In the autumn of 2000, four months after his first inauguration, Russia’s President Vladimir Putin spent an evening with Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, the celebrated writer and Soviet dissident who helped raise global awareness of political repression in the Soviet Union. Solzhenitsyn, then 80 years old, called for the restoration of religious and cultural values that the Bolshevik Revolution sought to destroy, and declared that, under Putin’s leadership, ‘the nation was rediscovering what it was to be Russian’.[1]
Until the Bolshevik Revolution, in October 1917, Orthodox Christianity was central to the Russian culture and identity. After that violent communist revolution, however, as soon as they came into power, the Bolsheviks ordered the destruction of many churches and monasteries, as well as the confiscation of all precious religious objects.[2] These enemies of religion organised anti-religious carnivals to coincide with traditional feast days and declared the replacement of faith in God with faith in Communism.[3] The Bolsheviks outlawed religion and imprisoned, tortured, exiled and executed thousands of Orthodox priests.
On May 7, 2000, Vladimir Putin took the oath of office as the nation’s first democratic transfer of power. In his inaugural address, Putin declared that he was taking on a “sacred duty” to restore Russian Orthodox values and preserve the nation’s unity. After that, the Russian Orthodox Patriarch, Alexei II, pronounced a solemn blessing and offered him a personal prayer. Alexei II presented the new president with religious relics, handing him an icon of St Alexander Nevsky and recreated icons of the Saviour and St Nicholas. The Patriarch then humbly requested Putin ‘to remember about the great responsibility of the leader to his people, history and God’.[4]
The first thing President Putin did as the new leader of Russia was to revive Orthodox Christianity and to incorporate religious symbolism into state ceremonies. The Orthodox faith, even though Russia’s population includes 25 million Muslims, is considered a key element of what Putin calls “Russia’s moral foundations.” These key elements are patriotism and Orthodox Christianity. These are, according to him, the moral foundations of Russia’s identity, shaping each individual and it is essential that they are preserved.
In October 2000, Putin replaced the lyrics of the Soviet anthem extolling ‘the great Lenin and the triumph of communism’. The lyrics were revised and new words were drafted, in which references to Communism and Lenin were replaced with “Holy Russia” and God.[5] Officially approved via an advisory body, the Council of State, was the official adoption of the white, blue, and red pre-revolutionary national flag, as well as the imperial coat of arms with a double-headed eagle on a red heraldic shield, both provisionally reintroduced by Boris Yeltsin. Three weeks later, Putin signed all these measures into federal law. His guiding principle was that the history of the Tsarist empire should be restored and the positive aspects of Russian history be emphasised.
Peter the Great, Tsar of Russia since 1682, and the first Emperor of all Russia, is considered the legal father of the nation’s tricolour flag. On January 20, 1705 he issued a decree for this flag to become a national symbol. Red means state, blue is the colour of the Virgin Mary, who is the protector of Russia, and white is the colour of freedom and independence.
The Russian coat of arms, which depicts St. George as a knight with a spear in his hand slaying the Dragon, had been part of the Russia’s coat of arms since the 16th century. Yaroslav the Wise (d. 1054), the ruler of Kievan Rus, had an image of St. George on his seal because this was his personal patron saint. As for the double-headed eagle, this can be traced back to the rule of Tsar Ivan III, who used this symbol on his royal seal in 1497, although images of double-headed eagles (or other birds) have been found in earlier ancient Russian art. They were also a symbol of Byzantine spiritual power and an aspirational claim to power in both East and West.
