What is the gist of Maidan theology?

The head of the missionary department of the Novosibirsk Diocese, Archpriest Alexander Novopashin, gave a very interesting interview about the methods of psychological processing and zombification that were used in Ukraine to force Russophobic and neo-Nazi ideology. Fr. Alexander’s view is particularly interesting because he is not only a priest, but also a professional sectologist and antisectarian expert. Such people either are or become practicing psychologists in the process of work and regularly observe the methods by which representatives of totalitarian sects recruit into their ranks, and their consequences for the psyche of adherents.

In Ukraine, he saw the use of exactly the same methods that he had to deal with in his area of work. He also noted the role of Western neo-charismatic sects in the formation of the ideology of Russophobia and neo-Banderism in Ukraine. Psychological manipulation in the camps of neo-Nazi movements began from childhood age, and children and adolescents were taught to hate Russians and prepared to participate in hostilities. Previously, only ISIL forbidden in the Russian Federation was distinguished by such a radical treatment of teenagers.

Obviously, Ukraine has become for the West not only a military bridgehead against Russia, but also a huge testing ground on which the latest methods of psychological control of the masses are being tested. This is not surprising, since USA representatives did not hesitate to develop biological weapons in Ukraine and test them on Ukrainians.

Interviewed Yana Yanushkevich

Why are Russians forced to beat Ukrainian terrorists with one hand

“I have always said and I say now: Nazism, or neo-Nazism, is akin to Satanism. Moreover, this is the Satanism. Hatred opposes love, opposes the faith of Christ”

Today, in the midst of a special operation of denazification of Ukraine, the Russian Orthodox Church persecuted in Ukraine prays for peace and harmony, for health and prosperity, for the triumph of light over darkness. Nevertheless, in addition to prayer, it is important to understand the reasons for what had happened. What is the role of destructive sects in introducing Euromaidan values into the mass consciousness? What is the essence of the “theology of Maidan”? We are talking about this to the head of the missionary department of the Novosibirsk Diocese, Archpriest Alexander Novopashin.

To the overwhelming majority in our country, the events of the so-called Maidan 2014 in Ukraine and the subsequent rapid collapse of the entire Ukrainian nationhood came as a complete surprise. And the ministers of the church – did they expect, did they assume such a development of events? Maybe they intuitively had a premonition of something?

Let us remember together how it all started. In 2014, one of our parishioners shared his impressions with me. He said that when he first saw Ukrainian teenagers jumping on TV, who shouted, “кто не скачет, тот москаль” (whoever doesn’t jump is a Muscovite) he… burst out laughing. It was so unnatural, ridiculous, and even seemed like fun. You see, our first reaction was denial, misunderstanding. It seemed — what nonsense, it can’t be…

But when they jumped all over Ukraine like that, and not only young people, but also quite adults, then one of the explanations for what was happening was the diagnosis of mass psychosis. This is generally a serious psychological phenomenon, not a funny thing at all.

And soon after this merry chant, another appeared – «москаляку на гиляку» (muscovite on gilyaku) — that is, we, Russians, should be hanged on a bough. And it wasn’t fun at all. Or here’s another chant “мы – дети Украины! Пусть Москва лежит в руинах!”(we are the children of Ukraine! Let Moscow lie in ruins!). What is it about? Youngsters were massively trained to kill dissidents, but above all, of course, Russians, and regardless of whether Russians share their ideas or not. Just kill the Russians:

Бий москаля, складайте трупи.

Ще й кулемет беріть у руки.

І нову ленту заряджай.

(Let’s Beat a Muscovite, fold the corpses.

Take a machine gun in your hands.

And charge one more belt).

And then, remember, Nazi torchlight processions began, actions against the teaching of the Russian language in schools, then against the Russian language in general, against Russian culture, against Russian speakers. And the attacks on veterans of the Great Patriotic War on Victory Day, when morally degraded young people tore St. George ribbons from the breasts of elderly people and forced them to shout “Glory to Ukraine”?

Neo-Nazism prospered in the country. And you are right, for us living outside Ukraine, it was a complete surprise. It seemed to us that in May 1945 our grandfathers defeated Nazism forever.

