Metropolitan Tikhon, bishop of the Russian Orthodox Church
Metropolitan Tikhon/pskov-eparhia.ru
Metropolitan Tikhon (Georgiy Oleksandrovych Shevkunov) is a bishop of the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC), Metropolitan of Pskov and Porkhov, church writer, screenwriter, editor-in-chief of the Internet portal Pravoslav’ya.RU. He is called “Putin’s spiritual mentor”.
He stated that people who were directly related to Nazism allegedly came to power in Ukraine in 2014. He accused Ukraine of allegedly “adopting Nazi ideology.”
He said that “Nazi parades of thousands of people” are held in Kyiv, and the Ukrainian military “subjects prisoners of war to terrible torture.”
He justified the Russian dictator Vladimir Putin and stated that the president of the Russian Federation would not have started a war if he had not seen “vital and critical for the people of Russia” prerequisites for this.
*The material was created in cooperation with The Center for Countering Disinformation at the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine.
Main statements
1. He called the Maidan a coup and blamed “Nazis” for all Ukraine’s troubles (March 6, 2022)
He emphasised that “people directly related to the Nazis” allegedly came to power in Ukraine in 2014. He accused Ukrainians of Russophobia.
2. He justified the war against Ukraine by “the existence of a threat to the Russian Federation” (March 6, 2022)
He stated that Russia allegedly did the right thing, starting the war against Ukraine. He said that if Russia had not tried to “disarm the Nazi state” now, then in a few years, the Ukrainian army would be much larger, and it would be harder to fight with it.
He cynically stated that Russia did not need victory over Ukraine but rather peace.
3. He stated that the Russian occupiers “have no hatred for the Ukrainian military” (June 21, 2022)
Metropolitan Tikhon called the occupiers “great holy warriors” and emphasised that even during the war, they “did not defile their souls with hatred of the enemy.”
4. He stated that Putin would not start a war without a reason (November 12, 2022)
He said that if the president of the Russian Federation started a war, then “it was necessary and there is a reason for it.”
5. He called Ukraine’s policy towards Russia Nazism (November 12, 2022)
He stated that “external forces have been trying to divide Ukraine and the Russian Federation for 30 years,” and that Russia allegedly needed to react to this even earlier.
