{"id":200708,"date":"2020-01-12T08:36:03","date_gmt":"2020-01-12T08:36:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=200708"},"modified":"2020-01-17T08:29:53","modified_gmt":"2020-01-17T08:29:53","slug":"democracy-is-fraud-we-need-monarchy-popular-russian-priest-on-top-tv-show","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=200708","title":{"rendered":"Democracy Is Fraud! &#8211; We Need Monarchy! &#8211; Popular Russian Priest on Top TV Show"},"content":{"rendered":"<h1 style=\"text-align: center;\">Russian Faith \u2013 Jan 5, 2020<\/h1>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">Father Dmitry speaks frequently to the public in his sermons that Russia must reinstate the monarchy, and that democracy is a hoax that benefits only the wealthy.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/Father-Dmitry.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-200709\" src=\"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/Father-Dmitry.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"540\" height=\"405\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/Father-Dmitry.jpg 600w, https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/Father-Dmitry-300x225.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 540px) 100vw, 540px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\"><em>Father Dmitry Smirnov is,\u00a0hands down, one of the most popular\u00a0priests of Russia. He has a huge following and is very active\u00a0on television, radio, and his\u00a0<a style=\"color: #ccffff;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/thisvrb\/videos?flow=list&amp;view=0&amp;sort=p\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong>YouTube<\/strong><\/span><\/a>\u00a0channel.\u00a0<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\"><em>He is incredibly witty and often so blunt that he leaves his audience gasping. But not only is he entertaining; he also speaks of the things that too many people today are silent about.\u00a0\u00a0<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\"><em>He is especially outspoken in his criticism of LGBT\u00a0and abortion, and his passionate support for homeschooling. He heads the Russian Church&#8217;s\u00a0Committee for Family, Motherhood, and Children.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\"><em>This is a clip of him on a top Russian talk show, Sunday Evening with Vladimir Soloviev<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">Father Dmitry speaks frequently to the public in his sermons that Russia must reinstate the monarchy, and that democracy is a hoax that benefits only the wealthy.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">This is a great example of him doing so in a 10 minute discussion on the nation&#8217;s leading political talk show &#8211; &#8216;Evening with Vladimir Soloviev&#8217;.<\/span><\/p>\n<div align=\"center\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/oyZgewfwoVc\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><br \/>\n&#8212;<\/div>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">What Smirnov\u00a0says is fascinating. He believes\u00a0hereditary monarchy is deeply problematic, and that ideally monarchs should be elected, as in the Byzantine empire.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><strong>Transcript:<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\"><strong>&#8211; You speak a lot about politics. You always mention that you&#8217;re against democracy and support a constitutional monarchy. What makes democracy so vicious?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\"><u>Protopriest Dmitry Smirnov, High Church Council:<\/u><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">&#8211; I completely agree with Churchill: Democracy is the worst. The very wording is deceiving. Democracy? The elections are won by the one whose campaign was the most expensive. (applause) Democracy was invented by the people who had no titles and no opportunity to get into power, only money. They took a word from ancient Greece. But Ancient Greece had a different kind of democracy. You had to own property, be a well-respected citizen, have a family, and so on and so forth. Can one\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\"><strong>&#8211; So only the worthy and famous got into power?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">&#8211; The most worthy. The glorious ones. The ones who earned a name. It&#8217;s just wrong. A homeless alcoholic has a single vote. The principal of the Moscow State University also has a single vote. An old officer who rose to the rank of General and a green recruit who can&#8217;t tie his own shoes properly. Everybody has a single vote. Is that what you call democracy? It&#8217;s fraud! (applause)<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\"><strong>&#8211; But that&#8217;s what democracy is like. What&#8217;s so bad about democracy? Could you suggest another option?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">&#8211; Democracy allows some people to shamelessly and insolently manipulate others. (applause)<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\"><strong>&#8211; The USA is often used as an example of true democracy. They&#8217;re doing just fine.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">&#8211; &#8220;Fine&#8221; is a broad term. I wouldn&#8217;t want to be doing &#8220;just fine&#8221; in the USA even if somebody paid me ten million dollars. (applause)<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\"><strong>&#8211; Well, I don&#8217;t think anybody would do that. Why though? Many Americans believe in God and go to church on Sunday much more frequently than Russians do. What&#8217;s wrong?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">&#8211; Many of those &#8220;believers&#8221; go to sects instead of churches. It&#8217;s important to bear that in mind. Their foreign policy and the fact that they print money for the whole world allow them to create better conditions for their citizens. That&#8217;s clear. (applause)<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">Their wages and retirement benefits seem higher if we compare the bare figures. But when the government controls your every step and you have zero rights in your society, it weighs you down.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\"><strong>&#8211; What rights do they lack that we have? You mean we&#8217;ve got so many rights and they&#8217;ve got zero? We&#8217;re comparing the real states which aren&#8217;t perfect.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">&#8211; Well, my American friends&#8230; Most of them are of Russian origin. They whisper even inside their own cars. And you and I can openly discuss anything live on TV.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\"><strong>&#8211; That&#8217;s true, even though whispering in one&#8217;s own car sounds a bit odd\u2026<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">&#8211; I&#8217;ve seen it with my own eyes. And it didn&#8217;t happen just once.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\"><strong>&#8211; Father Dmitry, some people require psychiatric care. It&#8217;s quite popular in the US.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">&#8211; Some of our people require it as well. (applause)<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\"><strong>&#8211; That&#8217;s true. Ok, so which path should\u00a0 Russia choose then? People who&#8217;ve just tuned in might think: &#8220;Wow, what are they suggesting here?? What about our roots?&#8221;<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">&#8211; I&#8217;m not suggesting anything to anyone.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\"><strong>Thats too bad.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">Some people, including Vladimir Solovyov, ask me what I think\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\"><strong>&#8211; That&#8217;s right.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">&#8211; &#8230;what I&#8217;d do. And I tell them.