Let me give you a few facts from it.

This is Gundyaev’s dacha in the village of Divnomorskoye

This is a fence around a dacha with menacing steel “horns” and bars through which electric current is run.

This is a pedestrian road in the Dzhankhotsky botanical reserve - once the main attraction of the Divnomorskoye resort. It was built more than a century ago by Fyodor Shcherbina, an outstanding Russian scientist, public figure and historian of the Kuban Cossacks. Now she is unavailable.

Now vacationers are forced to travel along the highway, at a loss for life, because the pedestrian road in the pine forest and the coastal path were usurped by Gundyai, blocking them with electrified barbed wire. The highway was nicknamed "the road of death."

A few eloquent quotes from the article:

Since the windows and balconies of one of the buildings of the Golubaya Dal sanatorium of the Ministry of Atomic Energy of the Russian Federation look at the patriarchal palace, the patriarch demanded that all local vacationers be resettled during his visits to Divnomorskoye. Of course, the administration is not notified about the timing of visits, so the emergency shaking of holidaymakers from their legitimate rooms, at any time of the day or night, has become the norm.

But His Holiness dealt the heaviest blow to the gut to local merchants and landlords - that is, almost 90 percent of the village’s population. The economy here is seasonal, focused exclusively on vacationers. Divnomorsk residents live off the money they earn from renting out housing and selling resort goods.
The amount of money in their pockets is directly proportional to the number of holidaymakers who visited the village. And it’s with the holidaymakers that things are getting worse and worse. The reason is clear: the main tourist highlight of Divnomorskoye has always been the Dzhankhotsky botanical reserve with an area of 450 hectares and the road passing through it. This is where the patriarchal fence “cut down”, cutting off the village from its main attraction.

It also turned out that His Holiness cannot stand the music that is played in local coastal cafes. A sure sign of the patriarch’s arrival in Divnomorskoye, in addition to cordoning off the cemetery and nearby roads, is the police and the village administration visiting all entertainment establishments with the demand “Turn off the music!” Their owners are indignant: business is suffering, income is falling.

But this is not the most monstrous thing. After Gundyai built himself a palace on the territory of the reserve, the life of the local residents became truly hellish.

During the patriarch's visits, patrol boats tightly block the water area adjacent to the village. They make no exceptions for fishing schooners and boats. The fishermen stand idle for weeks and pray to the Lord only to send His Holiness to Moscow as soon as possible.

These prayers became even more desperate after an incident in August, when security guards forbade fishermen to remove nets that had been thrown into the sea before the patriarch’s arrival. After a couple of weeks of “patriarchal bathing,” the nets were removed; they were filled with dead fish.

It turned out, for example, that His Holiness, having powerfully wedged his residence between a residential area and the village cemetery, does not tolerate even the slightest reminder of this mournful place. In particular, he is extremely irritated by funerals, accompanied by music and lamentations of grief-stricken relatives. Therefore, for the entire duration of the patriarch’s stay in Divnomorskoye, a police cordon is set up in front of the cemetery, preventing funeral processions from entering there. There have already been cases when people returned to memorial tables with the deceased.

What is happening, of course, greatly hits the nerves of the Divnomor residents, especially the veterans. Not only did the patriarch deprive them of the opportunity to walk to the cemetery and visit the graves of loved ones when they needed it. Now they are anxiously thinking: at what attempt will they be buried in their native land - the first, second or third?

On August 29, 2012, on a highway near the resort village of Divnomorskoye (in the Gelendzhik region of the Krasnodar Territory), a fifth-year student at Don State University, Vitaly Savinykh, was hit by a car.

He was returning home from the village cemetery, where he visited his mother’s grave. In a state of traumatic shock, the victim was taken to intensive care, where he fell into a coma. He was saved by a miracle. Vitaly's diagnosis: multiple fractures of the pelvic and chest bones, a fractured scapula, brain contusion, extensive lacerations of the face and back of the head, multiple bruises of internal organs.

Golden hectares for respectable gentlemen

Just two years ago, no one walked along this highway. Firstly, it is far from the sea. Secondly, it is very narrow, winding, without sidewalks, and also extremely busy - during the holiday season, cars rush here one after another.

Well, and thirdly, why risk your life if there is a wonderful pedestrian road right along the coast, along which the local cemetery and everyone’s favorite Dzhankhot relict forest are only five hundred meters away?

The road, by the way, is famous: it was built more than a century ago by Fyodor Shcherbina, an outstanding Russian scientist, public figure and historian of the Kuban Cossacks. It was he who founded the neighboring village of Dzhanhot and had a dacha here. After the revolution of 1917, he left Russia, but his path faithfully served the people. More than a million vacationers annually passed along its picturesque serpentine in the shade of centuries-old Pitsunda pines; it was included in the list of the best tourist routes of the USSR. They took care of the road and were proud of it. No one could even imagine that it could be blocked and appropriated.

What seemed wild in Soviet times has become commonplace today. In 2005, the mayor of Gelendzhik Ozerov S.P. (later - State Duma deputy from
"United Russia") leased 1.2 hectares of the resort shore for 49 years
the village of Divnomorskoye along with the initial section of the Divnomorskoye-Dzhankhot road.

