The particularly principled churchgoers who worship at the Life-giving Trinity on Sparrow Hills do not want to pray to the Russian government. They are plunged into embarrassment by the portraits of Vladimir Putin and Yuri Luzhkov that hang in the cathedral's entrance hall just beneath those of the three Patriarchs of All Russia.
As MK learnt, they hang in an entrance hall that has been decorated as an idiosyncratic wall of glory. Six portraits in gold frames hang to the left of the entrance. The three Patriarchs are depicted in the upper row, with Yuri Luzhkov, Vladimir Putin, and Mikhail Kutuzov in the lower.
Indeed, if it is not the portraits of the great military commander and representatives of the Russian Orthodox Church that embarrass the faithful who have come to worship, then it must be the portraits of the Prime Minister and the Mayor that elicit those bewildered looks. Some visitors have even left the church in outrage. These portraits are popularly nicknamed the iconostasis of the new saints.
As the Moscow Patriarchate's Press Service explained to MK, it is not customary to hang portraits of political figures in a church. That is permitted in the office of the abbot if a state figure in question is for some reason particularly liked by the leadership of the church. However, there are several churches across Russia where one can nonetheless see photographs of bureaucrats who have been involved in restoration work on that particular house of God.
However, the state figures whose portraits hang in the church on Sparrow Hills have a direct link to this church. Kutuzov prayed here in 1812 on the eve of the military council in Fili, and Mr Putin visited it several times before being appointed President.