Metropolitan of Russian Orthodox Church compares occupied Crimea with Gulags

Ukrainska Pravda
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Russian Metropolitan Tikhon (Shevkunov), appointed head of the Crimean Metropolis of the Russian Orthodox Church, has compared occupied Crimea with Kolyma [during the mass repressions of 1932-1954, correctional labour camps with particularly difficult living and working conditions were located in Kolyma in the far east of Russia – ed.].

Source: Tikhon, in an address to the parishioners of the Pskov-Pechersk monastery, reports Krym.Realii

Quote: "What is Crimea? What was Crimea in ancient Greece, in Byzantium? Kolyma! This is Kolyma! For us, it is Crimea, but for them it was a place where people did not live normally. They sent all Zolotoust, and Kliment, and the Pope of Rome there, ‘To Kolyma’! And now I am being sent there too, to the resorts of Kolyma."

Details: On 11 October, the Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church dismissed the priest from the position of the head of the Pskov Metropolis and appointed him head of the Crimean Metropolis. It was not specified what this decision was related to.

Metropolitan Tikhon was the hierarch of the Russian Orthodox Church, close to Vladimir Putin, even reported to be the Russian president’s clergyman. In March, Shevkunov was captured on the footage of Putin's first visit to Crimea after the start of the full-scale war with Ukraine.

As the head of the Patriarchal Council for Culture, the metropolitan advocated the transfer of the Trinity icon of Andrei Rublev from the Tretyakov Gallery to the possession of the Russian Orthodox Church.

Investigative journalists claimed that Tikhon received billions of roubles from the state budget as grants for his projects.

The metropolitan is also known for blocking work on the law on combating domestic violence, which was supposed to be submitted to the State Duma at the end of 2019.

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