At the same time, for some reason, the lease agreement did not contain the obligatory encumbrance in such cases (Article 23 of the Land Code of the Russian Federation) in the form of the right of passage through the site for the population and vacationers (i.e., the right of public easement).

Formally, the tenant was a certain V.A. Semenov, but the true owner of the truly “golden hectare” was her husband V.Yu. Semenov. – owner of the transport company “OCHAKOVO-AVTO”.

He immediately fenced off the public road and shoreline and began to blow them up (!), clearing the place. Soon the Sea Club VIP hotel with a park, a swimming pool and a private pier rose above the sea (see http://seaclubvip.ru/) From now on, anyone who wanted to go to the forest or to the cemetery had to make a kilometer-long detour around the Semyonovsky VIP -enterprises. The mayor's office of Gelendzhik, of course, did not see or hear the lawlessness taking place “point-blank.”

But these were “flowers”. The “berries” ripened in the fall of 2010, when the Patriarch of All Rus' Kirill completed his summer residence in Divnomorskoye, whose powerful fence, reminiscent of a fortress wall, became a direct continuation
fence of Mr. Semenov, according to our information, a long-time patriarchal acquaintance,
who sponsored half the construction of his Wonderful Sea Palace.

Kirill’s residence, which occupied the entire territory from the sea to the highway, not only “gnawed off” half a kilometer of public shoreline and road, but also blocked people’s last opportunity for safe access to the forest and cemetery. Now they had to make a detour not a kilometer long, but three kilometers (!), one of which was along the highway.

By the way, initially, i.e. in 2004, a relatively modest 1.8 hectares were allocated for the patriarchal residence, on which the construction of a compact country house was planned. There was no talk of blocking the bank or pedestrian road at that time (for details, see here: “How the construction of the patriarch’s residence began near Gelendzhik” http://echo.msk.ru/blog/andrey_rudomakha/970108-echo/#comments)

However, under Patriarch Kirill, who replaced Alexy II, who died in 2008, the area of the residence increased 10 times (!), and 12.7 hectares of the State Forest Fund, covered with relict Pitsunda pine, were transferred for development, felling and complete fencing of the church, which should be built up, cut down or The law prohibits fencing IN PRINCIPLE.

The current head of Gelendzhik is V.A. Khrestin. I also didn’t see these lawlessnesses “point-blank.” Moreover: in response to citizens’ appeals regarding the blocking of the most popular resort road, the city administration mockingly replied that “the old pedestrian road to Dzhanhot had lost its significance as an object of transport infrastructure” and recommended that vacationers use
For transportation it is the highway(!).

Then the people decided to turn to the patriarch. They believed that in Divnomorskoye the so-called “excess of execution” - or, to put it simply, the servile desire of individual officials to please His Holiness at any cost, including in violation of the law. At the beginning of December 2010, the appeal was transmitted (see Open letter to Patriarch Kirill on the website of the Open Coast public movement http://openbereg.ru/?p=204). Almost two months have passed, but no response
it never came. His Holiness considered the problem insignificant.

No law, no conscience

On February 5, 2011, the public movement “Open Shore” began the all-Russian action “Modernization of Conscience,” the goal of which was to encourage the church to voluntarily unblock the public shore it had seized. Hundreds of citizens turned to Patriarch Kirill and other famous figures of the Russian Orthodox Church demanding that they comply with moral and legal laws. Such correspondence, in particular, was conducted on the website of the Public Chamber of the Russian Federation with V. Chaplin, chairman of the Department for Interaction between Church and Society of the Moscow Patriarchate.

However, the society did not receive anything other than vague phrases like “perhaps it is worth making it safe to pass along the highway or next to the highway” or “let’s hope that the problem will be resolved” (see Ward duty officer V. Chaplin dated 03/09/11. http://www.oprf.ru/discussion/addquestion/122/?answer=&offset=3).

In April 2011, it became clear that the conscience of the hierarchs of the Russian Orthodox Church cannot be modernized. But to the concrete fences that fenced off the public bank and road, video cameras and security guards with the manners of special forces were quickly added. Looking at these patriarchal “innovations,” people realized that the time had come to ask for protection from the state (See “The Conscience of the Patriarch: There was nothing to modernize” http://openbereg.ru/?p=1033).

At the beginning of May 2011, they turned to the guarantor of their constitutional rights -
To the President of the Russian Federation D.A. Medvedev From the presidential office their appeals were
redirected to the prosecutor's office and Rosprirodnadzor. Already in June his employees
we went to Divnomorskoye and confirmed the fact of blocking the coastline with fences of the Russian Orthodox Church (see “The Church is breaking the law. And this is officially recognized” http://openbereg.ru/?p=1476). Based on the results of the on-site inspection, the Office of Rosprirodnadzor for the Krasnodar Territory and Adygea was instructed to eliminate the identified violations.

Well, then - silence. The regional Directorate of Rosprirodnadzor simply ignored this order, i.e. They did not go to the site and did not eliminate the violations. This, in fact, was the end of the story of citizens’ appeal to the President of the Russian Federation. But another holiday season has begun in Divnomorskoye. Tens of thousands of vacationers arrived here and went for a walk in their favorite pine forest. And, of course, we came across a brand new concrete wall from the patriarch, bristling with steel peaks.

