After the Revolution

Russia doesn’t usually look too kindly on former Soviet states that elect pro-Western leaders.

But Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavro seems to have found a Georgian he can get along with: Ilia II, a 75-year-old man who has been a patriarch in the Georgian Orthodox Church since 1977.

1977 - that’s 14 years before Georgia declared its independence from the Soviet Union.

According to an article from Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, the patriarch was the first person Lavro visited on his recent trip to Georgia to see Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili’s inauguration.

Ilia II reportedly told Lavro he had ”deep respect” for Russian President Vladimir Putin, whom he credited with “doing a lot” to improve relations between Russia and Georiga.

No wonder Lavro started off his visit with a trip to church.

He could hardly expect such kind words from President Saakashvili, who has made one of the main goals of his presidency regaining control of the Russian-supported separatist regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia.

Russia has troops in both areas, and both have asked to be annexed by Russia.

Russia and Georgia have had especially strained relations since Russia banned the importation of Georgian wine and mineral water.

Relations between the Russian and Georgian Orthodox churches have not always been as rosey as a revolution either, but the two have much closer ties.

Eighty percent of Georgians are Orthodox. For more than a century, the Georgian Orthodox Church was under the authority of the Russian Orthodox Church.

Although the Georgian Orthodox Church gained its independence in 1917 after the fall of tsarism, the Soviet Union did not recognize it as separate from the Russian Orthodox Church until 1943.

The remaining ties between the two churches stem in part from their common opposition to Western influence. 

In 1997, clerics in Georgia withdrew their country from the World Council of Churches, but became closer to the Russian Orthodox Church.

Leaders from the two churches cooperated in 2007 to lift the flight ban Russia imposed on Georgia after Georgian authorities arrested alleged Russian spies.

Many of the residents of former Soviet states who continue to favor Russia over the West are those who can recall fondly their times back in the U.S.S.R.

With such elderly clerics leading the Georgian Orthodox Church, Russia may have found the perfect ally.