In January 2026, the World Russian People’s Council published a statement against film director and Communist Party member Vladimir Bortko. The trigger was his author program View from St. Petersburg on Russia 24, where he said religion can become a destabilizing factor and that the country’s unity should rest primarily on civic rather than religious cohesion.
The document was posted on January 20 on the website of the Moscow Patriarchate. It was not signed by Patriarch Kirill himself, but by the council’s deputy heads, Metropolitan Grigory (Petrov) of Voskresensk and Alexander Shchipkov. In the statement, the council condemned Bortko’s remarks as anti-Orthodox and said they allegedly posed a threat to social consolidation during wartime and external pressure.
In the broadcast, Bortko said Russia needs civic solidarity and a clear understanding that religion should remain a private matter for each citizen.
In the program, the director also reflected on the future of the political system after Vladimir Putin leaves office and argued that a transfer of power should be prepared in advance. Among the possible steps, he mentioned handing power to a successor during Putin’s lifetime, winning the war through the “return of the territory of Little Russia,” and preserving an authoritarian model, which he contrasted with the risk of civil war.
Bortko addressed religion separately. He said a sharp rise in religiosity after the Soviet era could carry risks because differences in religious identity increase tensions inside a multiethnic state. In his view, the promotion of Orthodox fundamentalism marginalizes non-believers and followers of other faiths, while in Muslim-majority regions religion may fuel ethnic separatism.
As an alternative, the director proposed relying on civic identity and keeping religious practice within the private sphere. Among the core values he named were the rule of law, social justice, secular education, and a scientific worldview. At the same time, he referred to Christ’s words in the Gospel about praying in private, stressing that he was not attacking faith itself.
Bortko’s position also prompted a sharp reaction from Alexander Shchipkov, who wrote the day after the broadcast about the risk of discord between church and state. The dispute continued a broader conflict between Communist Party representatives and church structures that had already intensified in 2025 around the Spas TV channel’s film Mummy, which criticized the cult of Lenin.