Someone, cursing the secular and spiritual authorities, went to look for another place for walks. Someone tried to take a detour along the highway, risking their lives. Lines of vacationers walking with children along a highway overloaded with traffic quickly became a sad “attraction” of the Divnomorskoye resort.

“Holy place” behind a concrete fence

In March 2011, responding to citizens on the website of the Public Chamber of the Russian Federation about the situation in Divnomorskoye, Archpriest V. Chaplin recommended that they “behave with dignity in a place that will become holy.” He, of course, named the new residence of the Russian Orthodox Church in the Gelendzhik region as the future “holy place” (see http://www.oprf.ru/discussion/addquestion/122/?answer=&offset=3).

Mr. Chaplin is not an idiot. It is unlikely that he believes that any place where Patriarch Kirill sets foot automatically acquires holiness. Rather, he meant something else. Namely, that great godly deeds constantly performed within the walls of the patriarchal residence will, over time, necessarily shed grace both on the above-mentioned object itself and on the “wild” space surrounding it.

We are forced to state that over the past two years, no godly deeds - great or small - have been noted here. Never carried out
here are the “spiritual and cultural” promised by the Patriarchate back in February 2010
events such as “educational work with children and youth, meetings with the public and creative intelligentsia.” The temple did not work, there were no services for parishioners. But in the role of an island of earthly paradise, designed for a single VIP person, the facility functioned extremely intensively.

It is said that His Holiness greatly values his new Black Sea residence. Happens here more and more often and longer. He enjoys walking along the paths among the Pitsunda pines and breathing in the healing sea air for a long time in the rotunda gazebo installed above a high cliff.

In the evenings, he goes down to the pier they share with their neighbor Semyonov and sails to
the sea on a snow-white yacht, where you swim and admire the sunset.

In general, he leads the typical life of a Russian oligarch or a high-ranking civil servant on vacation, whose affiliation with the clergy is reminded only by the cross above his luxurious palazzo.

Residents of Divnomorskoe, by the way, treat him this way: as a powerful government official, and one whose neighborhood only brings trouble. For them, the patriarch is now akin to the former Minister of Defense of the Russian Federation A.E. Serdyukov (by the way, the holder of the Church Order of the Holy Blessed Prince Daniel of Moscow), who last summer brought the peaceful and calm residents of Divnomor to a riot.

The thing is that Mr. Serdyukov, while still a minister, “had his eye” on the best sanatorium in the village, “Divnomorskoe,” owned by the Ministry of Defense. Well, he probably decided to steal it according to the tried-and-true scheme: first, completely modernize it for budget money, and then declare it a “non-core asset” and sell it to himself at a bargain price through all sorts of dummy closed joint stock companies. The minister personally supervised the modernization of the sanatorium. The employees of Divnomorskoe will never forget how Mr. Serdyukov, being in considerable
drunk, wandered around the huge sanatorium park and growled at everyone he met: “Everything here is m-mine! I’m f-firing everyone!” One of the main points of “modernization” in Serdyukov’s style was the seizure and fencing of public embankments and beaches adjacent to the sanatorium.

When this happened, the village residents rebelled. They simply had no other choice: after all, the embankment and beaches are the heart of the resort, a guarantee of income. Last July, over five hundred Divnomorsk residents took part in a rally against Serdyukov’s fences. The authorities panicked: riot police were called to the village, and the coast was opened to avoid clashes. Immediately after the resignation of the scandalous minister, there were public festivities in Divnomorskoye with music and fireworks.

So: during Patriarch Kirill’s visits to this cozy resort corner, he, like former minister Serdyukov, managed to alienate almost all of its inhabitants.

Local fishermen also do not have good feelings towards His Holiness. During the patriarch's visits, patrol boats tightly block the water area adjacent to the village. They make no exceptions for fishing schooners and boats. The fishermen stand idle for weeks and pray to the Lord only to send His Holiness to Moscow as soon as possible.

They say that His Holiness turned out to be an extremely difficult neighbor for the workers
the nearest sanatorium "Blue Dal" of the Ministry of Atomic Energy of the Russian Federation to his residence. Since the windows and balconies of one of the sanatorium buildings look at the patriarchal palace, the patriarch demanded that all local vacationers be resettled during his visits to Divnomorskoye. Of course, the administration is not notified about the timing of visits, so the emergency shaking of holidaymakers from their legitimate rooms, at any time of the day or night, has become the norm. The result is scandals, losses and a blow to the reputation of the sanatorium, which until recently was impeccable.

The amount of money in their pockets is directly proportional to the number of holidaymakers who visited the village. And it’s with the holidaymakers that things are getting worse and worse. The reason is clear: the main tourist highlight of Divnomorskoye has always been the Dzhankhotsky botanical reserve with an area of 450 hectares and the road passing through it. This is where the patriarchal fence “cut down”, cutting off the village from its main attraction.

If Archpriest Chaplin now met with the Divnomor residents and asked whether they felt waves of holiness emanating from the residence of the Russian Orthodox Church, he would be extremely disappointed. People would honestly answer that they feel only waves of lies, hypocrisy and pathological dishonesty. And many would admit that among themselves they have long called the “spiritual” object on the southern outskirts of Divnomorskoye “Gundyaevka” or “Chertyaevka”, and the highway in front of it - “The Road of Death”.

