Vladimir putin religion

Share This Print the Page Long before Russia positioned military forces along Ukraine’s border or menaced its neighbor with cyber-attacks and economic pressure, Moscow deployed another, under-appreciated weapon increasingly used by rising global powers: the transformation of religious soft power into what is known among some scholars of authoritarianism as “sharp power.” A worshiper enters the basement of the Church of the Archangel Michael in Rivne, Ukraine, where the Moscow-led Orthodox branch holds services. December 9, 2018. (Brendan Hoffman/The New York Times) In the case of Vladimir Putin, the soft pull of the two countries’ shared Orthodox Christian religious identity was converted into a sharp attack intended to enhance Moscow’s religious supremacy and serve Putin’s geopolitical aims. While Putin has led the way via a longstanding strategic alliance with the Russian Orthodox Church, a similar dynamic is at work in other emerging powers — including China, India and Brazil — whose current leaders have all found political utility in religion. The Ukraine case illustrates the trend well. Prior to 2014, Putin had invoked the two nations’ Orthodox Christian religion as one element of a narrative about the necessity of Ukraine’s geopolitical alignment with Moscow. In what was originally a story of bi-national solidarity, Putin’s initial religious soft power effort invoked the late 10th century Christianization of Kievan Rus (a pan-Slavic kingdom centered on modern day Ukr...

If you are a Russian citizen in 2018, it is currently illegal for you to share the Gospel with a friend in your home. It’s illegal for you to invite others to your church. VKontakte— the Russian equivalent of Facebook—can’t be used to spread anything that might be considered “evangelism.” In fact, all religious dialogue has been banned outside of churches and other religious sites. On the street. Online. Even in your own home. This is not the most recent or even most brazen of Russia’s recent attempts to curtail religious freedom within its borders, but it is illustrative of the Kremlin’s new attitude toward religion. The Russian Orthodox Church is deeply intertwined with Russian identity, closely connected to national politics and given broad legal preference over minority religions in the country. While the Soviet Union famously attempted to stamp religion out completely, By granting it liberties either restricted or flat out denied to other religions and sects, there is strong suspicion Putin has embraced the state church solely because he’s able to remake it in his own likeness. But how did we get here? How did a country that seemed to be bucking decades of Orwellian control slip back into authoritarianism, and why haven’t more churches in the West spoken up on behalf of their fellow Christians abroad? The answers are twisted up in a murky web of politics, nationalism, Putin’s aforementioned knack for propaganda and a healthy dose of good, old-fashioned fake news. But ...

He is one of Vladimir Putin’s most prominent supporters — a man of the cloth who offers spiritual cover for the autocrat’s invasion of Ukraine, all while suspected of profiting from that connection and ties to Russia’s security services. But Patriarch Kirill, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, has yet to be sanctioned by the United States, despite appeals by Ukrainian activists and others who see him as a destructive force in an already brutal war. The British and Ukrainians recently imposed sanctions on Kirill, while a European Union effort in early June was blocked by one country. Kirill’s reputed wealth, friendliness with Putin and long-suspected ties to Russia’s spy and security outfits have drawn comparisons to the dozens of oligarchs whose Kremlin connections have led to a battery of U.S. sanctions in recent months. It’s his preaching, however, that detractors say is the biggest problem — but which also could be the very reason the U.S. hasn’t yet penalized him. Kirill routinely urges his flock of millions to support Putin’s war effort, waving away any culpability over the invasion, while describing Russia’s opponents in Ukraine as “evil forces.” “We as a people have accepted the persecution,” Kirill said In the days after the world learned about the massacre of hundreds of Ukrainian civilians in Bucha, U.S. officials won’t say why they haven’t sanctioned Kirill, even as they insist they haven’t forgotten about him. “All options on [the] table,” a U.S. official...

Russia’s President was raised by a devout Christian mother and is known to have worn a crucifix around his neck for most of his life. While President Putin, like most Russians, identifies himself as a follower of the Orthodox Church, the state is officially secular. Russian Orthodoxy compared with Western religious ideals share significant differences. He said: “Russian Orthodoxy for centuries saw itself as guardian of the true faith in contrast to Western Catholicism and Protestantism. “Moscow, according to this lore, is the third Rome, the seat of the true Christendom, after Constantinople and the Roman Empire.” Mr Tooley added that Russian Orthodoxy has nearly always been a “cheerleading nationalist subordinate to the state”. The theological circumstances in Ukraine and Russia become increasingly concerning when it’s considered the Ukrainian Orthodox Church was granted autonomy from Russia just three years ago. Although a portion of the Orthodox church in Kyiv still recognises Russian authority, the schism has grown. In fact, the BBC’s Harry Farley recently said President Putin views himself as a “messianic figure, a saviour, to reunite Eastern Orthodox churches under Moscow.” When the Ukrainian Church did split with Russia, the decision was labelled as “historic” by the country’s then-president Petro Poroshenko. He said: “This day will go down in history as a sacred day. The day of the final independence from Russia.” DON'T MISS: Does Vladimir Putin believe in God? In ...

