Union of Orthodox Banner-Bearers
The Union of Orthodox Banner-Bearers is a Russian nationalist-fundamentalist organization that identifies itself as part of the Russian Orthodox Church, though the church has implicitly repudiated that claim. It was co-founded in 1993 by Leonid Simonovich. The Union's stated primary aim is to "resurrect the spirit" of Russian Orthodoxy, by conducting processions with banners and icons in Moscow and other regions.
The group became famous for its use and promulgation of the phrase "Orthodoxy or Death," and its association with violent skinhead reactionaries. In 2009 the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Kirill, denounced this slogan and said to "beware" those who used it, calling it "dangerous, false and intrinsically contradictory": A Moscow court later agreed in a decision denouncing the phrase as "extremist."