However, church hierarchs do not meet with local residents. Either because he is aware of their real attitude towards himself, or simply considering it unnecessary. But they are willing to meet with local authorities. For example, with the head of Gelendzhik V.A. Khrestin, to whom His Holiness awarded the Order of Sergius of Radonezh last summer. Nominally - for “assistance in completing the construction of the Patriarchal Spiritual, Administrative and Cultural Center of the Russian Orthodox Church.” In fact, for his connivance with the lawlessness committed by the church on the territory of one of the best resorts in Russia.

Well, there is no doubt that such lawlessness will continue. Just when Mr. Khrestin was being awarded an order from the Russian Orthodox Church, the fences of the patriarchal residence suddenly became overgrown with menacing steel “horns” and bars through which electric current was run.

This became another signal from the “Mother Church” to all citizens of the country: do not expect mercy! The lawless fence will remain on the public shore. And Patriarch Kirill’s “Road of Death” will continue to reap its bloody harvest.

Palace over a cliff

It’s an amazing fact: for two years in a row, people have been unsuccessfully trying to get the country’s first Christian to show exactly those Christian qualities that he must possess to the fullest – conscientiousness, love and mercy. And in response they only come across a blank wall of lies, cruelty and deepest contempt for their own flock. And, of course, they are trying to find the root cause of what is happening.

Today the government has declared war on corruption. The most famous and authoritative politicians in Russia are arguing about how to defeat it. And they agree that the prohibitive scale of this disaster is a reflection of the general corruption of the spirit, the loss of moral values by tens of millions of people. The conclusion is this: communist ideology and its moral regulators have sunk into oblivion, and on their
place a spiritual vacuum arose, which was filled by rampant theft and
iniquity.

However, for some reason, none of those arguing remembers that back in the early 90s, a truly grandiose national project was launched in the country, designed to replace the lost Soviet ideals in our minds and hearts and create those very “spiritual bonds” that President Putin recently spoke about . Such a project was the REVIVAL of the RUSSIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH as an institution rooted in a thousand years of Russian history and, as it seemed to many then, carefully carried the values of Christian humanism through all the storms of the 20th century.

Under the impending renaissance, enormous wealth was transferred to the church, including thousands of real estate properties - buildings, premises, land, and benefits and privileges worth tens (if not hundreds!) of billions of dollars were provided. These benefits, received at the expense of the people of Russia, allowed it to become one of the wealthiest religious organizations in the world - which we see every day and at every step.

But here’s the problem: the years of the renaissance of the Russian Orthodox Church - that is, the rapid multiplication of its churches, farmsteads, monasteries and other “spiritual” infrastructure - paradoxically coincided with a “renaissance” of a completely different kind, which experts call the period of the STORY FLOWING OF THE RUSSIAN CRIME AND
CORRUPTION. And this simply means that the church FAILED to cope with its main function - to be a regulator of the moral state of society.

The Church is a living organism. In the 90s, a window of opportunity opened for her, as for the entire society. She could, for example, choose the thorny path of a defender of the gospel truths in the inhuman era of primitive accumulation. And in this case, she would have to firmly oppose the “new Russian” bandits, the thieving oligarchy, and the extremely immoral government that gave birth to them. Her life would be full of worries and worries. But this path of spirit and conscience, without a doubt, would have made her truly strong and independent, and her authority among the people well-deserved. And then the history of Russia in recent decades would probably have turned out differently.

But she chose a different path, making the usual bet on a “cordial alliance” with the bureaucracy. Remember who were her most desirable friends and clients over the past twenty years, whom she rewarded and praised the most? Officials and their business partners are often outright thieves and bandits. Remember how wide the gates of temples, monasteries and other “God’s” places swung open before them. Remember the classic scenes of sprinkling “holy water” on officials’ and bandits’ jeeps and limousines – as well as their yachts, apartments, offices, villas, etc.

Remember the no less classic slogan from Victor Pelevin’s cult novel “Generation P” - “A respectable Lord for respectable gentlemen!” – most succinctly expressed the real essence of the social strategy of the Russian Orthodox Church in the 90s. Remember the leitmotif of most interviews given by its hierarchs in the 2000s: “Give us back what the Soviet government took away, and we will be happy!” Remember, finally, how most new churches were built and continue to be built in the country: either through the most severe administrative pressure on small and medium-sized businesses, or directly at the expense of the state budget - as is, for example, what is happening now with the plans of the Moscow authorities to build in the city 200 typical temples within walking distance(!). The simple and obvious truth that true faith is not planted like potatoes does not occur to the leaders of the Russian Orthodox Church and their official patrons. Hence the eternal conflicts with townspeople protesting against the aggressive invasion of their squares and parks by “highly spiritual” colossuses made of concrete and steel.

The Church wanted to be the power - and it became the power. More precisely, an organic part of the extremely ineffective and corrupt bureaucracy of the Russian Federation. Its main function today is a vigorous imitation of the “spiritual revival of Russia” at budget expense. It has not been thinking for a long time about becoming a truly spiritual institution, truly useful to society. She has other goals and
priorities. She wants to continue to create islands of earthly paradise for herself.
in the middle of a stagnating and dying country.

