title: Soft, Sharp, and Evil Power: The Russian Orthodox Church in the Russian Invasion of Ukraine
abstract: This paper examines the enactment of soft/sharp/evil power by the Russian Orthodox Church and its leaders during a month before the major exertion of hard power by the Russian military and one month after the invasion of Ukraine. In the period from January 25 until March 25, 2022, 27 messages of the leading actors in the Church–Patriarch Kirill and Metropolitan Hilarion, head of the Department of External Church Relations (DECR)–are closely examined. The results are presented and discussed in fo
journal: Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe