Survey: Majority of Estonians want MPEÕK to cut ties with Moscow
The majority of Estonians polled in a Kantar Emor survey believe that the current Estonian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate (MPEÕK) should sever all ties with the Orthodox Church in Russia, which has supported Russia's war of aggression in Ukraine. At the same time, 41 percent of people surveyed who were of non-Estonian ethnicity responded that they do not agree with cutting ties.
At the request of ERR, pollster Kantar Emor asked: "Should the current Estonian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate sever all ties with the Russian Orthodox Church/Moscow Patriarchate, which has supported Russia's war of aggression in Ukraine?"
A total of 59 percent of respondents to the survey said they supported the idea of cutting ties (41.6 percent responded "yes definitely" and 16.9 percent said "rather yes").
Meanwhile, 19 percent were opposed to cutting off ties (12.8 percent responded "definitely not" and 6.6 percent "rather not").
The remaining 22 percent were unable to say.
Differences by nationality of respondent
Ethnic Estonian respondents are even more likely than average to want to sever ties with the Moscow Patriarchate – 75 percent answered "yes definitely" or "rather yes".
Eight percent of ethnic Estonian respondents were against cutting ties and the rest (17 percent) could not state their position.
Among respondents of other nationalities, 25 percent were in favor of cutting ties with the Moscow Patriarchate and 41 percent were against. The remaining 34 percent said they could not state their position.
Kantar Emor conducted the poll on behalf of ERR between October 10-16 and 1,690 Estonians aged 16+ answered the survey.
A month earlier, in September, another poll conducted by Turu-uuringute AS surveyed 1,258 people on behalf of the Government Office, asking essentially the same question, though worded slightly differently.
Respondents were presented with the argument that "the disassociation of the Estonian Orthodox Church from the Moscow Patriarchate is justified because of the latter's support for Russia's military action in Ukraine".
Sixty percent of those polled agreed with that statement (45 percent answered "strongly agree" and 15 percent "rather agree".
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Editor: Urmet Kook, Michael Cole