Russian religious scholar and former Moscow Patriarchate staff member Sergey Chapnin has published the full text of a report he delivered on September 9 at the “Russia as a False Defender of Traditional Values” conference at the European Parliament. He argues that the Russian Orthodox Church does not merely serve state propaganda but has become a co-author of an ideology that justifies war, killing, and repression.

This was reported by the resource Christians Against War.

Chapnin recalled Patriarch Kirill’s statement that the death of a Russian serviceman in war “washes away all sins.” According to the scholar, this turns the Christian understanding of martyrdom on its head. The person who chooses to die rather than kill is replaced by the person who kills. What emerges is “another religion in Christian garb.”

Chapnin cited the fate of Archpriest Aleksey Uminsky as a symbol of this substitution. The priest was defrocked after refusing to read a prayer written by Kirill for the victory of “Holy Rus’.” Instead of victory, he prayed for peace. The author of the report stresses that this is not an isolated incident but a manifestation of a system in which church leaders often begin persecuting dissenters before the state does.

According to Chapnin, this ideology was also created for export. It is capable of dividing Western societies, drawing believers to Moscow’s side, and portraying Russian aggression as a “divine mission.”

Earlier, we reported that religious communities in Russia have faced pressure since February 2022. Priests are defrocked for prayers for peace, church and secular courts complement each other, and the state and church structures jointly punish those who refuse to justify the war.

Earlier, we reported that U.S. Helsinki Commission Chairman and Republican Congressman Joe Wilson, along with several other lawmakers, introduced the “Countering the Russian War Against Faith Act.”

As LF reported, the Russian Orthodox Church is coordinating with the FSB in the persecution of anti-war clergy. Evidence of this was published by religious scholar and former editor of the Journal of the Moscow Patriarchate Sergey Chapnin in his book Religious Communities Under Pressure: Documenting Religious Persecution in Russia in 2022–2026.