MOSCOW, January 22 (RIA Novosti) - Russians identify
Metropolitan Kirill, the interim leader of the Russian Orthodox
Church, is the most likely candidate to become the next
patriarch, the Russian VTsIOM pollster said on Thursday.
Patriarch Alexy II, who led the revival of Orthodoxy in
the country after the demise of communism, died of heart
failure at the age of 79 in December 2008. Kirill, Metropolitan
of Smolensk and Kaliningrad, was chosen by the Holy Synod as
interim patriarch until a larger ruling body gathers on January
27-29 to elect Alexy II's successor.
According to the VTsIOM survey, 28% of Russians expect
Kirill, 62, to be chosen as the new patriarch. However, 71% of
those surveyed failed to make any prediction, including 69% of
the respondents who could not name any member of the Russian
Orthodox Church hierarchy.
Half the respondents said they would like the next
patriarch to be a spiritual leader and a mentor to the Russian
nation. The opinion was most often voiced by elderly
respondents (52%) and Orthodox believers (57%).
Another 8% of those surveyed view a patriarch as a
prominent statesman, and a member of the country's top
authorities.
The pollster said 14% of the respondents would favor an
intelligent and educated patriarch, and another 12% said they
would like the candidate to be kind and sympathetic.
The VTsIOM conducted the poll on January 10-11 among 1,600
people in 140 towns across 42 Russian regions.
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