Patriarch Kirill is a traditionalist.
Traditionalists believe in an older order of things, prior to the upending of their society.
It informs Putin as to why he has to try and rebuild the Soviet Union, because he thinks the Soviet Union was Russia’s height of civilization
Patriarch Kirill fancies himself the leader of “The Third Rome”; protector not merely of the height of Russia’s civilization but of global civilization itself as the heir and successor to Rome and Byzantium.
Daily reminder that Kirill is a KGB operative with a codename per KGB records. His task was in spreading Liberation Theology through the world religious organizations, which he seems to have been doing as late as 2009 before getting picked to be Archbishop.
He is not a “traditionalist.” He just plays one on tv.