[FreedomPoster]

I have heard that the ROC was essentially taken over by the KGB during the Soviet era, and that legacy remains. From this, you can see why Putin would be pushing out everyone but the ROC and using it as a state organ.

Can anyone confirm this?

[1rudeboy]

Most “state approved” religious institutions were appropriated by the KGB/FSB. In Russia, church goes to you.

[Mrs. Don-o]

Take this with a grain of salt because I'm no expert, but the Moscow Patriarchate being KGB seems to have been the common knowledge.

I was for a couple of years pretty close to ROCOR (Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia), the "other" Russian Orthodox church that was NOT aligned with the USSR regime. They organized right after the Bolshevik Revolution and were the full-out resisters, soon exiles. They said that the Moscow Patriarch clergy were effectively Licensed Liturgists for the Ministry of Religion: in other words, state agents.

After the fall of the USSR, these KGB clergy never repented, and were never replaced. Same guys are still there, and their hand-picked, sponsored successors.

Or so I've been told. If I am discrediting without cause, I apologize sincerely and wish to be corrected.