Putin Enlists the Church in His Power Grab
Two stunning initiatives from the Russian government over the past few weeks illustrate a disturbing fusion of religion and politics as Vladimir Putin’s regime makes a final effort to consolidate dictatorship.
First, the government announced that it would consult the Russian Orthodox Church before introducing any legislative proposals in parliament, in essence giving the church a veto on legislation and allowing the church to promote an openly religious agenda in parliament.
Then, the regime declared it would begin teaching Orthodox religion in schools, ignoring the constitutional requirement of separation of church and state. Study of other Christian faiths, like Protestantism and Catholicism, has already been ruled out, and it’s clear that the lip-service being paid to Islam is only window dressing.
As for Judaism, a spate of anti-Semitic acts make perfectly clear that the religion has no more future in Putin’s Russia than it did in the USSR.
It probably should not be surprising to see religion and politics begin to overlap in Russia, since both the leader of the Orthodox Church — Patriarch Kirill — and Vladimir Putin are former KGB spies. Indeed, it was not the men who separated from the KGB, but the organization that separated from them, when it collapsed along with the entire USSR apparatus. Putin has said he views that separation as one of the greatest tragedies in Russian history, and he played a key role in bringing Kirill to the seat of power.
As Russia finds itself more and more in the grip of a paralyzing economic crisis, the blessing of the church offers a handy bit of leverage against popular unrest, allowing Putin to justify further crackdowns beyond the mere grounds of patriotism. “Sure,” Putin can say, “it violates the Constitution. But the church is OK with it, so how bad could it be?” Putin and Kirill often make official state visits together where they pose for candle-lighting photo-ops — as they did recently in the religious hamlet of Valaam — clothing the regime with an extra indicia of authority and legitimacy that makes it even harder for critics to gain traction.
The blessing and support of the Orthodox Church is partly what kept the Tzars in power for so many generations. It took the Industrial Revolution, the influence of Marx and the subsequent “Atheizing” of the urban youth to break those bonds, start the communist revolution and bring down the Russian royalty.
Now that we live in a “Post-Industrial” age, and many Russians are rapidly returning to religion for answers after being left hollow by the emptiness of the Secularist and Atheist Soviet regime, is it any wonder that the man who would be the next Tzar would immediately form strong bonds with the Orthodox Church?
It seems that, for Russian Freedom and Democracy, another long Russian Winter may very well be descending again. Weep for the Russian people, their summer was all too short.
I am confused by this religious requirement,not by what Putin is trying to do with it. I’m not confused by Putin. KGB is as KGB does. KGB and nothing but KGB. That is the Putin way,and now the KGB has more power to terrorize,suppress,coerse,and murder since Putin rules rampant.
Once again, Pajamas is out in front, leading the news. I haven’t heard about this in other places. First, we have the pope speaking out of both sides of his mouth, but entertaining the idea of one-world government… now this.
And we should trust Russia?i dont think so.Check out this little stunt the Russians intend for an arctic circle “exercise”-
http://www.nationalpost.com/news/story.html?id=1841675
I don’t see the problem.
I thought AMERICANS WANT RELIGION IN POLITICS. I do believe Pres. Bush depended mightily on religious council for all we know they made decisions for him…we weren’t there.
Likewise wouldn’t we want Jesus Christ , the Russian Orthodox Church is a CHRISTIAN religion that believes in the trinity, to have a seat at their table too? Russia doesn’t have dozens of self serving tele evangelists who make a bazillion $$$$’s filling stadium/churches to call advice…we seem to have the corner on that market for some reason.
Make up your minds folks…make up your minds.
This cherry picking is so redundant.
Mary: Actually, the infamous New York Times had a story around a year ago about how Russian Orthodoxy was being given preferential treatment over Protestant churches.
And let me just say – as someone who intends to convert to the Orthodox Church in America (which is Russian-affiliated) – that this is appalling. The way I see it, Putin and all of the ex-KGB officials saw the rise in religious attendance which followed the fall of Soviet Communism and decided to pounce. A big issue during the Soviet era was the fact that the USSR forced the Russian Orthodox Church to – illegally – make KGB agents (who were, for all intents and purposes, atheists) members of the clergy.
Sadly, it appears that the Soviets never really left the Church, and the victims of this are Christ’s people and democracy.
For those interested in Russian Orthodox who opposed the Soviets from the beginning, look up the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia, which only just reconciled with the main Church in 2007. In light of recent events, perhaps they would like to reconsider.
If the leaders of any country allow their faith to influence their decisions more than US liberals do, it must be Iran as no single group other than the Iranians bases more of its policy decisions on their blind and repeatedly proven wrong, faith in their favorite deity. Both allah and the earth are poor substitutes for reason, and neither is likely to be as reasonable as the Russian Orthodox Church.
