Patriarch Kirill - A KGB Agent and Putin's Ally

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Today's #TankieTears concerns a KGB agent and billionaire. No not Putin but you are close - this one pretends to be a holy man. It's Vladimir Mikhailovich Gundyayev, or Patriarch Kirill. Gundyayev is a close ally of Putin and he has called Putin's rule a "miracle of god"

In 2018, historian Felix Corley published an article called "The Mikhailov Files: Patriarch Kirill and the KGB" in 2018. This document revealed that in his past life Gundyayev was actually a KGB agent. academia.edu/37152767/The_Mikhailov_Files_Patriarch_Kirill_and_the_KGB

Gundyayev, who has often said that religious people should live a modest life, is also a billionaire (as well as a hypocrite) - his fortune is estimated to be around 4 billion USD. He owns a yacht and several luxurious real estates around Russia.

He likes to spend his vacations in a palace in Gelendzhik. This place is estimated to be worth around 250 million EUR. Vladimir is also not too keen on nature preservation: during the construction several acres of forest, including a rare species of pine, was logged.

How did Gundyayev get so rich? Being Russia it was through corruption, of course. His church was given a privilege for duty-free importation of cigarettes in the 90s. The Orthodox church became the largest supplier of foreign cigarettes in Russia. t.co/yHC8upA6pq

In 2012 🇷🇺 state media photoshopped an image of Gundyayev wearing a 30000USD wrist watch but forgot to remove the watch from the reflection on a table. He stated that the device was edited on his hand, but later admitted that he actually owned this particular Breguet watch.

Gundyayev has weaponized religion effectively. He sees gay pride parades as a one reason behind the Russia's invasion of Ukraine and has called the war "metaphysical". Gundyayev parrots Putin's talking points about Ukraine...

... including stories such as "8 years of genocide in Donbass", "neo-nazis in Ukraine" and that "dying for your country brings you to heaven". He was sanctioned by the EU states in May, 2022, but was later removed from this list due to Hungary's intervention.

Some more background on how Gundyayev evolved from KGB street gangster to head of the Russian states 'religious' branch. twitter.com/wevapa/status/1594508165466542081?s=20

Here we have Gundyayev with one of his Neo-Nazi enforcers.

The actions of the head of the Russian Orthodox Church has led clergy in Ukraine breaking ties with Moscow and joining the Kyiv Patriarchy. twitter.com/FAB87F/status/1639683212917047296?s=20

Credit for inspiration for these posts goes to Pekka Kallioniemi who has an extensive library of posts calling out pro-Moscovite actors and propagandists. See Pekka's profile on twitter.com/P_Kallioniemi?… and his library of posts on vatniksoup.com