The NFTU blog reports today (December 19, 2010) that disorders in the streets of Moscow and other Russian cities are calling into question the relationship between the Russian Orthodox Church and the Russian regime, with the church distancing itself from the state and the state no longer able to count on the unquestioned obedience of the church.
On December 18, Archpriest Vsevolod Chaplin -- head of the Moscow Patriarchate's Department on Relations between the Church and Society and a protege of Patriarch Kirill -- made a remarkable declaration to a Moscow roundtable on recent developments of inter-ethnic relations in the Russian Federation.
He said, "It is evident that the majority of the population of the country is not completely satisfied with the social difficulties which exist, the actions of particular representatives of diasporas, the gap between the people and the making of decisions, corruption, illegality, and the total lawlessness of local powers that be."
Chaplin added, "If the powers that be would listen to the people, then and only then would the people acquire a firm footing. The powers that be today must listen not to the elites but to the people, and the elites, if they have a sufficient level of intellect and expertise, must be able to convince the people that what they propose is really useful for the people."
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