And in this sense, the situation around the patriarchal residence in Divnomorskoye is not an anomaly at all, no. Unfortunately, this is the norm of behavior for our pastors, who are completely free from the opinions of their own flock. Of course, there are other people among the priests, but they do not determine the current face of the Russian Orthodox Church. A typical portrait of a successful “father” is a symbiosis of an official and a businessman, strictly building his business on the use of administrative connections and levers. Such tenacious “priests,” popularly called “priests,” somehow suddenly sprout mansions on the best public lands and “roads of death” appear in front of their blind fences or under the wheels of their luxury foreign cars. Suffice it to recall the recent sensational case of Hieromonk Pavel Semin, who killed two people in Moscow in his Mercedes-Gelendvagen and disabled a third, and then cowardly fled from the scene of the tragedy. As it turned out, the 26-year-old “humble monk,” a petty clerk at the Patriarchate Administrative Office, owned a whole fleet of exclusive cars with “thieves’” license plates, plus several luxury apartments.

And how many such “humble” monks and priests are now traveling around Russia,
warmed by authorities at different levels and confident in their “sacred” right to
a special, exclusive life? What kind of spirituality can we talk about here, what kind of Christian attitude towards the world and people?! So now, instead of the church, we have another “department for spiritual affairs,” and instead of a moral example for the nation, we have bureaucratic window dressing, cynicism and shameless luxury, elevated to a virtue.

Doesn't history teach us anything? After all, the church had a similar experience of “symphony” with the authorities - and it ended in tears. In October 1917, the Russian Empire collapsed. One of its pillars was the Russian Orthodox Church with 80 thousand churches and almost 117 million parishioners. Just like today, she sang hosannas to the authorities in exchange for a generous allowance and a comfortable life, and assured them of people’s love and support. And when she, under the weight of mistakes and crimes, crumbled into
ashes, it suddenly became clear that there was no moral force in the country capable of
to stop people at the cliff of mutual hatred and fratricide. The whole millennium
Church power, all its authority and greatness, which seemed indestructible, “faded” in a second, and millions of “respectable” parishioners turned into the most furious persecutors of their own shepherds and destroyers of their own churches. The country paid a terrible price for centuries of profanation of spirit and faith.

Do you know the last time the head of the Russian Orthodox Church personally spoke out in defense of the lives and dignity of our compatriots? In August 1698. Then the young Tsar Peter decided, in addition to the one and a half hundred archers who were hanged for supporting his disgraced sister Sophia, to execute another thousand for “ostracism.” The relatives of the condemned turned to Patriarch Adrian. He was so shocked
the sight of thousands of sobbing women, children and old men who led their march to
Preobrazhenskoe. The procession stretched for several miles, with the most
ancient and respected icons. People stood under the windows of the royal chambers and prayed,
asking for mercy. Seeing this, Peter became furious and ordered everyone to be expelled, including Adrian. The Streltsy were executed. The patriarch fell seriously ill and died. According to contemporaries, from grief that he could not protect people. Peter's lesson was firmly learned. Our subsequent primates already thought and “sympathized” with the people differently than Adrian. They found the peace of personal palaces and the contemplation of seagulls in beautiful gazebos above the sea closer. An abyss opened up between their speeches and actions.

“In the modern information environment, any news related to the Church is viewed through a magnifying glass. Any unworthy act of a person associated with the Church causes a flurry of negative publications... The Church teaches people a righteous life and we, its members, are called to be an example for non-believers and those of little faith, not only in words, but also in deeds!” These words belong to today's head of the Russian Orthodox Church. They were pronounced by him on December 28 at a diocesan meeting in the Cathedral of Christ the Savior, summing up the results of the patriarchal ministry for 2012. Interesting: did Patriarch Kirill ever address them to himself personally?

hope dies last

Recently, residents of the Divnomorskoye resort turned to activists of the OPEN COAST movement. After the incident with their fellow countryman Vitaly Savinykh, who was hit by a car near the residence of the Russian Orthodox Church, they asked for our assistance in publishing their Open Letter to Patriarch Kirill. The motives of the Divnomorsk residents are simple and understandable: “We love, honor, and respect our native Orthodox Church, but we categorically refuse to be maimed and die because of its violation of the legislation of the Russian Federation!”

The letter was signed by 973 people.

"OPEN LETTER

residents of the village of Divnomorskoye, Gelendzhik municipalityHis Holiness Patriarch of All Rus' Kirill

Hello, Your Holiness!

Most of us are Orthodox Christians. That is why we ask for your personal urgent intervention in a situation that directly threatens our lives and the lives of our children.

In the fall of 2010, a concrete fence was installed around the residence of the Russian Orthodox Church in the village of Divnomorskoye, which, following the same concrete fence of the mansion on Golubodalskaya Street, 14 (and, in fact, being its continuation), completely blocked a 500-meter section of the coastline of our village and a pedestrian road running along it.

We, Your Holiness, consider such blocking completely unacceptable.

This section of the road is located within the administrative boundaries of the village of Divnomorskoye and since the century before last it has served its population as the only convenient and safe access to the forest and to the village cemetery, that is, according to the Law (clauses 9,10,12 of Article 85 of the Land Code of the Russian Federation), it is public land of the municipality and is not subject to any alienation and blocking in principle.