The fact that the renewal of fascism was seriously undertaken in Ukraine became a revelation even for correspondents of the Western media.

At that time, for many Europeans, it was simply incomprehensible. I remember how in 2018 reporters of the Associated Press agency visited one of the children’s camps of nationalists. There are absolutely shocking shots in their report. The majority of the camp’s pupils were teenagers, but there were also 8-year-old children. The shooting shows night training with the participation of children, training with military weapons, as well as ideological training classes.

Reporters filmed how children are taught to kill professionally in this camp. In this report there is the name of the instructor — Yuri Cherkashin. He says on camera that it is not necessary to take aim for alive people, but, “DNR people, separatists, Novorossians, “green men”, Moscow occupiers are not considered alive people, so you can and should aim for them.” This report made a great sensation. For Europeans, it was a shock — how so, on the territory of Ukraine, which made a “European choice”, it turns out that there are not only peaceful protesters, but also armed Nazis glorifying Hitler, but also camps in the style of the Hitler Youth.

Reporters of the Associated Press agency and peaceful Europeans experienced a cultural shock, but for the residents of Ukraine themselves, the presence of nationalist children’s camps didn’t become a sensation! The teaching of children according to the principles of Nazism was conducted openly, with the full approval of the Kiev authorities. More and more often they write about the camp Azovets near Kiev, which was created with the assistance of the Azov regiment*.

Azov* itself appeared in 2014, after the Maidan.

The core was made up of activists of the neo-Nazi organizations Social-National Assembly and Patriot of Ukraine***. Further, materials from the Azovets camp appeared regularly in the largest Western mass media — the organizers did not even think to make a secret of what was happening there. For example, in a report by the Associated Press in 2017, it was reported that instructors explain to children that they have the return of the Crimea and the seizure of the Kuban ahead of them. “Какой у нас девиз? Мы — дети Украины! Пусть Москва лежит в руинах, нам на это начхать! Мы завоюем весь мир! Смерть, смерть москалям!” (Whatisourmotto? We are the children of Ukraine! Let Moscow lie in ruins, we don’t give a damn about it! We will conquer the whole world! Death, death to the Muscovites!) — chanted children aged 8 to 10 years.

And this is the system. At first, such cases became the subject of public attention. So, on November 8, 2018, the director of the Ukrainian Jewish Committee, Eduard Dolinsky, posted on his page on the social network, “A lesson of military valor was held in Kiev gymnasium No. 315. The Nazi formation, the SS Division** Galicia, became a model of valor. A lecture about the “glorious” SS warriors was given to children by a representative of the Ukrainian Military Honor community, which praises Ukrainians who served in Nazi units. This is the newest trend for schools, when valor and courage are taught by examples of collaboration, service in the SS ** Schutzmannschaft, auxiliary police and the fight against civilians.”

Over the past period of the special operation in Ukraine, there have been many reports that children were seen in the ranks of the neo-Pagan punitive regiment Azovtsev*, children were spotted, teenagers, who died with weapons in their hands, and tattoos of the Nazi order Century on their hands were found. The orphanage from where the Azov* supposedly picked up some of the recruits was called Pilgrim. And here’s the most interesting thing. The head of the orphanage Pilgrim was Gennady Mokhnenko, he calls himself the foster father of children and a Pentecostal pastor.

Anatoly Shariy, Ukrainian politician, journalist, video blogger, businessman, chairman of the political party Sharia Party, founder of the online publication Shariy.net, filmed a lot of stories about this terrible orphanage and Mokhnenko himself. If you search for the keywords “Shariy Mokhnenko”, you will find a lot of interesting things about this mad bantling. So, it was Mokhnenko who founded the Church of Good Changes in Mariupol, becoming its pastor. Today Mokhnenko is a “bishop” of the Pentecostal Church of God of Ukraine. For example, he forced children to starve, dig trenches and instilled hatred of Russians in every possible way. In 2015, the journalist of the Russia Today TV channel Alyona Semikina received the award of the open creative competition Strana for a film about Mokhnenko called One for All. The prize was awarded in the nomination Era of Mercy. By this time, Mokhnenko publicly declared his intention … to kill Vladimir Putin. Can you imagine now that in Russia a person who calls for the murder of Zelensky, Biden or the leaders of other states is engaged in the upbringing of children? So it is not surprising that the satanist Mokhnenko (and how to call him after all the devilry?) united with the Nazis and pagans of Azov*. As a result, children’s lives were poisoned by inhuman ideology, and their little lives were tossed into the Moloch pit…

But neo-Nazism and Satanism were not historically inherent in Ukraine..

