Was the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Kirill a member of the KGB?

Kirill, the Russian Orthodox Church Patriarch, is a controversial religious leader. In 2023, two Swiss newspapers, Le Matin Dimanche and Sonntagszeitung, released information, which the publications claim has been verified, that Patriarch Kirill is a former member of the KGB.

Kirill is an elusive figure on the world political spectrum, particularly in recent times, given his comments on the war in Ukraine. This new information only adds to the worries of those concerned about his power and influence.

According to information in the Swiss public archives, the Swiss newspapers discovered that Kirill lived in Geneva in the early 1970s and acted as a representative for Moscow at the World Council of Churches (WCC).

However, while in Geneva, it seems that Patriarch Kirill also had a mission: influence the WCC, which according to Euro News, was "infiltrated by the KGB in the 1970s and 80s."

But why? Well, it seems that the Soviets hoped to convince the World Council of Churches to condemn the United States and its allies and reduce the critiques the USSR was receiving at the time over the lack of religious freedom its citizens faced.

Euro News reported that "the Russian Church refused to comment on Kirill's espionage activities in Geneva," and the WCC said it had "no information" on the subject.

The Swiss newspaper Le Matin Dimanche spoke with Kirill's nephew, Mikhail Goundiaev, who followed in his uncle's footsteps as a representative of the Moscow patriarchate in Geneva. However, Goundiaev was adamant that Patriarch Kirill was never a KGB agent, saying Kirill "was not an agent, even if he was subject to the KGB's 'strict control".

Goundiaev also told Le Matin Dimanche that Kirill's relationship with the KGB did not "affect the sincerity of his commitment to ecumenical work with other churches."

This new information about Kirill's involvement with the KGB only contributes to the aura of controversy surrounding the Patriarch, who was already known for his close connection to Russian political leaders.

Kirill is also known for his close relationship with the Kremlin, even the BBC has written of his close ties with President Vladimir Putin.

The Russian Orthodox Church has an exorbitant number of believers (about 150 million), and it is not surprising that the leader of the Church plays a very important role not only on a spiritual but also on a political level.

Putin needs the support of the Russian Orthodox Church, and Kirill needs the Kremlin to maintain his leadership position in the Russian church hierarchy.

To understand the power that Kirill holds, one only needs to look at the Moscow skyline: around 50 churches have been built since 2010, and many more are in the works. Moscow is the seat of the Patriarchate, the Russian Orthodox Church, headed by Kirill.

The Patriarch presides over thirty-six thousand congregations and has more than a hundred million believers, ie about a third of the world's Orthodox Christians, according to the investigative report 'God save Russia'.

Kirill is undoubtedly a man of great power, and it's not just Putin who recognizes this. Other leaders have understood that he and his influence should not be underestimated, and that's why we've often seen him alongside leaders on the world stage, like Barack Obama, Pope Francis, Chinese President Xi Jinping and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Under Kirill's leadership, relations with the Vatican were partially restored, overcoming a rift dating back to the Eastern Schism of 1054.

In 2016 the two leaders, Pope Francis and Kirill I, were the protagonists of a historic embrace, however these days, things have cooled down.  The Christian Churches of the East and of the West have grown apart again due to the war in Ukraine.

On March 15, 2022, an online conversation took place between the two religious leaders. The Vatican statement on the meeting called it a meeting "...spirited by the desire to chart a path to peace, to pray for the gift of peace and the laying down of arms."

However, the Russian statement on the meeting only emphasized that "...the parties stressed the extreme importance of the ongoing negotiation process and expressed their hope to reach a just peace as soon as possible," according to the Italian newspaper, La Repubblica.

Despite an initial (and much-criticised) moment of silence on the war in Ukraine, Kirill's comments on the conflict leave no doubt about his opinion. In an analysis of the Russian Orthodox Church, 'The Guardian' recalls the words of Kirill, who called Putin a "miracle of God".

As bombs fell on Ukrainian cities, he declared that "it is God's truth that the peoples of Russia, Ukraine and Belarus should be united as one spiritual people," according to the British newspaper, in a message echoing the words of the Russian President Vladimir Putin.

In his sermon on Forgiveness Sunday in 2022, delivered from the pulpit of Moscow's Cathedral of Christ the Savior, Kirill's words about the "outbreak of hostilities" were quite inflammatory.

The head of the Orthodox Church justified the outbreak of war by declaring: "For eight years there have been attempts to destroy what exists in the Donbass. And in the Donbass there is a fundamental rejection of the so-called values ​​that are offered today by those who claim world power."

The Russian Church leader continued, "There is such a test for the loyalty of this government, a pass to the world of excess consumption, the world of freedom. The test is very simple and at the same time terrible – gay parades.

Kirill seems to see the war as necessary to ensure the victory of Christian moral values over the "sins" of the West.

In his homily in 2022, Kirill continued, “Therefore, what is happening in international relations has not only political significance. It is about something different and much more important than politics. We are talking about human salvation…A real war is going on around this topic today.”

While Putin seems to be viewing the war in Ukraine as a response to his own reinterpretation of recent history, Kirill seems to be speaking of a real clash of cultures: although he never mentions them openly, his words seem to gravitate to terms like the Crusades or the Holy War.

For the Russian patriarch, the war in Ukraine therefore represents the Russians rejection of "the values that are being offered today by those who claim world domination". And further: "To become a member of the club of these countries, you have to organize a Pride march. We don't want to make a political statement that says: 'We are on your side', we don't want to sign an agreement and then have a Pride parade," reports CNN.

The West did not hesitated to criticize his words. Matthew Luxmoore, the Wall Street Journal's correspondent covering the war in Ukraine, commented on Twitter: "Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill unsurprisingly endorsing Putin’s narrative on Ukraine in a sermon today. According to him the West essentially organises genocide campaigns against countries that refuse to stage gay parades."

The sermon on Forgiveness Sunday in 2022 was followed by other controversial speeches by the Moscow Patriarch. According to the magazine Secolo XIX, in its report on Kirill's speech at a ceremony with the armed forces, the patriarch speaks of a veritable "call to arms".

According to the various newspapers, Kirill declared: "Most of the countries of the world today are under the colossal influence of a force that unfortunately goes against the strength of our people," adding: "We must also be very strong. When I say 'we', I mean first of all the armed forces, but not only them. All our people must wake up today and understand that a special time has come on which the historical destiny of our people may depend."

So it seems that Kirill thinks the West is responsible for the outbreak of the conflict in Ukraine. According to Russia's religious leader the West caused the war by weakening Russia's power and "making enemies of brotherly peoples", without sparing "efforts and means, to attack Ukraine with arms and to inundate war trainers," as Avvenire reports.

Despite the different nuances, Cyril's rhetoric is reminiscent of Putin's, confirming the close ties between the two and likely also the mutual influence of the Russian Orthodox Church and the Kremlin.

Cyril Hovorun, professor of ecclesiology and international relations, told Al Jazeera: "It is not just about the church’s complete submission to the political authorities. The church also tried to influence the Kremlin. In a sense, the Russian Orthodox Church was successful, because the Kremlin at some point adopted the political language of the church, which became known as the ideology of the ‘Russian world’. This ideology originated in the church and then was weaponised by the Kremlin.”

The power and influence of Kirill I should therefore not be underestimated, for it seems clear that his spiritual mission coincides with the political mission of the Kremlin (the Church is seen as a pillar of the state) and his figure with that of President Putin overlaps so that he is referred to as the "Kremlin Chaplain".