Many Russians refuse to be vaccinated against Covid-19 for religious reasons. The great influence of “urkabožniki” deniers. The Moscow Patriarchate launches a committee to encourage scientific and theological research from an Orthodox perspective.

Moscow (AsiaNews) – Many Russians refuse to be vaccinated against Covid-19 for religious reasons. This is the sensational data emerging as the country is hit by a new wave of infections. “Denial” has been a problem in Russia since the outbreak of the pandemic. However, resistance to mass vaccination has prompted authorities to issue decrees to force various categories of people to be vaccinated.

On June 26, the director of the Destructologic Laboratory of the University of MoscowYes, Roman Silantev, gave an interview to Interfax-Religija, highlighting the religious roots of the anti-vaccine propaganda raging on Russian social media. Destructology is a branch of research born in Russia in recent years: it studies “destructive” behaviors marked by radicalism and fanaticism of all kinds.

Silantev says he has just completed a book, written with his colleague Jurij Ragozin from Novosibirsk, entitled “Para-Orthodox Sects”, in which he analyzes the different mythologies expressed by religious groups that also proliferate within the Russian Church. . For example, in the medical field, there are anti-AIDS dissidents who do not believe in the existence of this virus; some even deny cancer, and offer treatment with water and soda.

Among the most widespread denials in Russia, and in many other parts of the world, is the refusal of any type of vaccine. Among the Orthodox, the most passionate no-vax are the so-called urkabožniki (“extradivines”), followers of an ex-policeman, Nikolaj Romanov, who came to prominence during Covid as a very powerful archimandrite Sergij de the Urals.

Romanov is now in prison. He is reduced to a lay state and his community is dispersed, starting with the large group of nuns in his monastery. However, the movement continues to have great influence throughout Russia. The myth of Romanov’s disciples is not original. It is based on black state conspiracy theories that want to control people’s wills, to the point of forcing everyone into the widespread “electronic concentration camp” with microchips inserted into vaccines.

The mass of Orthodox worshipers, Silantev observes, has nothing to do with these radical theories, which are instead shared in other areas, from Wahhabi Muslims to atheist activists and other politico-religious sects. Many of these mythologies originate in the West and have spread uncontrollably to all latitudes. Their aggressiveness also leaves a strong mark on the mindset of ordinary people. Among the believers, he identified elements of weakness in the convictions of the faith, also due to the weak spiritual and cultural formation, typical of the Russian religiosity resulting from the atheism of the Soviet period.

These reasons have also forced the Moscow Patriarchate to open new fronts to counter sectarian and “mythological” propaganda, calling on secular scientists. Three new consultative structures in theological and secular sciences will be opened, under the direction of a coordinating council of the patriarchate, in which various experts in the various branches of science, including medicine, will be invited to participate. The initiative was presented to the press on June 25 by Metropolitan Hilarion (Alfeev), head of the Department of External Relations of the Patriarchate and Director of the Institute of Patriarchal High Specialization “Cyril and Method”.

The Committee will encourage scientific and theological research from an orthodox perspective, in collaboration with academic institutions and public bodies. The simple repression of the faithful of a sect, as in the case of Romanov, risks producing the opposite effects. The Church feels the need to deepen the correction and orientation of a vision of faith purified from all fanaticism, in the face of the great challenges of contemporary reality and of society.