At the end of June 2012, the regular presentation of the Silver Galosh Prize took place in Moscow. This is one of the most scandalous Russian events. Not every public person is eager to be on the list of winners of this award. This is because it 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, it was presented for the sixteenth time. The ceremony took place at the Theater of the Russian Army in the decorations of Red Square. The event was hosted by Mikhail Shats 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 "galoshes" for the story of the disappearance of a very expensive watch from his hand in official photographs. The scandal around the retouched photograph of the Patriarch erupted in RuNet in early April 2012. The hype was raised with the light hand of bloggers. It was they who noticed that in the photograph posted on the official website of the Moscow Patriarchate, the watch was smeared on the wrist of the head of the Russian Orthodox Church with the help of Photoshop. At the same time, their reflection was noticeable on the surface of the polished table.
Soon the press service of the Russian Orthodox Church asked the public for forgiveness for such an unsuccessful image processing and published the photo without any retouching. It showed that the watch of the famous Swiss company Breguet, worth 30 thousand dollars, flaunts on the patriarch's hand. In this regard, the primate of the Russian Orthodox Church was awarded the prize "For the immaculate disappearance of the clock."
During the ceremony, the presenters called the laureate only by his last name: "Mr. Gundyaev" and nothing else. For the award ceremony, an actor was invited to play the role of the Breguet company representative in Russia. The patriarch himself, of course, did not come for the "galoshes".
The very next day, many people who consider themselves Orthodox have hastened to condemn the Silver Galosh. Among them were public figures, politicians, and show business stars. All of them vied with each other that the awarding of the scandalous prize to the Patriarch inflicted a grave insult on the entire Orthodox world.
The ruling party also joined the outraged public. The United Russia party even decided to initiate amendments to the Criminal Code so that the organizers of the award could be brought to trial. Corresponding amendments were made to the Duma. Parliamentarians should consider them at the next autumn session.
