Thread by @ChrisO_wiki

1/ Russian paranoia about the colours yellow and blue – Ukraine's national colours – have led to a schoolteacher being fired by an archbishop for wearing a yellow skirt and blue blouse. However, critics have noted that he wears the same colours on his church robes every Sunday.⬇️

2/ Archdeacon Andrei Kuraev, a critic of the Russian Orthodox Church hierarchy, writes on his LiveJournal of the case of Svetlana Petrovna Kotsoeva, a teacher of junior classes at the A. Koliev Orthodox Gymnasium in Vladikavkaz in North Ossetia-Alania.

3/ He says that she "came to the assembly at the beginning of the school year in blue and yellow clothes (yellow skirt, blue blouse).

The bishop saw her – Archbishop Gerasim of Vladikavkaz and Alania – and ordered her dismissal."

4/ "This good news was conveyed to her by the secretary of the diocese and the director of the gymnasium. The bishop refused to communicate with her personally."

5/ Radio Free Europe has independently confirmed the case. It reports that "the director of the educational institution said after the assembly that the teacher "will have to write a statement" since they are "under the jurisdiction of the diocese."

6/ Students and teachers who attended a service with the archbishop on 8 September took the opportunity to lobby him to reinstate Kotsoeva, who had worked for 12 years at the school. He told them that he would "decide everything" the following Monday.

7/ However, this merely involved having the secretary of the diocese tell Kotsoeva to look for a new job, "after which the teacher wrote a letter of resignation of her own free will" [sic]. There was no reported indication that she had any kind of pro-Ukrainian sentiment.

8/ As Archdeacon Kuraev points out, though, Archbishop Gerasim appears to be suffering from colour-blindness: his own liturgical vestments include blue robes and a blue mitre with yellow decorations.

9/ It's the latest in a long list of incidents of public paranoia about the colours yellow and blue, which have seen action taken against things such as clothes, floor tiles, seats, backpacks and the flag of the Russian air force, which was mistaken for Ukraine's flag.

10/ (See the thread below for more examples.)

https://x.com/ChrisO_wiki/status/1661313281930215426

Sources:
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🔹 diak-kuraev.livejournal.com/4649805.html
kavkazr.com/a/vo-vladikavk…
blagos.ru/content/v-nede…