Andrey kordochkin, welcome to hardtalk. Thank you. Its a great Honour And Privilege to be here. Well, its great to have you in the studio. Let me take you back to February 2022. Putin orders an all out invasion of ukraine. Within days, you, a priest in the russian Orthodox Church, choose to speak out against the invasion. When you did that, did you feel that this would be the end of your career in the russian Orthodox Church . I think that when the war has begun, very few of us could actually give a prediction of what is going to come through. So i think that many people would suggest that the war would be over in a very short period of time. So i dont think that any of us was acting out of any kind of prediction. And i think when i spoke out against the war, i dont think that i really felt any choice. I thought that it was a moral imperative on behalf of any christian or any sensible and reasonable person, to try to stop it, or at least not to be a part of what one may call a moraljus
The number of identified russian fighters killed on the frontline in ukraine has hit 70,000 thats according to bbc research. While official statistics may be hard to come by, an investigation by Bbc Russia and the independent russian media outlet, mediazona, has been collating data and identifying dead russian soldiers since the beginning of the war with ukraine. Our analysis reveals volunteers are increasingly older men with lower incomes and are not surviving long in battle. 0lga Ivshina reports. The faces of russian fighters killed in ukraine are changed. Now, more and more men in their 40s, 50s and even 60s are volunteering for the frontline. 62 year old Rinat Khusniyarov was one of them. Before he volunteered, he had two jobs. Fighting for russia, he earned seven times what he did before. Russian authorities have repeatedly increased sign up bonuses to attract men like rinat. He died in february this year. We dont know where exactly, but thousands of kilometres away from his home
Russias current borders. Putins Expansionist Nationalism requires military power, but its harnessed the cultural spiritual authority of the russian Orthodox Church, too. My guest, andrey kordochkin, was a russian Orthodox Priest who spoke out against the ukraine war and the putinisation of his church. But is he swimming against an unstoppable tide . Andrey kordochkin, welcome to hardtalk. Thank you. Its a great Honour And Privilege to be here. Well, its great to have you in the studio. Let me take you back to February 2022. Putin orders an all out invasion of ukraine. Within days, you, a priest in the russian Orthodox Church, choose to speak out against the invasion. When you did that, did you feel that this would be the end of your career in the russian Orthodox Church . I think that when the war has begun, very few of us could actually give a prediction of what is going to come through. So i think that many people would suggest that the war would be over in a very short period of tim
In the russian orthodox church, choose to speak out against the invasion. When you did that, did you feel that this would be the end of your career in the russian orthodox church? i think that when the war has begun, very few of us could actually give a prediction of what is going to come through. So i think that many people would suggest that the war would be over in a very short period of time. So i don t think that any of us was acting out of any kind of prediction. And i think when i spoke out against the war, i don t think that i really felt any choice. I thought that it was a moral imperative on behalf of any christian or any sensible and reasonable person, to try to stop it, or at least not to be a part of what one may call a moraljustification of evil. But you didn t actually just speak out yourself. Within days, you were a co signatory to a declaration that, i think, involved almost 300 russian orthodox priests, who were opposed to this invasion. So, it wasn t just yourself. Y
Vladimir putin talks Vladimir Putin talks of restoring greatness of restoring greatness to what he calls the russian to what he calls the russian world an expansive Territory World an expansive territory which, as ukrainians know which, as ukrainians know to their cost, to their cost, stretches far beyond stretches far beyond russias current borders. Putins expansionist russias current borders. Putins Expansionist Nationalism requires military power, nationalism requires military power, but its harnessed the to February 2022. But its harnessed the cultural spiritual authority cultural spiritual authority of the russian of the russian Orthodox Church, too. Orthodox church, too. My guest, andrey kordochkin, my guest, andrey kordochkin, was a russian Orthodox Priest who spoke out against was a russian Orthodox Priest the ukraine war and the putinisation of his church. But is he swimming against but is he swimming against an unstoppable tide . An unstoppable tide . Andrey kordochkin, welco