At the same time, it represents part of the sea coastline of the village of Divnomorskoye, which the Law considers exclusively as a territory for the common use of all citizens of the Russian Federation and intends for their free and safe stay and movement (clauses 1, 2, 3, 6, 8, Article 6 Water Code of the Russian Federation).

Installing a fence in this place not only grossly violates the Law, but also forces residents of the village and vacationers to get to the forest and the local cemetery bypassing it, covering on foot a kilometer-long section of the Praskovey highway - very narrow, winding and without sidewalks. The intensity of car traffic here is extremely high. Pedestrians are separated from the roadway by just a few centimeters; they are constantly at risk of being run over by vehicles.

Tragic incidents have already occurred on the highway adjacent to your residence. So, on August 29 last year, Vitaly Savinykh, a student of the Don State Technical University, was hit by a car here. He was returning from the village cemetery, where he had visited his mother’s grave. In a state of traumatic shock, he was taken to intensive care, where he fell into a coma. Only the selfless actions of the doctors saved him. The young man faces a long period of treatment, after which the issue of his disability will be decided. It is obvious that similar tragedies will be repeated here in the future.

Your Holiness!

In your speeches, you constantly emphasize the importance of observing moral and legal laws and preach the highest value of every human life. However, in the situation with the blocking of the shore of the village of Divnomorskoye, these laws and principles were violated in the most rude and inhumane way.

We call on Your Holiness to restore our legitimate right to a calm and safe life in our native village. We are looking forward to You have a wise, far-sighted and merciful decision.”

A total of 67 subscription sheets.

Coordinator of the All-Russian public movement “Open
shore" Sergei MENZHERITSKY.

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Golden hectares for respectable gentlemen

Formally, the tenant was a certain V.A. Semenov, but the true owner of the truly “golden hectare” was her husband V.Yu. Semenov. – owner of the transport company “OCHAKOVO-AVTO”.

Then the people decided to turn to the patriarch. They believed that in Divnomorskoye the so-called “excess of execution” - or, to put it simply, the servile desire of individual officials to please His Holiness at any cost, including in violation of the law. At the beginning of December 2010, the appeal was transmitted (see Open letter to Patriarch Kirill on the website of the Open Coast public movement). Almost two months have passed, but no response
it never came. His Holiness considered the problem insignificant.

No law, no conscience

At the beginning of May 2011, they turned to the guarantor of their constitutional rights -
To the President of the Russian Federation D.A. Medvedev From the presidential office their appeals were
redirected to the prosecutor's office and Rosprirodnadzor. Already in June his employees
we went to Divnomorskoye and confirmed the fact of blocking the coastline with fences of the Russian Orthodox Church (see “The Church is breaking the law. And this is officially recognized”). Based on the results of the on-site inspection, the Office of Rosprirodnadzor for the Krasnodar Territory and Adygea was instructed to eliminate the identified violations.

“Holy place” behind a concrete fence

In the evenings, he goes down to the pier they share with their neighbor Semyonov and sails to
the sea on a snow-white yacht, where you swim and admire the sunset.

In general, he leads the typical life of a Russian oligarch or a high-ranking civil servant on vacation, whose affiliation with the clergy is reminded only by the cross above his luxurious palazzo.

So: during Patriarch Kirill’s visits to this cozy resort corner, he, like former minister Serdyukov, managed to alienate almost all of its inhabitants.

Palace over a cliff

hope dies last

The letter was signed by 973 people.

"OPEN LETTER

residents of the village of Divnomorskoye, Gelendzhik municipalityHis Holiness Patriarch of All Rus' Kirill

Hello, Your Holiness!

Most of us are Orthodox Christians. That is why we ask for your personal urgent intervention in a situation that directly threatens our lives and the lives of our children.

We, Your Holiness, consider such blocking completely unacceptable.

Your Holiness!

We call on Your Holiness to restore our legitimate right to a calm and safe life in our native village. We are looking forward to You have a wise, far-sighted and merciful decision.”

A total of 67 subscription sheets.

Coordinator of the All-Russian public movement “Open
shore" Sergei MENZHERITSKY.

Please support this issue on Democrat:

A lot has been written and talked about this road for many years. So what kind of road is this and what does “patriarch” Kirill have to do with it? Has anything changed since then, because there are not only numerous protests, but also victims of this inadequate situation...

First a video, then an article, photos and scanned documents.

Golden hectares for respectable gentlemen

What seemed wild in Soviet times has become commonplace today. In 2005, the mayor of Gelendzhik Ozerov S.P. (later - State Duma deputy from"United Russia") leased 1.2 hectares of the resort shore for 49 yearsthe village of Divnomorskoye along with the initial section of the Divnomorskoye-Dzhankhot road.

Formally, the tenant was a certain V.A. Semenov, but the true owner of the truly “golden hectare” was her husband V.Yu. Semenov. – owner of the transport company “OCHAKOVO-AVTO”.

But these were “flowers”. The “berries” ripened in the fall of 2010, when the Patriarch of All Rus' Kirill completed his summer residence in Divnomorskoye, whose powerful fence, reminiscent of a fortress wall, became a direct continuationfence of Mr. Semenov, according to our information, a long-time patriarchal acquaintance,who sponsored half the construction of his Wonderful Sea Palace.

