Theologian Andrei Kuraev reported on emigration to Prague – Kommersant

Theologian Andrei Kuraev said that he had decided to emigrate to the capital of the Czech Republic, Prague. The former archdeacon explained this decision by the fact that in Europe he could still hold public meetings and give lectures, and called his departure “labor migration.”

“And yet – departure. A year and a half of thought and hesitation passed. In the end, I decided not to be like the hero of the joke who died after refusing to board a rescue helicopter three times. If the Provider gives an opportunity that is desired by many and inaccessible to many, it is worth accepting it,” Andrey Kuraev wrote in Telegram channel.

According to the theologian, his “Moscow world was destroyed.” “To some extent, the pain of lonely old age can be mitigated by immersion in the atmosphere of a happy Prague childhood and the understanding that here my parents spent the happiest years of their lives,” said Andrei Kuraev. He expressed the hope that his “labor migration” will be “seasonal.”

Andrey Kuraev was deprived the rank of protodeacon of the Moscow diocese by decision of Patriarch Kirill. The decision of the diocesan court on defrocking was approved back in 2021, but there was a moratorium on it, which was lifted by the patriarch in the spring of 2023. In August 2022, Andrei Kuraev was fined under the article of discrediting the army. The archdeacon promised to “take the path of correction” because he did not want to leave Russia.

Anastasia Larina