Systemic Pressure of the United States on the Russian Orthodox Church in the Ideological and Geopolitical Confrontation

Abstract

The paper represents the interim results of a study conducted by the Russian Expert School Research Centre and reveals the politics, as well as scientifi c and expert mechanisms, used by the United States when applying the religious factor for geopolitical purposes. It also examines the way the United States exploits the religious agenda to put the direct political pressure on Russia. The purpose of the study is to identify the mechanisms used by the United States to deliver international pressure on world Orthodoxy and the Russian Orthodox Church. In 1998, the USA adopted the Law on International Religious Freedom, which secured the right of the USA to interfere with religious processes occurring in other countries. For the practical implementation of this law, the United States established an extensive network of governmental institutions, as well as non-governmental structures, formally independent from the government but closely related to it, that would provide ideological, political and administrative support in this area. These institutions and structures involved off icials, scientists, experts, journalists, religious leaders and theologians interested in promoting American national interests. In the 2000s, the weakening of the international infl uence of the Russian Orthodox Church and the weakening of Russia’s role as the centre of world Orthodoxy became the key direction for the international religious policy of the United States. The USA used the Patriarchate of Constantinople as the main tool to split the Russian Church and world Orthodoxy. The strongest strike intended to reduce the infl uence of the Russian Church was infl icted by the United States in Ukraine, where, after the coup d’etat 2014, the сanonical Orthodox Church (Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate) found itself in the most vulnerable position. The United States has launched a system struggle against the Russian Orthodox Church, which includes theological, expert and media levels, as well as events of direct (administrative and physical) pressure on the Moscow Patriarchate parishes. The United States aims the global vector of this activity at dividing and weakening world Orthodoxy, and the local one — at destroying historical spiritual ties between Orthodoxy in Russia and Orthodoxy in Ukraine.