Putin's Unholy War - Putin, the Patriarch, and the corruption of Orthodox Christianity.

[Celerity]

https://newsletters.theatlantic.com/peacefield/625f207c9cda680020dd1c82/russia-ukraine-invasion-religion-holy-war/



By Tom Nichols

For most of the Christian world, Easter is over. For Orthodox Christians, however, Easter week has just begun—and Russia, the largest Orthodox country in the world, is still relentlessly pursuing the invasion and barbaric destruction of its mostly Orthodox neighbour, Ukraine. In fact, the renewed Russian offensive in the Donbas, replete with day and night bombardment of mostly Orthodox, mostly Russian-speaking areas in eastern Ukraine, began just after Russians and Ukrainians observed Palm Sunday.

I note this because I, too, am an Orthodox Christian, and I am watching one nominally Orthodox nation try to slaughter another. In most of my comments on the Russian war against Ukraine, I’ve tried, as best I can, to provide you with dispassionate analysis. But I hope this week you’ll allow me a few personal observations as I head toward Easter. I realize that sometimes the cold equations of political analysis can seem far removed from our emotions, and so I thought I would share with you some of my own.

Although my career was mostly spent as a scholar and Russia expert, it is difficult for any area specialist to be completely objective about the countries they study, because our lives end up unavoidably connected to the subject of our profession.

Sometimes, it’s an adversarial relationship: In my youth, I was a Reaganite Cold Warrior, and I never hesitated to say so even in discussions with Soviet military officers. (One Soviet colonel told me that he appreciated that kind of honesty more than false good wishes, and we toasted—repeatedly—to our mutual candour.) In midcareer and middle age, however, I changed course, and I ardently hoped for the success of Russian democracy. I was a vocal advocate for better relations with the new Russia, including security cooperation and the reduction of nuclear arsenals. In my 40s, I became the adoptive father of a daughter born in Russia, a great joy that has produced an all-American kid who knows much about her own heritage—a birth right I would never take from her.

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