Given the disparity between what they say they believe and what the society has become, it’s obvious that US Christians don’t bother to pray much anymore, so I guess the Christian nation idea is gone and the new age of earth worship is here. If the Russians have a different religion than the US earth worshipers, I say, good for them. They can be as Russian as they like just as the US can be as stupid and insane as it likes.
Have a nice day
Changes were made. Christ the Saviour Cathedral was rebuilt where it was torn down, and in the same aesthetically challenged way as it was originally constructed. Monasteries are opening, and there are more monks today in Russia’s Orthodox Church than at any point since 1917.
But, and this is important, there is work to be done. The deaths of Erematova, Polinskaya, Litvenko, et al, because they were investigating the dirty laundry – these are the greatest examples of the work that needs to be done.
Changes were made. Christ the Saviour Cathedral was rebuilt where it was torn down, and in the same aesthetically challenged way as it was originally constructed. Monasteries are opening, and there are more monks today in Russia’s Orthodox Church than at any point since 1917.
But, and this is important, there is work to be done. The deaths of Erematova, Polinskaya, Litvenko, et al, because they were investigating the dirty laundry of the Kremlin- these are the greatest examples of the work that needs to be done.
Now, there is a place for Russia’s Orthodox Church in the life, and history of Russia, for it
is in no one’s interest for Putin to be both head
of government and head of the church. Therefore,
it is time for Russia’s Orthodox Church to stand
up to the abuse of lower, like St. Basil, who stood up to Czar Ivan Grozny (the most common definition of Terrible that is used is a poor translation of Grozny) and was honoured by Russia’s Orthodox Church for this. After all, just because someone is in the Kremlin does not
mean they have all knowledge imbued to them.
For, when important events are looked at in the history of Russia, especially starting with 988 AD with the baptism of Kyivan Rus when Vladimir,
the Great Prince of Kyiv, concluded that the faith of everyone is to be the Orthodox Christian
faith; Russia’s Orthodox Church is part of the Russian ethnos milieu.
There are differences between the churches in agreement with Constantinople, and those who broke away starting with the Church of Rome, and those differences matter.
It is a weighty task, but it might have already been started. The bishop whose diocese is in the
furthest eastern part of Siberia (Alaska is just a stone’s throw away) was deposed because he raised his voice about the lack of money making it to Russia outside of Moscow and St. Petersburg, and how rich some Bishops and other clergy have become. Time will tell, and we will see if the lessons of history will be learned. For even though Tsar Alexander II wrote on paper
that the serfs would be freed, the practise continued, and this was one reason why the Bolsheviks were able to make gains outside of Moscow and St. Petersburg.
5. We want religion to influence politics, not politics to influence religion. When politicians control religion, bad stuff always happens.
Melissa, you couldn’t be more wrong. Having a single church with an official role in the government is exactly what is against our Constitution. What many liberals decrie is people bringing their moral views that are based on their beliefs to the voting booth. (Just like athiests bring their own views shaped by their own beliefs, and yes atheism is as much a belief system as any religion.)
That is why we have freedom of religion but no state sponsored religion.
Anonymous (12)
“That is why we have freedom of religion but no state sponsored religion.”
But that’s no longer true as the atheists and believers in goddess earth have mandated that their faith be taught in all schools no matter what the local or state people think about it. It is illegal to teach other faiths, but when it suits those in charge they openly attack some faiths and openly support others as in the case of Christianity v islam. Furthermore, they also allocate money, institute taxation, and mandate regulations based solely on their faith rather than on the interests of the nation as a whole. We now have a state religion whether people want to acknowledge it or not. Never in our history did Christianity influence the actual governance of the nation anywhere nearly as much as the current atheist/earth goddess religion now does. The consequences are obvious and getting worse, partly because people continue to believe the myth that we don’t have a state religion, and partly because those who profess to be Christians are obviously no longer willing to stand up for their faith.
Regards
To reiterate, work needs to be done. First take this into consideration:
Murder of Russian human rights activist reopens old wounds
Crime underscores the fragile tranquility between Moscow, Chechnya
By David Marples, FreelanceAugust 2, 2009
In mid-July, Russian human rights activist Natalya Estemirova was found dead in a rural area not far from the town of Nazran in Ingushetia. She was well-known for her work for the Memorial organization in the Chechen capital of Grozny, and was formerly a close friend of Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya, who was murdered in the stairway of her Moscow apartment in October 2007.
The two deaths have certain features in common.
