General Discussion

ethnic members of other Soviet nations as less than real citizens. Ukranians, like Georgians, were never considered real citizens to Muscovites and non-Jewish Belarussians, not during the Tsarist regime, nor the Soviet era.
And certainly not during the current Russian Mafia State era.
And as a kicker, since the 19th Century, the Russian Orthodox Church has been a cultural enforcement arm of whomever was in charge of the regional government, with the exception of the 15 -20 years between the fall of the Tsars and the point in which Stalin realized the Opiate of the Masses could be really, really useful to keep them in line and to identify and reduce the number of potential dissidents or free thinkers in regions a government agent would otherwise stand out.
Because that's what the Tsars did with the Russian Orthodox Church.
Kyril and Putin are just following established Tradition, having the Church being an arm of the State.