Patriarch Alexy II of Moscow (b. 1929)
Patriarch Alexy II (or Alexius II, Russian: Патриарх Алексий II; secular name Aleksei Mikhailovich Ridiger Russian: Алексе́й Миха́йлович Ри́дигер; 23 February 1929 – 5 December 2008) was the 15th Patriarch of Moscow and all Rus', the primate of the Russian Orthodox Church.
Elected Patriarch of Moscow eighteen months prior to the dissolution of the Soviet Union, he became the first Russian Patriarch of the post-Soviet period.