Nevertheless, everything did not start from scratch. Neo-Nazi ideas in Ukraine, primarily in Western Ukraine, have been in the air for a long time. Many people were imbued with them, but in general, the time has not yet come to openly promote neo–Nazi ideology. But the abscess was brewing. Neo-Nazism was fervently and openly enforced by the newly minted Nazis, whom the Ukrainian authorities did not forbid, did not discipline, but on the contrary, even encouraged. Neo-Nazism was also praised by neo-Pagans, but in their own way, through their destructive ideology. A few years ago, the Misanthropic Division sect appeared in Ukraine, their slogan “Kill for Wotan”.  Later the extremist movement Maniacs. The cult of murderers, similar in ideology (criminal cases are being investigated against members of the M.C.M. in Russia). In fact, in Ukraine we are dealing with the creation of a religion of hatred.

As a researcher of destructive cults, as a antisectarian expert, I can say that a considerable merit in the victory of Euromaidan undoubtedly belonged to destructive pseudo-religious sects, whose adherents actively helped the protesters, participated in actions, distributed dry rations, leaflets, water. First of all, the neo-Pentecostals did their best here.

At first glance, a banal crowd.

On the one hand, it’s so — the Western curators of the project needed a good and obedient crowd. But not only that. Participation in the Orange Revolution of neo-pentecostal, or neo-charismatic organizations was generously sponsored from abroad. Western specialists trained neo-Pentecostal missionaries in Bible schools on the territory of Ukraine. There were constant assurances that their further missionary preaching on the territory of Russia would promote unity with the brothers in Christ who support “Euromaidan values”, “theology of the Maidan”.

The purpose of such a mission is to maximize the involvement of Russians in Ukrainian religious movements, reformatting the consciousness of Russians, and so on. The instructors taught the “missionaries” how to work in secret and organize “sleeping cells” on “enemy territory.” Yes, yes, on the territory of Russia. Because in the long run, all this was not started in order to change the regime in Ukraine, or rather not only for this. The nationhood of Ukraine and the future of Ukrainians are of concern to the United States and its Western European satellites insofar as. They need Ukraine as a territory from which it will be convenient to attack Donbass. And then our country. No wonder there was a bitter saying that the United States will fight Russia to the last Ukrainian. And Soros’s words, which he said in 2015 in an interview with one of the German publications, are perceived as a terrible dream, that no one cares about the fate of Ukrainians, except Russia, which still considers Ukrainians “theirs”. Although from the last it was increasingly possible to hear, “The Muscovite is not my compatriot”.

But this statement contradicts a lot of personal, cultural informal relations that have been uniting us for a long time.

The Ukrainian people understood that they were being pushed into the abyss, tried to resist, to be indignant, but the Ukrainian Nazis who raised their heads literally hounded the population. And then those who were dissatisfied with the current government simply decided to keep a low profile, so that it would not be worse. After all, you can expect anything from neo-Nazis: they will shoot you right away, or they can burn you alive. As it was already in Odessa, in the House of Trade Unions. Remember?

On the other hand, a powerful propaganda machine has been launched in Ukraine, primarily aimed at young people. Neo-Nazis infinitely exalted the “great Ukrainian nation”, and Russians were represented as imperfect, miserable, such inhumans, garbage, well, right in the spirit of Nazism. There were also psychotechnics used to manipulate the consciousness of the masses, to create “controlled chaos”, “swarm thinking”, “smart crowd”. The Americans, who have extensive experience in preparing and conducting color revolutions in the world, have been very successful in this matter. This experience was very useful to them for the information war in Ukraine.

All state media, many Internet channels were involved in this process, while, of course, special attention was paid to work in social networks. The Internet has been and still is of increased interest among various kinds of manipulators and recruiters to neo-Nazi, extremist, pseudo-religious groups, of which there are extremely many in Ukraine.