Then the people decided to turn to the patriarch. They believed that in Divnomorskoye the so-called “excess of execution” - or, to put it simply, the servile desire of individual officials to please His Holiness at any cost, including in violation of the law. At the beginning of December 2010, the appeal was transmitted (see Open letter to Patriarch Kirill on the website of the Open Coast public movement http://openbereg.ru/?p=204). Almost two months have passed, but no responseit never came. His Holiness considered the problem insignificant.

No law, no conscience

At the beginning of May 2011, they turned to the guarantor of their constitutional rights -To the President of the Russian Federation D.A. Medvedev From the presidential office their appeals wereredirected to the prosecutor's office and Rosprirodnadzor. Already in June his employeeswe went to Divnomorskoye and confirmed the fact of blocking the coastline with fences of the Russian Orthodox Church (see “The Church is breaking the law. And this is officially recognized” http://openbereg.ru/?p=1476). Based on the results of the on-site inspection, the Office of Rosprirodnadzor for the Krasnodar Territory and Adygea was instructed to eliminate the identified violations.

“Holy place” behind a concrete fence

Mr. Chaplin is not an idiot. It is unlikely that he believes that any place where Patriarch Kirill sets foot automatically acquires holiness. Most likely he meant something else. Namely, that great godly deeds constantly performed within the walls of the patriarchal residence will, over time, necessarily shed grace both on the above-mentioned object itself and on the “wild” space surrounding it.

We are forced to state that over the past two years, no godly deeds - great or small - have been noted here. Never carried outhere are the “spiritual and cultural” promised by the Patriarchate back in February 2010events such as “educational work with children and youth, meetings with the public and creative intelligentsia.” The temple did not work, there were no services for parishioners. But in the role of an island of earthly paradise, designed for a single VIP person, the facility functioned extremely intensively.

They say that the patriarch greatly values his new Black Sea residence. Happens here more and more often and longer. He enjoys walking along the paths among the Pitsunda pines and breathing in the healing sea air for a long time in the rotunda gazebo installed above a high cliff.

In the evenings, he goes down to the pier they share with their neighbor Semyonov and sails tothe sea on a snow-white yacht, where you swim and admire the sunset.

In general, he leads the typical life of a Russian oligarch or a high-ranking civil servant on vacation, whose affiliation with the clergy is reminded only by the cross above his luxurious palazzo.

The thing is that Mr. Serdyukov, while still a minister, “had his eye” on the best sanatorium in the village, “Divnomorskoye,” owned by the Ministry of Defense. Well, he probably decided to steal it according to the tried-and-true scheme: first, completely modernize it for budget money, and then declare it a “non-core asset” and sell it to himself at a bargain price through all sorts of dummy closed joint stock companies. The minister personally supervised the modernization of the sanatorium. The employees of Divnomorskoe will never forget how Mr. Serdyukov, being in considerabledrunk, wandered around the huge sanatorium park and growled at everyone he met: “Everything here is m-mine! I’m f-firing everyone!” One of the main points of “modernization” in Serdyukov’s style was the seizure and fencing of public embankments and beaches adjacent to the sanatorium.

So: during Patriarch Kirill’s visits to this cozy resort corner, he, like former minister Serdyukov, managed to alienate almost all of its inhabitants.

They say that His Holiness turned out to be an extremely difficult neighbor for the workersthe nearest sanatorium "Blue Dal" of the Ministry of Atomic Energy of the Russian Federation to his residence. Since the windows and balconies of one of the sanatorium buildings look at the patriarchal palace, the patriarch demanded that all local vacationers be resettled during his visits to Divnomorskoye. Of course, the administration is not notified about the timing of visits, so the emergency shaking of holidaymakers from their legitimate rooms, at any time of the day or night, has become the norm. The result is scandals, losses and a blow to the reputation of the sanatorium, which until recently was impeccable.

Palace over a cliff

Today the government has declared war on corruption. The most famous and authoritative politicians in Russia are arguing about how to defeat it. And they agree that the prohibitive scale of this disaster is a reflection of the general corruption of the spirit, the loss of moral values by tens of millions of people. The conclusion is this: communist ideology and its moral regulators have sunk into oblivion, and on theirplace a spiritual vacuum arose, which was filled by rampant theft and iniquity.

But here’s the problem: the years of the renaissance of the Russian Orthodox Church - that is, the rapid multiplication of its churches, farmsteads, monasteries and other “spiritual” infrastructure - paradoxically coincided with a “renaissance” of a completely different kind, which experts call the period of the STORY FLOWING OF THE RUSSIAN CRIME ANDCORRUPTION. And this simply means that the church FAILED to cope with its main function - to be a regulator of the moral state of society.

The Church wanted to be the power - and it became the power. More precisely, an organic part of the extremely ineffective and corrupt bureaucracy of the Russian Federation. Its main function today is a vigorous imitation of the “spiritual revival of Russia” at budget expense. It has not been thinking for a long time about becoming a truly spiritual institution, truly useful to society. She has other goals andpriorities. She wants to continue to create islands of earthly paradise for herself.in the middle of a stagnating and dying country.

