In American politics, especially among the denizens that follow Tucker Carlson or worship at the altar of Donald Trump, claiming that God is on your side is a given. Even Vivek Ramaswamy, to appeal to evangelists, presented Hinduism as a facsimile of Christianity with its 10 truths.
Vladimir Putin: It is very easy when it comes to protecting oneself, one’s family and one’s homeland. We won’t attack anyone. As for religion in general you know it’s not about external manifestations. It’s not about going to Church every day or banging your head on the floor. It is in the heart and our cultural is so human oriented. Dostoevsky who was very well known in the West and the genius of Russian culture, spoke a lot about the Russian soul. After all, Western society is more pragmatic. The Russian people think about the more eternal, the moral values. I don’t know. Maybe you won’t agree but Western culture is more pragmatic.
Tucker Carlson:So, do you see the supernatural at work, look out across what’s happening in the world, do you see god at work? Do you think to yourself, these are not human?
Vladimir Putin:No to be honest. I don’t think so. My belief is that the development of the world community is in accordance with inherent law and those laws are what they are.
Based on his answers, it would be unlikely that Putin is going to campaign in the rust-belt states anytime soon but his relationship with the Church and Christianity is complicated.
Does Putin believe in God?
Putin has always been a man who is serious about personal faith and even wearing a small aluminium cross that he showed off to George W Bush. The Church was ostensibly given to Putin by his Chrisian mother when he was secretly baptised in the early 1950s. Putin obviously didn’t flaunt it during his KGB days but claims: “In 1993 when I worked on the Leningrad City Council, I went to Israel as part of an official delegation. Mama gave me my baptismal cross to get it blessed at the Lord’s Tomb. I did as she said and then put the cross around my neck. I have never taken it off since.”
Unlike the Communists, Putins has cultivated a relationship with the Orthodox Church and one of his closest confidant isArchimandrite Tikhon, the Father Superior of Sretensky monastery. Some have even claimed that Tikhon knows more about Putin than anyone else. Putin and Tikhon worked closely to re-unify the Russian Orthodox Church and the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia. Tikhon has also claimed that Putin prays daily in a small chapel.
Putin has also encouraged the Church over other religious bodies, with numerous churches rebuilt including the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour in Moscow.