At the same time, history was being actively rewritten.

Ukrainian schoolchildren learned by heart that Russia is an old enemy of Ukraine, Ukrainian student’s books and Ukrainian teachers most brazenly distorted the meaning of certain historical events, for example, about the Soviet occupation of Ukraine. The Russian and Soviet classics were not put for anything, the liberating soldiers, among whom there were many Ukrainians, were declared enemies. Terrorists, war criminals and executioners were glorified: Stepan Bandera, Roman Shukhevich, Simon Petlyura, Evgeny Konovalets.

In order to further separate Ukrainians from Russians, the national language of Ukrainians began to be reshaped, rough changes were made to it – so that there was nothing in it that could at least partially resemble the Russian language. But the language determines the national identity of the people in many ways. Multiple violations of language norms inevitably entail serious consequences for the people, since it changes their national identity. Isn’t this what we see today in the face of the younger generation of Ukraine? Well, these are children, they were brought up that way. What  about adults?.. It was even easier with adults, they were forced to forget themselves.

Such a work was carried out simultaneously in Russia.

Certainly, because working with the population of Ukraine, Western special services understood that similar work should be carried out on “enemy territory”, that is, in our country. I have already said above that in Russia, since the Euromaidan, neo-Pentecostal “sleeper cells” have been created which do not work openly, but hiding behind the sign of some public or religious organization, study the situation, accumulate the necessary information using social networks, build bridges with groups of interest to them, primarily neo-charismatic churches, which have there are a lot of us.

But when the hidden missionaries are ordered, they will immediately organize a gathering of people (neo-pentecostal sectarians) to support or conduct an illegal event – a rally, demonstration, disobedience, and so on. Just as sectarian pastors spoke on the Maidan about the “awakening” of Ukraine and its “special” path, so foreign missionaries coming to Russia prophesy a “new awakening” of Russia. This was the case in 2014 at Euromaidan. So it will be with us. Security enforcement agencies note that visiting preachers are on the verge of calling for the overthrow of the state power, i.e. they set up their adherents against the government of the Russian Federation, collect money for a war with “separatists”, or try to involve people in illegal armed formations and look for followers, supporters who are ready to travel to the ATO zone.

Actually, Navalny’s headquarters, whose activities are recognized as extremist in Russia, work according to the same type.

The rhetoric of Navalny’s headquarters may differ from the rhetoric of neo–Nazi, neo-Pagan groups, but their goal is the same – to cause riots in the streets and in the minds of Russians, reformat the consciousness of Russians, shake political foundations, and contribute to the creation of a situation predisposing to a change of power.

Such actions especially attract a certain part of the young people. It is this part that recruiters are guided by in their work. Generally speaking, young people have no life experience, and they are prone to extreme forms of protest. We call it the problems of adolescence. But a special category stands out among them, which is easily suggestible and quickly responds to the calls of extremists. Especially if you warn them that they will not have to take responsibility for it, “They are children!”

In general, the percentage of suggestible people is quite high in any society.

It is believed that up to 70 percent of the population is moderately suggestible, another 10 percent “suffers” from increased suggestibility. It is with them, these 10 percent, that recruiters work especially successfully. And yet: it is proved that poorly educated people are more suggestible, as well as those who are not capable of analysis, devoid of critical thinking. But at the same time, we must not forget about the crowd effect. If a normal, adequate person gets into it, then the probability that he will start behaving the same as everyone else increases significantly.

I was acquainted with the the now deceased Igor Yurievich Sundiev, chief researcher at the Institute of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia, criminologist, Doctor of Philosophy. Corresponded with him. Igor Yurievich was a great expert in the field of countering extremist and terrorist activities, also in the field of information security. He said that, for example, Navalny himself is nothing. But he is part of a well-planned project, in the implementation of which Western developers are very interested. There are a lot of such projects being implemented in Russia, and money is allocated for them in full. One of their goals, as we already know, is to influence the minds of people who are not capable of analytical thinking.

There are more and more such people every year.