Both women had investigated human rights abuses and violent acts in the Republic of Chechnya, initially by the Russians, but more recently by the Chechen government.
At some point, both had infuriated Chechen president Ramzan Kadyrov, a power-hungry satrap intent on building his own empire with the backing of the leadership of the Russian Federation. Estemirova had served as a translator for Politkovskaya during her forays into Chechnya.
Violence in the Caucasus is so common that it is easy to overlook the sudden changes of allegiance and direction of the relationship between Chechnya and Russia. A war that began in 1994, when Boris Yeltsin was president of Russia, ended ingloriously for the Russians in 1996, but was renewed by then prime minister (soon to be president) Vladimir Putin in late 1999 after a series of bombings at apartment buildings in Russian cities. Many analysts continue to maintain that the Russian security service (the FSB) instigated the attacks to justify a renewal of the war.
Subsequently, although the war went better for the Russians, Chechen terrorist acts continued to make headlines. They included the October 2002 assault on Moscow’s Dubrovka theatre, when more than 900 people were taken hostage. FSB Special Forces intervened and filled the theatre with gas, killing not only the terrorists, but also 125 hostages.
In September 2004, Chechen rebel leader Shamir Basayev led a shocking assault on a school in the North Ossetian town of Beslan just as children were returning for the new term. At least 30 terrorists, including two women, with explosives attached to their waists, took more than 1,000 hostages, mostly children. FSB Special Forces stormed the school two days later killing some, but not all, of the terrorists. Basayev escaped. At least one-third of the hostages were killed.
Three years later, Russian forces managed to assassinate Basayev using a remote-controlled device to set off explosives near his car.
Chechnya seems quieter today, but the tranquility is fragile.
In 1999, as the second phase of the war was beginning, one of the key Chechen leaders, Akhmad Kadyrov, switched sides and pledged allegiance to Russia. In October 2003, he was sworn in as the new Chechen president.
But in May 2004, he was assassinated while attending a Second World War victory parade. This paved the way for his son Ramzan to take over, which could not occur until he reached the legal age of 30 in 2007.
Politkovskaya was one of his harshest critics, focusing on the activities of his militia (known as the Kadyrovtsy). A few years ago, Ramzan threatened to arrest her during an interview.
While president, Putin adopted a policy of Chechenization, meaning that local Chechen forces loyal to the Kremlin would take over key operations against “rebels” from the Russian forces. In essence, this policy has empowered Ramzan Kadyrov, who has not only developed his own personality cult (the main street in Grozny is named after him), but also instituted a brutal regime that does not hesitate to detain, kidnap and torture perceived enemies.
Ramzan keeps a tiger as a pet and is a devotee of boxing. Short and squat, with a goatee beard, he is an avid admirer of Che Guevara, as well as Putin, his patron, and has maintained that the Russian leader should have remained president for life.
His adherence to Islam is less clear; he is known to support polygamy and has banned alcohol in Chechnya, but he has moderated the extreme Islamic fervour that prevailed in the late 1990s.
One of his key goals has been to take control over Chechnya’s oil resources. He is by all accounts extremely abrasive, irritated by criticism, and truculent.
In the late 1990s, rival clan leaders fought over Chechnya, but now one leader–with Putin’s connivance –has acquired supreme power.
When Putin stepped down as president last year, it was unclear how relations would develop between Ramzan and new Russian President Dmitry Medvedev.
The latter has reacted with apparently genuine anger to the murder of Estemirova, but there is little chance that the assassin or assassins will be found.
Moreover, it is unclear what steps the Russian government can take to ascertain the perpetrator of the crime in a region that in terms of the construction of a civil society has always been regarded as a lost cause.
From Moscow’s perspective it is better to allow a tyrant like Ramzan free rein than to return to the bitter strife of the 1990s.
Neither human rights nor free expression have much standing in this volatile environment.
David Marples is a professor of history at the University of Alberta
Then, do what the Los Angeles County did, but this time make sure it is done to the Kremlin:
Thank You Los Angeles!
The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors has voted to remove funds in the county’s pension in companies involved with Iran’s energy sector. With the Iranian government under extreme internal pressure, and even more extreme financial pressure, if more counties and states take this measure, it could spark the collapse of the regime. That sounds like an exaggeration, but few people understand the financial pit the regime has dug for itself.
Remember, 90% of the Iranian government’s revenue comes from energy–and that’s with them having to import 40% of their gasoline. This regime is highly vulnerable, and every person reading this should lobby their counties to follow in Los Angeles’ footsteps.
Sir, your article inspired the following post: http://isnblog.ethz.ch/culture/democracy-through-the-looking-glass
Kind regards,
LP