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\"><strong>&#8211; What would you do for Russia? Which path would you choose?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">&#8211; Monarchy, of course. We&#8217;ve always had monarchy. It&#8217;s in our blood. The Russian people who built this country, who built all spheres of our outstanding culture, did it under a monarchy. The end of monarchy symbolized the beginning of the dark days that started in 1917 and wreaked havoc upon our country.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">Our lifestyle was destroyed, our freedom of travel restricted. Families with multiple children became uncommon. The class system was eliminated starting from its core &#8211; the peasants, who were the most pious Christians. Now, the fields that our ancestors had worked for 900 years are either barren or covered in forests. (applause)<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">&#8211; It&#8217;s a tragedy.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">&#8211; Everything is ruined. Everything created by the Soviets has ground to a halt, is not working anymore.. Sometimes, my occupation makes me travel across the country. It looks as if an army marched through the place yesterday. The country looks like it suffered either another Siege of Stalingrad or an invasion by \u00a0Genghis Khan. (applause).<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\"><strong>&#8211; But didn&#8217;t your beloved tsars lead Russia to a catastrophe? Didn&#8217;t Peter the Great do great harm to the Orthodox Church? Didn&#8217;t your tsars bring about the events of 1917 that led to the collapse of the House of Romanov?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">&#8211; Their mistake was that they were not decisive enough.. Somebody, please, forgive this old man, I forget the name, said that if a few \u00a0thousand people had been hanged there would have been no revolution for the next 100 years.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\"><strong>&#8211; A nice Christian approach.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">&#8211; Yep.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\"><strong>Imagine, a man comes to your house holding two knives and starts stabbing your family. How would you respond?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">&#8211; With a bullet.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\"><strong>&#8211; Good, God bless you. You&#8217;re a true Christian, Vladimir. (applause)<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">&#8211; You don&#8217;t say. But Peter the Great was quite decisive: hundreds were executed.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\"><strong>&#8211; He was raised in the German enclave. He borrowed a lot from Holland and the other countries he visited. Being a Russian person whose heart and mind are always open, he was mesmerized by clarity, order, skill, and so on. He thought that his strong will, charisma, and title would allow him to make Russia a European country.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">He did a lot of harm, including making the Church one of his Ministries. Yes he harmed us. But the essence of the Church remained the same. Moreover, he was heavily influenced by Mitrofan, the archbishop of Voronezh. Peter respected him and he managed to soften Peter\u2019s harsh temper. At the beginning of his reign, Peter personally executed some soldiers. He felt his executioner wasn&#8217;t up for the task. &#8220;Give me the axe,&#8221; he said. However, reaching the end of his life he became rather serious\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\"><strong>&#8211; Was he saying: &#8220;Chop &#8217;em, I&#8217;ll watch?&#8221;<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">&#8211; Well, kind of. Anyway, he became much less brutal.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">&#8211;<strong>\u00a0Once again, monarchy doesn&#8217;t seem to be an ideal option.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">&#8211; You see, a monarch doesn&#8217;t have to be born into a royal family. A monarch should be elected.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\"><strong>&#8211; So we get something like the Roman Empire?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">&#8211; The Byzantine.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\"><strong>&#8211; The Eastern Roman Empire.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">&#8211; Yes. You see, all people are sinful<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\"><strong>&#8211; That&#8217;s true.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">&#8211; We pray: &#8220;May thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.&#8221; But if all the logs are rotten the house will eventually collapse. The system must be adjusted. However, people shouldn&#8217;t suffocate their leader with a pillow when they want to change them. They should be elected legally by the parliament, electors, and so on. Wealth shouldn&#8217;t be the determining factor when choosing the electors.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\"><strong>&#8211; Their worthiness should?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">&#8211; Yes, their worthiness, and this should reflect their contribution to society, for example, perhaps they were brilliant scientists, or excellent government ministers<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\"><strong>&#8211; Ok, so \u00a0whom should we elect to be our monarch?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">&#8211; I have no idea. Let the people decide.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">Here in Russia, this website is currently the <strong>only source of income<\/strong> for the <a style=\"color: #ccffff;\" href=\"https:\/\/russian-faith.com\/family-values\/american-father-mini-documentary-big-family-moves-to-rural-russia-n2030\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong>Gleason family<\/strong><\/span><\/a> and the <a style=\"color: #ccffff;\" href=\"https:\/\/russian-faith.com\/news\/young-christian-couple-leaves-brazil-moves-to-russia-n2306\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong>Silva family<\/strong><\/span><\/a>. Both families now live in Russia, and they appreciate your support.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">To keep the Russian Faith website running, a\u00a0<span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong><a style=\"color: #ccffff; text-decoration: underline;\" href=\"https:\/\/russian-faith.com\/support#donate\">recurring donation<\/a><\/strong><\/span>\u00a0of even\u00a0<a style=\"color: #ccffff;\" href=\"https:\/\/russian-faith.com\/support#donate\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong>$5 or $10 per month<\/strong><\/span><\/a>\u00a0would be a huge blessing.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/russian-faith.com\/video\/democracy-fraud-we-need-monarchy-hugely-popular-russian-priest-top-tv-show-dmitry-smirnov\">Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Father Dmitry Smirnov is an outspoken, controversial and very popular Russian Orthodox priest<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":39262,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[61,91],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-200708","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-Commentary","category-russia"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200708","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/39262"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=200708"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200708\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":200711,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200708\/revisions\/200711"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=200708"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=200708"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=200708"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}