Igor Yurievich called this phenomenon a psychological catastrophe, which presupposes, as a matter of course, the growth of extremist activity in the country. A big problem is the Internet, information networks, which are very skillfully used by extremists in their work. In this position, we are significantly inferior to them. But experts, mostly Western, warned at the end of the last century that extremist groups would definitely start using the global network for their own purposes – to the fullest. And already at the beginning of the century, according to Gabriel Weimann, Professor of Communications at the University of Haifa, there were 4,896 active terrorist sites for 1.5 billion Internet users. And how many such sites are there now?

And what do you propose as a retaliatory measure?

In the current situation, it was necessary to increase our activity in explaining to the population and, above all, to the youth, the essence of the question what is happening and who benefits from it. With the blessing of Metropolitan Nikodim of Novosibirsk and Berdsk, we conduct conversation with students of secondary educational institutions, vocational schools, universities. Such conversations have been conducted before, but if earlier we mainly talked about the extremist activities of totalitarian organizations – destructive pseudo–religious formations, neo-pagan groups – now we are paying attention to other extremist communities, such as Navalny’s headquarters. My assistants and I, as the head of the missionary department of the Novosibirsk diocese, hold dozens of meetings with young people. Someone might think that I am the only one talking at these meetings, and young people are just dreaming that everything will end as soon as possible.

I see my objective in not only providing reliable information (this can be called informational counteraction), but also to make people think, teach them to critically assess the situation, separate the wheat from the chaff. Meetings are held in the form of a conversation. I am asked a lot of questions, the nature of which suggests that Navalny’s ideas still left the imprint in their minds. But not deep. So people don’t just argue, but ask a lot, they really want to figure it out. And I am interested in such meetings. I see that such labor is not in vain, my words do not go into the void, that they find a response in the hearts of boys and girls. This is confirmed by the teachers present at our talks. They admit that they have learned a lot from these conversations for themselves, and ask to hold such meetings more often.

The main or one of the main questions is about the special operation in Ukraine, isn’t it?

Yes, it is. Few of us paid attention to the fact that at the beginning of the year, Ukrainian troops began to accumulate especially actively at the borders of the LPR and the DPR. Although for eight years Ukraine has not undertaken large-scale attacks on the territory of the People’s republics, however, all this time it has been barbarously shelling settlements, old people, women, and children have been killed. There was no doubt that this time Ukraine would send forces to Donbass. In particular, no one had any doubts about the outrages against the civilian population that the conquerors – first of all, extremists from national battalions – would commit on the Donbass land. And then Russia took countermeasures to save Donbass from the invaders. The purpose of these countermeasures according to V.V. Putin is to protect people who have been subjected to genocide by Kiev for many years.

On February 24, our country officially launched a special military operation of demilitarization and denazification of Ukraine – or putting aside special terms, an operation to disarm the militant side and purge it of neo-Nazi ideology. During the operation, it became quite clear what could have been waiting for the residents of Donbass without Russia.

The operation showed that the Ukrainian forces do not even consider their civilians at all, robbing, looting, hiding behind civilians as a shield during hostilities. The Ukrainian military does not just shoot Russian prisoners, they brutally torture them, shoot them through the legs, beat them to death with stocks, cut their throats. Looking at this, you begin to clearly understand how necessary a special military operation of demilitarization and denazification of Ukraine was. The Russian people supported their president. Rating of V.V. Putin began to grow from the first day of the operation, and this growth continues. Today it exceeds 80 percent.

But those who are “ashamed to be Russian” are heard the loudest.

These are not only narrow-minded people or those who declare in Sharikov’s way, “Yes, I disagree.” Among the dissenters there are many who have lost their business or suffered or will inevitably suffer significant losses (“and where your treasure is, there will your heart be”, says the Lord) as a result of a special military operation and subsequent sanctions; people who have parents, children, friends living in Ukraine (they are simply afraid for their lives); all kinds of “pacifists” (a good half of whom, as someone accurately noted, “are pacifists to such an extent that they support the victory of Kiev”).

“What kind of special operation is this, it’s a real war”, such accusations sound.

