Patrick J. Buchanan: Whose Side Is God on Now?

By Patrick J. Buchanan 

In his Kremlin defense of Russia’s annexation of Crimea, Vladimir Putin, even before he began listing the battles where Russian blood had been shed on Crimean soil, spoke of an older deeper bond. 

Crimea, said Putin, “is the location of ancient Khersones, where Prince Vladimir was baptized. His spiritual feat of adopting Orthodoxy predetermined the overall basis of the culture, civilization and human values that unite the peoples of Russia, Ukraine and Belarus.”

Russia is a Christian country, Putin was saying. 

Putin’s Crucifix

Everywhere a man will be sure to meet at least once in his life something that is unlike anything he had happened to see before. – Nikolai Gogol

A photo of a bare-chested Vladimir Putin strolling along a rustic stream, fishing rod in hand was one of the more amazing images of the early 21st Century. He wasn’t wearing a shirt, but he was wearing a crucifix. Consider here that Russia’s first citizen was a former member of a godless Communist Party in the former Soviet Union; indeed, the station chief for the KGB in East Germany. At some point after Yeltsin, Vladimir Putin must have had a “road to Damascus” moment; a point where he cast off the conventional wisdom, the old ideology, and plotted a new course with a new moral compass. The cold warriors of Communism had been the enemies of all religions; but now, a president and prime minister becomes a defender of the Russian faith.

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Moscow Patriarchate Proposes Creating Christian Parties

From AsiaNews.it

A proposal by the Moscow Patriarchate to establish “Christian or Orthodox parties or in-party groups” has caused a stir. The idea comes from Archpriest Vsevolod Chaplin (pictured), head of the Synodal Department for Church and Society Relations.

"The Church is positive about the prospect of setting up Christian or Orthodox parties;” however, “it won't provide them with exclusive support or bless them. The Church is for all, not for allies of a certain political force," Father Vsevolod writes in the Orthodox politics blog .

Russia Emerges as Europe's Most God-Believing Nation

Nearly 20 years after the collapse of the atheistic Soviet Union, a recent poll found that 82 percent of Russians classify themselves as religious believers. But far fewer subscribe to organized religion.

Russian Orthodox Old Believers hold candles during an Easter service at a church in Moscow on April 23. Mikhail Voskresensky/Reuters

From The Christian Science Monitor

By Fred Weir

Two decades after the collapse of the USSR, history's most atheistic state, the vast majority of Russians attest to a belief in God – more than in any other European country – according to a new opinion poll.

The survey, carried out in April by the independent Public Opinion Fund (FOM), found that 82 percent of Russians say they are religious believers, while just 13 percent say they do not believe in any deity.