Patriarch Kirill is a genuinely ruthless figure in the harsh world of Soviet politics. A former KGB agent and now a close associate of Vladimir Putin, he has called his leader “a god.” He has been widely condemned for spreading Stalinism and atheism to the Ukraine in a cruel bid to expand his empire. Evidence unearthed in Soviet archives has revealed that the Russian Orthodox Church has long been infiltrated and managed by the KGB as a tool of population control. This is one of the many reasons that the CIA has kept a very close watch on the secretive kingpin Kirill for decades.