And how many such “humble” monks and priests are now traveling around Russia,warmed by authorities at different levels and confident in their “sacred” right toa special, exclusive life? What kind of spirituality can we talk about here, what kind of Christian attitude towards the world and people?! So now, instead of the church, we have another “department for spiritual affairs,” and instead of a moral example for the nation, we have bureaucratic window dressing, cynicism and shameless luxury, elevated to a virtue.

Doesn't history teach us anything? After all, the church had a similar experience of “symphony” with the authorities - and it ended in tears. In October 1917, the Russian Empire collapsed. One of its pillars was the Russian Orthodox Church with 80 thousand churches and almost 117 million parishioners. Just like today, she sang hosannas to the authorities in exchange for a generous allowance and a comfortable life, and assured them of people’s love and support. And when she, under the weight of mistakes and crimes, crumbled intoashes, it suddenly became clear that there was no moral force in the country capable ofto stop people at the cliff of mutual hatred and fratricide. The whole millenniumChurch power, all its authority and greatness, which seemed indestructible, “faded” in a second, and millions of “respectable” parishioners turned into the most furious persecutors of their own shepherds and destroyers of their own churches. The country paid a terrible price for centuries of profanation of spirit and faith.

Do you know the last time the head of the Russian Orthodox Church personally spoke out in defense of the lives and dignity of our compatriots? In August 1698. Then the young Tsar Peter decided, in addition to the one and a half hundred archers who were hanged for supporting his disgraced sister Sophia, to execute another thousand for “ostracism.” The relatives of the condemned turned to Patriarch Adrian. He was so shocked by the sight of thousands of sobbing women, children and old people that he led their march to Preobrazhenskoye. The procession stretched for several miles, with the most ancient and beloved icons carried in front. People stood under the windows of the royal chambers and prayed, asking for mercy. Seeing this, Peter became furious and ordered everyone to be expelled, including Adrian. The Streltsy were executed. The patriarch fell seriously ill and died. According to contemporaries, from grief that he could not protect people. Peter's lesson was firmly learned. Our subsequent primates already thought and “sympathized” with the people differently than Adrian. They found the peace of personal palaces and the contemplation of seagulls in beautiful gazebos above the sea closer. An abyss opened up between their speeches and actions.

hope dies last

The letter was signed by 973 people.

"OPEN LETTER

residents of the village of Divnomorskoye, Gelendzhik municipalityTo His Holiness Patriarch of All Rus' Kirill:

Hello, Your Holiness!

Most of us are Orthodox Christians. That is why we ask for your personal urgent intervention in a situation that directly threatens our lives and the lives of our children.

We, Your Holiness, consider such blocking completely unacceptable.

Your Holiness!

We call on Your Holiness to restore our legitimate right to a calm and safe life in our native village. We are looking forward to You have a wise, far-sighted and merciful decision.”

A total of 67 subscription sheets.

Coordinator of the All-Russian public movement “Open shore"

Sergey MENZHERITSKY

Please support this issue on Democrat:

Golden hectares for respectable gentlemen

Formally, the tenant was a certain V.A. Semenov, but the true owner of the truly “golden hectare” was her husband V.Yu. Semenov. – owner of the transport company “OCHAKOVO-AVTO”.

By the way, initially, i.e. in 2004, a relatively modest 1.8 hectares were allocated for the patriarchal residence, on which the construction of a compact country house was planned. There was no talk of blocking the shore or the pedestrian road at that time (for details, see here: “How the construction of the patriarch’s residence began near Gelendzhik” http://echo.msk.ru/blog/andrey_rudomakha/970108-echo/#comments

No law, no conscience

“Holy place” behind a concrete fence

In the evenings, he goes down to the pier they share with their neighbor Semyonov and sails to
the sea on a snow-white yacht, where you swim and admire the sunset.

In general, he leads the typical life of a Russian oligarch or a high-ranking civil servant on vacation, whose affiliation with the clergy is reminded only by the cross above his luxurious palazzo.

So: during Patriarch Kirill’s visits to this cozy resort corner, he, like former minister Serdyukov, managed to alienate almost all of its inhabitants.

Palace over a cliff

hope dies last

The letter was signed by 973 people.

"OPEN LETTER

residents of the village of Divnomorskoye of the municipal formation of Gelendzhik to His Holiness Patriarch of All Rus' Kirill

Hello, Your Holiness!

Most of us are Orthodox Christians. That is why we ask for your personal urgent intervention in a situation that directly threatens our lives and the lives of our children.

We, Your Holiness, consider such blocking completely unacceptable.

This section of the road is located within the administrative boundaries of the village of Divnomorskoye and since the century before last it has served its population as the only convenient and safe access to the forest and to the village cemetery, that is, according to the Law (clauses 9,10,12 of Article 85 of the Land Code of the Russian Federation), it is land of public use of the municipality and is not subject to any alienation or partitioning in principle.

Your Holiness!

We call on Your Holiness to restore our legitimate right to a calm and safe life in our native village. We look forward to a wise, far-sighted and merciful decision from you.”

A total of 67 subscription sheets.

Coordinator of the All-Russian public movement “Open Coast”

Sergei MENZHERITSKY.

“The place of our last home should be here!

Spa complexes and baths in Krasnaya Polyana