“I’m Catholic and especially as an American, would never advocate the same to happen to an Orthodox priest.”
Russian Orthodox have a long history of reacting with hostility to missionaries of other denominations.
Well, none of the hostility compares to that which the Orthodox suffered under the Soviet State and the likes of the KGB. The most devout of believers, who would not play by the rules of Stalin and his successors’ games, were persecuted and murdered not by the thousands, but by the millions.
Sadly today, a lot of unrepentant ex-KGB merely changed their uniforms for Orthodox crosses and priestly robes. (Or business suits if they serve in the Kremlin.)
A lot of the devout Russian and Ukrainian Orthodox in America came or descended from Christians who came to seek refuge and safety.
Russian Orthodox have a long history of reacting with hostility to missionaries of other denominations.
>Alaska evangelical missionaries who have entered villages here that have an blue onion domed church (Russian Orthodox) presiding over the village, know a thing or two about the hostility of which you speak! The Russian Orthodox priest stirs up the village against you, stopping just short of killing you.
We here are thus not surprised at what Putin is doing. Russian Orthodoxy, similar to the RCC in the middle ages, is very tyrannical.