In Russia they know them as "the two Vladimir of St. Petersburg": President
Putin
, supporter of the rebirth of Russian power, and Patriarch
Kirill
(aka Vladimir Gundjaev), supporter of Moscow's role as Third Rome in the defense of Christian orthodoxy against Western decadence, which in this capacity also blessed the war in Ukraine.
But European sanctions could soon join the two.
After targeting the head of the Kremlin, the EU has in fact decided to target the patriarch's wealth as well, who according to the opposition's accusations - impossible to verify - would have a fortune of four billion dollars.
The Russian Orthodox Church has called these rumors "nonsense", which speak of villas on the Black Sea and yachts, bank accounts in Switzerland and watches worth tens of thousands of euros.
In addition to the theories on the methods that would have allowed the leader of the faithful of all the Russias to accumulate such wealth.
Starting with alleged tax exemptions granted by the Moscow authorities to the Church on the production of beer and tobacco.
The denials have not convinced European officials, who have already set out on the hunt for properties to be seized.
The Orthodox Church reacted by stating that the patriarch will not be "intimidated" because he comes from a family of religious who for decades has been the victim of the repression of "militant communist atheism" without giving in.
This is also a statement on which detractors express doubts.
Kirill
, who was born in 1946 in then Leningrad (like Putin) and climbed the ecclesiastical hierarchy under the Soviet Union, maintained good relations with the authorities of that time, to the point of being suspected by some of having been a real and own agent in the service of the KGB.
He certainly never tried to get in the way of the policies of the Soviet leaders, thus contributing to the collaboration between State and Church that was already established in the years preceding the fall of communism.
For many years before ascending to the patriarchate in 2009,
Kirill
forged good relations with the Catholic world, holding important positions in ecumenical dialogue.
What drew criticism from extremist Orthodox circles to him.
That definition of "Putin's altar boy" used by Francis must therefore have seemed to him an even more burning betrayal.
This evidently contributed to the frontal attack launched by the Russian Church on the Pope, accused of having "distorted" the long-distance conversation between the two religious leaders which took place last March 16 and of hindering a "constructive dialogue".
Don Stefano Caprio
, professor of Russian History and Culture at the Pontifical Oriental Institute in Rome, who for 13 years was a missionary in Moscow and met Kirill several times, tells ANSA that the patriarch, guided by his political flair, has long sought to maintain a cautious stance with respect to the Kremlin line.
At least compared to the more extremist monastic circles from which Father Tikhon of Pskov, considered Putin's spiritual guide, comes from.
In 2014, for example, the patriarch refused to take part in the celebrations for the annexation of Crimea (which instead was attended by the Catholic archbishop Paolo Pezzi) for fear of losing the support of the Ukrainian Orthodox.
But the approval for the invasion of Ukraine has returned to establish its alliance with Putin: "Russia has never attacked anyone",
assures Kirill.
He simply "protected his borders".