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin, dressed in nothing but a pair of blue swimming trunks, immersed himself in the freezing water of a cross-shaped pool near Moscow on Tuesday, observing an Orthodox Christian ritual to mark the feast of Epiphany. Russian state television broadcast footage of Putin, with the air temperature at minus 14 Celsius (6.8 Fahrenheit), removing a sheepskin coat to enter the icy waters and submerging himself three times beneath the surface, in front of an ice-sculpted cross. Putin, 68, grew up under Communist rule where open shows of religion were frowned upon. As president, he has become a frequent attender of Russian Orthodox ceremonies, and has given the church a major voice in society. Each year on Epiphany, Orthodox believers immerse themselves in rivers and lakes to commemorate the baptism of Jesus Christ in the River Jordan.

In the eight weeks since Russia invaded Ukraine, the war there has been interpreted in terms that are familiar from previous wars—terms that often seem to be in contradiction with one another. It is a proxy war, and it is a fight for national self-determination. It is a reprise of the Cold War, and a reset of Yalta. It is an inevitable consequence of NATO expansion, and an unprovoked act of aggression by an autocrat bent on reclaiming a “greater” Russian unity that he thinks was taken by Western forces of globalization and political integration. All those ways of seeing the war are apt, but another familiar interpretation is pertinent, too. This is the view of Since March 6th, when Kirill, the patriarch of Moscow and primate of the Russian Orthodox Church, gave an incendiary homily likening Russia’s invasion to a culture war against the West, plenty of questions have been asked about his role and his motives. Is he a tool of Russky Mir” (“Russian World”) the basis for Putin’s war or just a rhetorical glaze applied to it? How can a religious leader with any integrity support so brutal a war, and might another leader— Leaders of religious communities in the U.S. with histories in the region have some answers. Throughout Lent—the penitential season prior to Easter, which for the Orthodox is this Sunday—Ukrainian Orthodox, Greek Orthodox, and Ukrainian Greek Catholic bishops, metropolitans, clergy, and scholars have been consumed with the issues of the war. At conferences, on ...

FILE - Russian President Vladimir Putin, center, and Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill applaud during the unveiling ceremony of a monument to Vladimir the Great on the National Unity Day outside the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, Friday, Nov. 4, 2016. President Vladimir Putin has led ceremonies launching a large statue outside the Kremlin to a 10th-century prince of Kiev who is credited with making Orthodox Christianity the official faith of Russia, Ukraine and Belarus. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko) This story is published in collaboration with (RNS) — Two days before he launched a bloody invasion of Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin sat alone in front of a camera and delivered a rambling, hour-long address. It outlined the ideological justification for what would ultimately become his “special military action” in Ukraine — an invasion that, as far as Putin was concerned, had more than a little to do with religion. “Ukraine is an inalienable part of our own history, culture and spiritual space,” he Two days later, Patriarch Kirill of Moscow, head of the Russian Orthodox Church, spoke to military leaders and Within hours, bombs began to rain down on Ukraine. This religious ramp-up to war was the culmination of a decade-long effort to wrap Russia’s geopolitical ambitions in faith — specifically, the flowing vestments of the Russian Orthodox Church. Fusing religion, nationalism, a defense of conservative values that theological groundwork for the current invasion. R...

Russian President Vladimir Putin attends a Christmas liturgy at the Transfiguration Cathedral in St. Petersburg early on Jan. 7, 2020. In the U.S., Orthodox Christianity is a relatively small faith tradition, but in recent years, it has expanded to new regions. Some new converts are using the religion to spread white nationalist views. Alexey Nikolsky/Sputnik/AFP via Getty Images hide caption toggle caption Alexey Nikolsky/Sputnik/AFP via Getty Images Russian President Vladimir Putin attends a Christmas liturgy at the Transfiguration Cathedral in St. Petersburg early on Jan. 7, 2020. In the U.S., Orthodox Christianity is a relatively small faith tradition, but in recent years, it has expanded to new regions. Some new converts are using the religion to spread white nationalist views. Alexey Nikolsky/Sputnik/AFP via Getty Images When Sarah Riccardi-Swartz moved from New York City to a small Appalachian town in West Virginia in the fall of 2017, she was searching for an answer to a puzzling question. Why had a group of conservative American Christians converted to Russian Orthodoxy? "It's typically an immigrant faith, so I was really interested in that experience and why it spoke to converts," said Riccardi-Swartz, a postdoctoral fellow in the Recovering Truth project at Arizona State University. Riccardi-Swartz's study focused on a community of mostly former evangelical Christians and Catholics who had joined the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia (ROCOR). The West Vi...