“The speeches of President Vladimir Putin and Patriarch Kirill of Moscow have repeatedly invoked and developed Russian world ideology over the last 20 years,” said the signatories of the Declaration on the “Russian World” (Russkii mir) Teaching.

“We reject the ‘Russian world’ heresy and the shameful actions of the Government of Russia in unleashing war against Ukraine which flows from this vile and indefensible teaching with the connivance of the Russian Orthodox Church, as profoundly un-Orthodox, un-Christian and against humanity,” they added.