Vladimir Putin: a miracle defender of Christianity or the most evil man? Tim Costello

[Uncle Joe]

(snip)

Commentators are asserting that this premeditated act is evil. I do not disagree. To see a war in Europe nearly 80 years after the end of the second world war is unthinkable. What other words describe such violence and the man who singlehandedly has authorised this assault? Now that Putin has twice raised the chilling proposition of nuclear weapons – referring to Russia as “one of the most powerful nuclear states” and later ordering that nuclear forces be placed on “special alert” – the global images of a trip wire to nuclear armageddon are disturbing our equanimity. What other word but evil captures this? In contemplating this I think there has been a missing dimension in naming Putin’s messianic and religious pretensions. And as a minister of the gospel, this perspective has caused me deep heartache.

At a personal level I have been required to reflect on my memories of the man and whether I sensed I was in the presence of evil. Back in 2013 I had a meeting with Putin in his dacha two hours out of Moscow. It went for over an hour and half. He was courteous and inquisitive and even agreed to some of the requests we were making. I and the delegation of three others came away thinking he could be reasonable. None of us thought him evil. But now I wonder?

The occasion then was the G20 when Russia had the presidency and Putin was the first leader to invite civil society leaders to meet and participate at the highest level and enjoy an equal access and platform with the business G20. I was leading the Australian delegation and we urged him to stop beating up Russian NGOs and to widen the space for civil society dissension and debate. Amazingly he did not disagree.

As I think back there were some interesting clues. We waited in an ante room for the meeting under a picture of the first Crimean war. All I knew about that was the story of Florence Nightingale, not why it was fought and even who won. Putin’s aide told us that the 1853-56 war was personal for Putin and Russians remembered it as if it was just yesterday. Christian Russia had been shocked that the Christian west had sided with Muslim Turks and defeated them. I thought of this later when in 2014 Putin annexed Crimea and rode roughshod over sovereign Ukrainian territory.

(snip)

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/mar/06/vladimir-putin-a-miracle-defender-of-christianity-or-the-most-evil-man

[LakeArenal]

1. Somewhere in between. With a definite lean in one direction

He only supports Christianity. He does NOT practice it at all.

[blue-wave]

2. He uses Christianity

for his own political purposes. It's the only reason he tolerates it, just like the GQP in the U.S.