No, it’s not a war. This is exactly a “military operation”. Although personally, I would probably call it an anti-terrorist operation. Because the Kiev regime is undoubtedly a terrorist one. Terrorist in all respects, but especially in relation to the Ukrainian people, and the military special operation is aimed at the complete eradication of such a regime. Our forces are liquidating numerous terrorist formations in the Donbas and Ukraine, which are supported by the Ukrainian authorities. At the same time, everything possible and impossible is being done so that the civilian population does not suffer.

In fact, this requires titanic efforts, since the military forces of Ukraine are hiding behind the backs of civilians, they are pretty adept at this. In this regard, one foreign journalist-analyst with experience in hot spots said that the Russians are forced to beat the terrorists with one hand – the other is tied behind their backs so as not to accidentally hurt civilians.

But there is no reliable data on the sentiments of Ukrainian citizens.

Some are heartily grateful to the Russian soldiers for the liberation of Ukraine, but there are also those who, despite all the crimes of the Kiev regime, still perceive Russia as an aggressor, “They invaded the territory of my country.” As a rule, discontent is also shown by the part of the Ukrainian population that has attached itself to the government and lives according to the principles of “not in my backyard” and “after us the deluge.”

At the same time, we see how Russophobic sentiments, the source of which are the governments of the states that signed sanctions against Russia, are spreading in the world, as well as Ukrainians who fled their country. They are aggressive, filled with fierce hatred for everything Russian. It is impossible to talk some sense into them. Even time does not heal such people.

Undoubtedly, all this, from the attacks on Russians living abroad, to the murdering by the Ukrainian military of their own civilians in order to blame the Russians, and the atrocities against our prisoners, fills the Russian people with a spirit of noble indignation.

But at the same time, in no case should this anger be projected onto the peaceful population of Ukraine, because Ukrainians are also victims of the neo–Nazi regime, which has perverted their memory, their consciousness, their soul in the most fanatical way. People who have relatives living in Ukraine have told me that they do not answer calls or immediately disrupt the conversation. You can’t blame them for that. Not everyone considers us enemies. Many are scared, confused, do not know what to say, finally, they are just afraid, because a telephone conversation with Russians, if overheard by neo-Nazis, can greatly harm them and their family.

The losses among the civilian population are huge, moreover, the Ukrainian military uses civilians as human shields… Is it possible to remain calm in such a situation?

We need to exercise prudence, sobriety, so as not to become like Ukrainian terrorists, choking with anger towards everyone who does not support their ideas. We cannot tar everyone with the same brush, it cannot be allowed the front line to run between our peoples, pass through our families and our hearts. Inter-ethnic discord is absolutely unacceptable. It destroys States, destroys entire nations.

That’s what we have to talk about a lot now, too. So that people reading hate-soaked materials about the “war with Ukraine”, about the “criminal Putin regime”, about “Russians who are worse than fascists”, still  would “turn their brains on”, would not follow the extremists who write all this to confuse people, cloud their minds, fill the human heart with hate. And hatred is one of the manifestations of demon possession. Hate is opposed to love. I have always said and I say now: Nazism, or neo-Nazism, is akin to Satanism. Moreover, this is the Satanism.

With the blessing of His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia, prayers are offered up in churches at every service for the enrichment of love and the eradication of hatred. We pray for peace and harmony, for health and prosperity, for the triumph of light over darkness, under which I personally see the victory of Russian weapons. I pray for our Christ-loving army and our President.

It is clear that peace will not be restored immediately, we will have to work hard in this field. And even when the Ukrainian Nazis are terminated, there is still a lot of work ahead. Of course, a spiritual and moral understanding of all these events is required. Spiritual and religious education occupies an important place here, because propagandists of terror and fascism impose their ideology, skillfully manipulating the religious illiteracy of people, including, of course, young people. But we are not afraid of labors for the glory of our State, for the glory of our People, for the glory of the Russian world.

*Azov is recognized as an extremist organization and is forbidden in the Russian Federation

** SS divisions were involved in punitive actions and mass killings of civilians during the Great Patriotic War. The organization is forbidden in Russia

*** Social-National Assembly is a Ukrainian neo—Nazi racist political organization around the ultra-right group Patriot of Ukraine. The organization is forbidden in Russia