page_title: Patriarch Kirill of Moscow
section_title: Dust of the patriarch flat
hierarchical_section_title: Patriarch Kirill of Moscow / Public controversies / Dust of the patriarch flat
caption_attribution_description: English: Patriarch Kirill and Svetlana Medvedeva at the ceremony of consecration of the new church in Sestroreck
context_page_description: Kirill or Cyril is a Russian Orthodox bishop. He became Patriarch of Moscow and all Rus' and Primate of the Russian Orthodox Church on 1 February 2009.
  Prior to becoming Patriarch, Kirill was Archbishop of Smolensk and Kaliningrad beginning on 26 December 1984, and also Chairman of the Russian Orthodox Church's Department for External Church Relations and a permanent member of the Holy Synod beginning in 1989.
  In cultural and social affairs the Church under Kirill has collaborated closely with the Russian state under President Vladimir Putin. Patriarch Kirill has backed the expansion of Russian power into Crimea and eastern Ukraine. During the Ukrainian Orthodox Church autocephaly controversy, Patriarch Kirill was the presiding chairman of the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church when the decision was made to break Eucharistic communion with the Ecumenical Patriarchate on 15 October 2018.
context_section_description: In March 2012, the former Russian Health Minister (1999–2004) Yury Shevchenko, pursuant to a court ruling, paid about 20 million rubles ($676,000) in compensation for the dust resultant from the renovation work that had settled in a flat upstairs in the prestigious House on the Embankment privately owned by Patriarch Kirill and occupied by the Patriarch's long-time friend businesswoman Lidia Leonova. According to the media reports, the former minister is personally acquainted with the then RF prime-minister Vladimir Putin.
  "I sold my apartment in St. Petersburg, and we paid the required sum", said Shevchenko's son, also Yury, in early April 2012.
  According to the lawsuit, renovation works in Shevchenko's apartment stirred up a lot of dust, which settled on a collection of valuable books owned by Kirill. The Patriarch confirmed his ownership of the dusty apartment in a private conversation with journalist Vladimir Solovyov.
  Most of the reports in the media tended to be critical of Patriarch Kirill and laughing at the claims that the dust was harmful, saying that it was just sand and it would have been far more efficient to just hire a maid to vacuum it up. The Patriarch himself then said he thought it to be inappropriate to forgive Shevchenko.
caption: Patriarch Kirill and Svetlana Medvedeva at the church ceremony in Sestroretsk
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