In Russia, the Church is behind the regime. The patriarch is an ultranationalist, his priests justify war. Anyone who criticizes this will be persecuted and sidelined.
The red prayer book lies behind glass in a small display case, next to it is a piece of wood said to have come from Jerusalem and a black-and-white photo that a priest carried with him for many years in the Gulag. The booklet has not long been on display in the small orthodox parish of Kimry. It comes from a trench in the Ukraine, it is said to have belonged to a fallen mercenary of the Wagner troops.