Rusnano will help the ROC to modernize its production structure Sofrino - a plant for church utensils, according to one of the reports on the ROC website. What portfolio technologies Rusnano will help the church, the parties do not disclose.

The new caretaker of the Russian Orthodox Church - Krasnodarets from Valaam - recorded music

A working meeting with unnamed representatives of Rusnano took place this summer. The church was represented by the head of the financial and economic administration of the Moscow Patriarchate, Archimandrite Elijah (Ivan Rudnev). Little is known about him. Rudnev recently became a top church functionary: from April to August 2021, he headed a number of important structures of the Russian Orthodox Church: the financial and economic administration of the Church, the Sofrino enterprise, two foundations and a temple in Khoroshevo. He is 46 years old, was born into a church family, until recently he worked as an assistant to the governor of the Valaam monastery, where he was also the head of the Ilyinsky skete.

Around the 90s, Ivan Rudnev decided to leave for a monastery on Valaam. There, as follows from open sources, as a novice, Ioann Rudnev (that is, before the adoption of the monastic name Elijah) recorded church liturgies and hymns with Hierodeacon German. The future caretaker of the Russian Orthodox Church sang, and his recordings were released by Igor Matvienko's Producer Center LLC. The studio with a reverb, a compressor and a digital tape recorder was located in one of the hermitages of the monastery.

"A whole series of special projects" - possibly Chemezov's initiative
The report on the meeting of the clerics with Rusnano (who exactly represented the state corporation is unknown) turned out to be dry, but intriguing. It identified some specific special projects: “The meeting was devoted to the issues of building the process of effective interaction between the financial and economic management, Sofrino and Rusnano” ... traditional production of products of church and applied art. Following the meeting, the parties agreed to develop fruitful cooperation on a number of special projects.

It was not possible to find out the details: neither Rusnano nor the press service of the Russian Orthodox Church answered Octagon's questions.

In December 2020, after the resignation of Anatoly Chubais, the former first deputy chairman of the board of the Military-Industrial Commission of the Russian Federation, a native of Rostec, Sergei Kulikov, became the new head of the board of Rusnano. He began his career at Rosoboronexport, where he was invited by the current general director of Rostec, Sergei Chemezov. Chemezov has long supported the Russian Orthodox Church. In particular, for his help in organizing celebrations in honor of the 700th anniversary of St. Sergius of Radonezh, Patriarch Kirill in 2014 awarded him with the Church Order of St. Sergius of Radonezh, I degree. The head of Rostec also has other awards of the Russian Orthodox Church: the Order of the Monk Seraphim of Sarov II degree, the Holy Blessed Grand Duke Demetrius of the Donskoy II degree and the Holy Blessed Prince Daniel of Moscow II degree.

We add that Rusnano kept accounts in the Peresvet bank, the shares of which were held by the Russian Orthodox Church. In 2016, the Central Bank appointed an interim administration after the discovery of a capital hole in the amount of 103.6 billion rubles. In February 2016, it became known about the lawsuit of Fonds Rusnano Capital S.A. (Luxembourg) to Peresvet on the alleged illegal transfer of $ 90 million.

The Russian Orthodox Church lags behind the state trend for digitalization-innovation

There were complaints about the products of the Sofrino plant. In December 2020, Patriarch Kirill acknowledged the problems at the enterprise, but noted that "a lot of work is being done to improve the quality of the products" of the plant, in particular, candles. At the same time, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church emphasized that supporting Sofrino is a “moral duty”, a “common cause” of the clergy, since the proceeds from the sale of Sofrino candles help finance the programs of the Russian Orthodox Church.

How exactly can Rusnano help the production business unit of the Russian Orthodox Church? Yuri Ammosov, a lecturer at the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, ex-adviser to the head of the analytical center under the Government of the Russian Federation, notes that it is rather difficult to guess the answer to this question:

“Maybe coatings, maybe production technologies like 3D printing, or maybe it was an image meeting,” he says.

"The Church as a part of modern society needs technology."

Artyom Oganov | scientist-chemist-crystallographer, professor of the Russian Academy of Sciences and the Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology

Scientist-chemist-crystallographer, professor of the Russian Academy of Sciences and the Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology Artyom Oganov offhand assessed which technologies of the Rusnano portfolio companies could be useful to the Russian Orthodox Church: these are manufacturers of wind turbines, glass, lighting systems, thermal insulation, and biofuels.

“All this is for the construction, repair and power supply of churches, in particular, in remote areas,” explains Oganov. “That is, in hard-to-reach areas, churches could become a source of energy and, in fact, an ambassador for high technologies. For the production of Sofrino (utensils, candles, furniture, icons), a company that produces containers would be suitable in the list, ”Oganov added.