Russian Patriarch warns of new 'Time of Troubles'

The head of Russia's powerful Orthodox Church on Saturday urged Russians to stay faithful to their own traditions, cautioning that Western recipes of modernisation could result in political turmoil. In what will likely be seen as a veiled attack on the opposition, Patriarch Kirill, a staunch supporter of President Vladimir Putin, warned that blindly following Western models and forgetting one's roots could lead to a new "Time of Troubles". The late 16th and early 17th centuries are known in the country as the Time of Troubles (or Smuta in Russian), a period of political upheaval marked by peasant uprisings, rebellion against authority and attempts to seize power with the help of foreign intervention. The crisis ended with the establishment of the Romanov dynasty in 1613. "We should first and foremost take care not to allow the Smuta in the minds, Smuta in the heads, because today there are people who, like Moscow's nobles, offer unacceptable recipes for the modernisation of our life and the improvement of living conditions for our people," said Kirill, speaking on a religious programme regularly featured on the country's most popular television channel. The patriarch did not name any names, but his message will likely be seen as a veiled attack on the promotion of Western liberal values by the anti-Putin protest movement that began organising mass demonstrations last winter before the strongman's re-election to an unprecedented third Kremlin term. Kirill said on state-controlled Channel One that Russians should learn from the country's past and not make the same mistake twice by allowing foreigners to take control of Russia. After the Time of Troubles ended, he said, "Russia got a new lease of life, there was a huge, colossal development of national life, economy, state building, (and) the development of new lands." On Sunday, Russia will mark the Day of Popular Unity, a public holiday celebrating the country's victory over the Polish occupiers expelled from the Kremlin in 1612 that preceded Mikhail Romanov's accession to the throne. The commemoration was designed to replace the Soviet-era holiday celebrating the 1917 October Revolution. The Orthodox Church has flourished under Putin, becoming increasingly present in society and politics over the past few years. Putin, who is battling the most serious political crisis of his 12 years in power, has flaunted his religiosity and is believed to have his own father confessor.