Thursday, January 5, the Patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church in Moscow, Kirill (or Cyrille, in French), called - like Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan - for a ceasefire on the Russian-Ukrainian front. occasion of the Orthodox Christmas.
Hours later, Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered a 36-hour truce, the first declared since the start of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine - although artillery fire finally continued on Friday from both sides.
Does Patriarch Kirill have such influence in Russia that he can impose a ceasefire on Vladimir Putin?
Portrait and elements of response.
KGB links
Entering the Leningrad seminary at the age of 19, Patriarch Kirill – whose real name was Vladimir Mikhaïlovitch Goundiaïev – became a monk at the age of 23.
Less than a decade later, he is already a bishop.
“He was noticed by Metropolitan Nicodemus of Leningrad, who headed the Department of External Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate in the 1960s-1970s. Kirill was made a bishop at the age of 30, within this department,” explains Antoine Nivière, professor at the University of Lorraine, specialist in the cultural and religious history of Russia.
This foreign relations department was "eminently political, in close contact with the KGB, because it involved regular relations with religious figures and political authorities in other countries".
The ecclesiastics who compose it must submit "reports on their return from their stays abroad or on their contacts with foreign delegations", specifies Antoine Nivière.
In the early 1990s, after the fall of the USSR, a Russian parliamentary commission investigating the activities of the KGB thus established with a high probability that the agent under the name "Mikhailov" was the current Patriarch Kirill.
“These elements bring to light a strong suspicion of links between the KGB and a Russian Church which was at the time very controlled and monitored”, points out Antoine Nivière.
The father and the grandfather of the patriarch Kirill, religious, knew besides the Soviet camps.
On February 25, 1991, Vladimir Goundiaïev was elevated to the dignity of Metropolitan of Smolensk and Kaliningrad.
In 2009, he was elected Patriarch of Moscow and All the Russias, and enthroned on February 1.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev (right) facing Patriarch Kirill (left) on the occasion of his enthronement, February 1, 2009. Mikhail Klimentyev, AFP
"Vertical of Power"
Patriarch Kirill "has a great influence with civil society, the Orthodox and Russian governments insofar as he is a public figure who has intervened for a long time in the debates which animate Russia. He is active in the debate public since the Soviet era – and it has been particularly so for ten years”, explains Cyril Bret, associate researcher on Russia and Eastern Europe at the Jacques Delors Institute and teacher at Sciences Po Paris .
Very influential in Russia therefore, but not only: "He is the head of the largest Orthodox Christian community in the world and of the richest Orthodox clergy in the world. He therefore has an extremely strong international influence", continues Cyril Bret.
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"Like Vladimir Putin within the state, Patriarch Kirill has imposed a vertical of power within the Russian Orthodox Church since 2009. All decisions are made by him and are imposed on the bishops. He imposes his will and his choices", explains Antoine Nivière.
Now 76, Kirill has carved out a place for himself within the Russian establishment.
“He has no power within the Russian state per se. He is not the spiritual guide of the regime. He is, however, part of the system because he represents the main traditional religion in Russia,” notes Antoine Niviere.
"Patriarch Kirill is a very intelligent, brilliant, skilful person. He has a great political sense and he expresses himself very well in public", details the professor, before adding: "For people who have the KGB mentality like Putin, he's one of them."
Kirill is part of the Putin system and the Russian establishment "for giving pledges and rendering good and loyal service to the state".
Proximity to Putin, but "no collusion"
Patriarch Kirill is "very close to government circles and particularly to the conservative wing of the United Russia presidential party. He has an extremely close relationship with Dmitry Medvedev (former president and former Russian prime minister, editor's note). real even if it is not a personal relationship", indicates Cyril Bret.
"Vladimir Putin and Patriarch Kirill meet regularly. They have sometimes made short stays together in Russian monasteries. There is a certain closeness, but not a strong complicity between them. It is a subtle game of mutual interest whose it is", analyzes Antoine Nivière.
As Cyril Bret specifies, Kirill has "supported the government's family policy in Russia, and outside the military campaign in Syria from 2015".
Fervent support for the invasion of Ukraine
Since Kirill's accession to the head of the Patriarchate of Moscow and All the Russias, the press has revealed several scandals concerning him, which have somewhat tarnished his image.
"We saw photos circulating of him on a luxury yacht, another with a 20,000 to 25,000 euro watch on his wrist which had been badly blurred", explains Antoine Nivière
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who indicates that "his image is not very positive within a part of the Orthodox of Russia".
For the expert, "he gives the impression of being a man of power, who likes to surround himself with a certain comfort. Although a monk, as are all Orthodox bishops, he does not give the image of a an ascetic, a man with a simple and modest way of life, unlike Pope Francis, for example."
Since the invasion of Ukraine by Russia on February 24, he has been a fervent supporter of the intervention decided by the Russian president.
He has delivered several sermons to this effect, giving his blessing to the Russian troops while castigating the Ukrainian authorities.
As early as February 27, in a homily, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church had described as "forces of evil" those who fight against the historical unity of the two countries.
At the end of September, he assured in a sermon that those killed while fulfilling their "military duty" performed a "sacrifice which washes away all sins".
"The request for a truce (for Orthodox Christmas, editor's note) allows Patriarch Kirill to improve his image, which has been very tarnished since the beginning of the conflict, especially with the Ukrainian Orthodox. It is also an opportunity to improve his image on the international scene, in ecumenical relations with other Christian Churches", explains Antoine Nivière.
"This gesture also allows him to show that he is not a warmonger as he has been described for several months."
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