EDITORIAL: A Russian Selection

EDITORIAL

A Russian Selection

In decision science they speak of a “Hobson’s Choice” in which the decision maker is given only a take-it-or-leave-it alternative, much as was the case in “elections” in the USSR.  Then there is a “Morton’s Fork” scenario, which which two actual alternatives are presented but they lead to the same nasty result.  This is what Russian voters faced in 2000 when they had to choose between a card-carrying Communist aparachik and a proud KGB spy for president.  Neither model is adequate to encapsulate the horror of decisionmaking in Vladimir Putin’s neo-Soviet Russia.  A new term must be found.

The Moscow Times reports that upon the demise of KGB spy and Russian pope Alexei II (who collaborated with proud KGB spy Vladimir Putin from the onset of Putin’s time in government and helped to assist Putin on the way to becoming a Holy Russian Emperor) the Russian church is offering two candidates for succession.  Russia will either have Kirill, a maniacal funamentalist, or Kliment, a shameless Kremlin shill.  It’s the same as choosing between Vladimir Zhirinovsky and Dimitri Medvedev as Vladimir Putin’s so-called successor.

Call it a “Russian Selection.”

Here’s the choice:  Kliment, Metropolitan of Kaluga, is a shameless Kremlin sycophant while Kirill, Metropolitan of Smolensk, is a fire-breathing fundamentalist.  The MT reports:

During President Dmitry Medvedev’s inauguration in May, Metropolitan Kliment sat in the front row next to Alexy while Metropolitan Kirill was relegated to the back of the Kremlin’s Andreyevsky Hall, noted one religious scholar. Kliment’s front row seat at the event could indicate that he has the Kremlin’s blessing, the scholar said, on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue. The fact that then-President Vladimir Putin appointed Kliment to the Public Chamber in 2005 could also mean that he is favored by the Kremlin, said Alexander Soldatov, a Russian Orthodox Church researcher who runs the web site Credo.ru. Kliment, 59, chairs the chamber’s commission on cultural and spiritual heritage and is head of the Moscow Patriarchate’s administration.

As for Kirill, the MT states:  “In April 2006, Kirill announced that the Western concept of human rights contradicts Orthodox teachings and unveiled a church-sponsored human-rights platform proclaiming the primacy of religious tradition over individual freedoms.”

Paul Goble reports that there are two other possibilities, Filaret of Belarus and Yuvenalii, who designates sainthood for the Holy Synod.  Should Filaret be chosen, it might be a sign of impending union between Belarus and Russia.

According to Goble, it is  Kirill who is the more prominent of the two leading candidates, serving as “the head of the powerful External Affairs Department of the Patriarchate and often the leading spokesman for the church both within Russia and abroad” and described as “the second man.” Goble notes that Kirill “has his own radio and television programs.” and ” he favors instructing Russian school children in Orthodoxy.”  But “he actively supported Sergei Ivanov against Dmitry Medvedev in the campaign to be named Putin’s successor” and he has been actively engaged “in the church’s involvement in business, an involvement that many believe has corrupted both him and the church and something that some fear could be used by the authorities to control him.”

Kliment, by contrast, apparently has close ties with Medvedev’s wife.  But Goble says:

He has three obvious drawbacks from the point of view of senior churchmen and possibly the political elite as well. First, he does not have a high public profile and thus cannot play the kind of role that Aleksii did and that Kirill presumably could either as a church diplomat or a support for the regime. Second, his positions on many religious questions are far more liberal than those of Kirill. For example, he has said that he favors teaching Islam in schools in regions of the Russian Federation where there are significant numbers of Muslims among the pupils rather than requiring them to study Orthodoxy. And third, being both younger and more or an unknown quantity, Kliment would likely be patriarch far longer and might take the Church in new an unexpected directions, something many in the laity might prefer but that many in the deeply conservative hierarchy almost certainly fear.

It’s a classic Russian Selection.  No matter who ends up ruling the church, Russia will be the loser — just as is the case in the country’s presidential “elections” when a proud KGB spy faces off against a proud Communist apparachik.