Patriarch Kirill of the Russian Orthodox Church says he's working with Vladimir Putin to convene a Church-based inquiry into whether the execution of the royal family by revolutionaries in 1917 was actually a Jewish ritual killing; this appears to be an actual thing the Russian state is about to do, with many details confirmed in a public statement by Moscow's General Prosecutor.



Russian Orthodox Bishop Tikhon Shevkunov expressed disgust at the idea that investigating a hundred-year-old revolution as a secret Jewish ritual murder plot made him an antisemite.



Andrei Kuraev (right), a protodeacon of the Church in Moscow, academic theologian, and critic of Kirill's policymaking, said in a radio interview this week the ritual murder charge is a public relations ploy by the patriarch's faction. "Twenty years ago when you saw the first investigation, the Synod made its request to the investigating commission — is there any reason to believe the murder was a ritual. The answer was – no. Now, in the new case we are talking about what Patriarch considers his policy – [he is] flirting with right-wing circles inside the Church. The Patriarch is trying to make a revolution in their minds, He is pretending, you see. He is trying to say – really I can hear you, I am protecting your interests, I'm for tough talk with the government – you see how independent I am, and strong. This shows the PR of the Patriarch, nothing more." Kuraev believes this will backfire. "In order to speak of the blood ritual version, you have to be a person who generates hatred and enjoys this hatred and misanthropy. It is very sad that these people call themselves my co-religionists, Orthodox Christians."

TORQUEMADA MAKES A COMEBACK — THE SPANISH INQUISITION HAS ARRIVED IN MOSCOW [John Helmer/Dances With Bears]





(via Naked Capitalism)



(Image: patriarchia.ru)