Russian citizens who fled the country after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and have since returned can be considered “sinners” who have repented, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Kirill, said.

Patriarch Kirill says that Moscow cannot reject people who “understand that they have made a mistake.”

In an interview with the head of the official TASS news agency, Patriarch Kirill referred to the biblical parable of the prodigal son, reports the Institute for the Study of War (ISW).

It tells the story of a man who asks his father for an inheritance, goes away and squanders it, and is then forced to return home.

Patriarch Kirill said in an interview that “there is no need to reject sinners if they repent.”

In a speech last September, Vladimir Putin said the return of Russians from abroad was “very good” and “very important”.

But later the head of the Russian State Duma, Vyacheslav Volodin, publicly threatened Russians to return to the country, openly contradicting the Kremlin’s line.

• Read also: The head of the State Duma suggests sending Russians who leave the country to the Gulag if they return home

Thus, Patriarch Kirill’s comment, says the Institute for the Study of War, an American think tank, “is more in line with the Kremlin’s position.”

This suggests that Moscow may be creating a narrative about the return of citizens in the run-up to the presidential elections in March, according to ISW.