A couple of days ago, I wrote about Russia’s bothersome attempting to introduce an Orthodox Christian version of Valentine’s Day. Today’s issue of the New York Times has me even more worried: “At Expense of Others, Putin Picks a Church:”
This close alliance between the government and the Russian Orthodox Church has become a defining characteristic of Mr. Putin’s tenure, a mutually reinforcing choreography that is usually described here as working “in symphony.”
Mr. Putin makes frequent appearances with the church’s leader, Patriarch Aleksei II, on the Kremlin-controlled national television networks. Last week, Mr. Putin was shown prominently accepting an invitation from Aleksei II to attend services for Russian Orthodox Easter, which is this Sunday.
Even though Moscow has always been a beacon of Orthodox Christianity in Russia, Russia’s Muslim population is around 15-20% of its total population (10-15% of the total population are practicing believers, according to the World Factbook); a significant percentage of the population is Buddhist. Catholics, Protestants, Lutherans etc are also fairly well-represented in Russia.
Apparently, according to Kremlin’s bizarre logic, since the incumbent President belongs to Orthodox Christianity, no one should care about other religions. Did anyone just mention the word ‘democracy’?
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