Political and communicative interaction in public space between the Russian government and the Russian orthodox church: directions and priorities

Introduction. The aim of the work was to analyze the leading directions of interaction between the state and religious authorities in the modern public space. It is shown that the result of this interaction was the politicization of the Russian Orthodox Church (hereinafter ROC). It is proved that in recent decades the Church continues to exert direct and indirect influence on the state, which, in turn, uses its spiritual potential to stabilize the socio-political system. Methods and materials. Institutional and modernization approaches were used as the research methodology. Within the framework of the institutional approach, an analysis of the interaction of government structures and the ROC in the context of adaptation, cooperation and competition in the course of democratic transformations in the country was carried out. Within the framework of the modernization approach J. Haber formulates the fundamental thesis on the increasing role of religion in a secular (modernizing) society and its strengthening in the national state. Analysis. It is noted that in the 1990s the leading direction of interaction between the state and the ROC was exclusively the political sphere, which was associated with the democratization of public life, the involvement of the clergy in political modernization. At the beginning of the 21st century the state proclaimed a course towards depoliticizing the institution of religion. The activities of political religious parties were prohibited. Subsequently, the ruling United Russia party began to focus on mutually beneficial partnership with the ROC, priority was given to the patriotic education of young people. The result of joint activities of the Main Military-Political Directorate of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation and the ROC was the formation of a new type of soldier, a bearer of spiritual and moral values, a statesman, defender of the Fatherland. The ROC, as the dominant religious figure in the public space, actively participates in the domestic and foreign policy of the country, challenging other confessional structures. The highest officials of the state and the church share the common values of conservatism, but at the same time, each of them defends its own interests, which initiates the limitation of their mutual support. Results. The state power, together with the ROC, solves internal political problems, including the formation of spiritual, moral, patriotic constants in modern Russian society. In the context of the sanctions policy, the activity of the ROC as a conductor of the “soft power” of the state contributes to the improvement of the countrys image. The result of the interaction of state and religious structures is the formation of a new ideological paradigm based on the principles of religious ethics, conservative values, as well as national identity, patriotism