independence to a religious office.
The Russia-Ukraine conflict is over acquiring territory, control over natural resources, ownership of rare minerals, and fulfilling Putin's dream of a Russia-centric Eurasian Union, a vast trade and political bloc stretching from China to the edge of the EU. Putin might go ahead with the technical-level negotiation in Istanbul to consolidate Russia-China-Turkey-Iran cooperation—an axis Trump sees as anti-US, anti-West and anti-Vatican.
An exasperated Trump could be tempted to renew American military aid to Ukraine, authorising Zelenskyy to use it anywhere including deep inside Russia, impose greater sanctions to cripple the economy and blanket ban on Russian oil even through secondary markets, like India.
In a dramatic turn of events, there are reports of Putin's helicopter being at the epicentre of a Ukrainian drone strike, which could lead to further escalation of the conflict. Like conflicting statements on brokering a ceasefire between India and Pakistan, Trump should be ready for a flip-flop on brokering peace through the Putin-Pope meeting.
Seshadri Chari is the former editor of 'Organiser'. He tweets @seshadrichari. Views are personal.
(Edited by Ratan Priya)