At the end of June 2012, the next award of the Silver Galosh was held in Moscow. This is one of the most scandalous Russian events. Not every public person wants to be on the list of winners of this award. All because she is awarded for the most dubious achievements. In 2012, Patriarch Kirill himself was among the nominees.
The Silver Galosh Award was established by the popular Silver Rain radio station. In 2012, she was awarded for the sixteenth time. The ceremony was held at the Theater of the Russian Army in the scenery of Red Square. The event was hosted by Mikhail Shatz and Ksenia Sobchak. The ceremony was broadcast live by the YouTube video service.
Scandals for this award are commonplace. However, in 2012, the “Silver galosh” turned out to be especially scandalous. The rewarding of Patriarch Kirill caused a great resonance. He was awarded a “galosh” for the story of the disappearance of a very expensive watch from his hand in official photographs. The scandal surrounding the retouched photo of the Patriarch flared up in RuNet in early April 2012. The hype was raised with the light hand of bloggers. It was they who noticed that in a photograph posted on the official website of the Moscow Patriarchate, on the wrist of the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, the clock was smeared with Photoshop. Moreover, their reflection was noticeable on the surface of the polished table.
Soon, the press service of the Russian Orthodox Church apologized to the public for such an unsuccessful image processing and published a photo without any retouching. It was visible on it that on the patriarch’s hand there was a watch of the famous Swiss company Breguet worth 30 thousand dollars. In this regard, the primate of the Russian Orthodox Church was awarded the prize "For the Immaculate disappearance of watches."
The presenters during the ceremony called the laureate only by his last name: "Mr. Gundyaev" and nothing more. An actor was invited to present the prize, who played the role of a representative of Breguet in Russia. The patriarch himself, of course, did not come for the "galoshes".
The very next day, the "Silver galosh" hastened to condemn many people who consider themselves Orthodox. Among them were public figures, politicians, and stars of show business. All of them vied declared that the award of the scandalous prize to the Patriarch caused a grave insult to the entire Orthodox world.
The ruling party also joined the indignant public. United Russia even decided to initiate amendments to the Criminal Code so that the organizers of the award could be brought to justice. Corresponding amendments were introduced to the Duma. Their parliamentarians should consider at the next fall session.