To understand Putin’s personal faith, one must also take a look at his family’s connection to religion. His first name is connected with King Vladimir, who, in 988, accepted Orthodox Christianity and baptised a large number of Russians in Kievan Rus, a medieval kingdom to which Russians, Ukrainians and Belarusians claim their ancestry. Putin has explained that his mother, a devout Orthodox believer, named him after King Vladimir and had him baptised as an infant without telling his communist father, a common practice during the years when Stalin was in power. Although the Soviet Union was deeply atheist, some mothers took their babies surreptitiously to an Orthodox priest in order to have them baptised.[6]
In 1993, while he was deputy Mayor of St Petersburg, Putin visited Jerusalem because his mother had asked him to take his baptismal cross to have it sanctified at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. The priest who baptised Putin at the Transfiguration Cathedral, pointing to the icon of St Vladimir, told him that this cross would be his icon. Putin blessed the cross at the Tomb of the Lord and put it on his neck.[7] A few years later, when he was already Russia’s President and his dacha had burnt down, the workman had found the cross in the rubble. Putin then told President George W. Bush that, after the fire, ‘all he cared about was the cross’, recounting the moment when the workman brought it to him, miraculously saved from the flames, ‘as if it were meant to me’.[8] He has worn it ever since.[9]
Putin also told President Bush that, on long flights, he often reads the Bible.[10] He frequently visits monasteries and other religious sites. Orthodox believers at church services Putin attends say he seems ‘completely immersed in the ritual as a true member of the faith.’[11] Putin also likes to make religious allusions. ‘God has given me the good fortune to work for the good of my country’. ‘Life is sacred and the death penalty is a matter for the Almighty.’[12]
On 24 March 2024, Russian TV Channel 1 ran footage of the Russian President attending a church service to honour the memory of the victims of the Islamic terrorist attack on a concert hall in a Moscow suburb. Putin was seen on television lightening a candle, making a sign of the cross with his fingers, and bowing. As noted by journalist Rebekah Koffler,
The TV screen was flanked by the identical images of ‘Savior the Miraculous’. Below the screen was a large, state-width sign ornate with golden crosses and church cupolas on the green background and the Savior icons. And the stage resembled an iconostasis (‘icon stand’ in Greek), a wooden and metal partition with doors that holds tiers of stylized gilded icons and separates the sanctuary from the nave in Russian Orthodox Churches. It symbolizes the boundary between God and Heaven (The Holy) and humans (The wordly).[13]
Putin places himself in a tradition dating back to Tsarist times in close relation to Orthodox Christianity. Back in 2013, when Russia had the presidency of the G-20, he ‘was the first leader to invite civil society leaders to meet and participate at the highest level and enjoy equal access and platform with the business G20’.[14] One of the members of the Australian delegation recalls a meeting with the Russian leader in a room under a picture of the first Crimean War, and Putin’s aid telling them 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 sided with Muslim Turks and defeated them’.[15]
In his speeches, Putin often condemns Western nations for departing from their traditional Christian morality – for effectively becoming the world’s leading advocate of materialism, sexual immorality and transsexuality. In some of his public speeches, he directly attacks the Western ‘woke’ elites for practicing what he vividly describes as a form of “religious Satanism”, where even the lives of little children are sacrificed. The West, in his view, is promoting a culture of death, provoking gender confusion, and even altering the physical nature of children, thus leading, in Christ’s words, these “little ones to stumble.” In a remarkable speech delivered on 30 September 2022, Putin declared:
Do we really want in our schools, from elementary school, for children to be imposed perversions that lead to their degradation and destruction? That they are taught that in addition to a man and a woman there are other genders and they are offered some operations for gender change? Do we really want this for our country, for our children? All this is unacceptable to us, we have our own different future. Such denial of a human being, the rejection of traditional faith and values, and the suppression of freedom appear to me as a form of religion of perversion, pure Satanism. [16]
Many Russians do not necessarily love Putin per se. What they really love is Putin’s Russia and its return to traditional Christian Orthodox values. According to Paul Coyer, an American foreign policy expert with a focus on the geopolitics of Eurasia, ‘Putin is broadly perceived as the champion of a Russian nation beset by a hostile West determined to reshape Russia in its own image’.[17] And yet, says Dr Coyer, ‘even without Putin, the conflict between Russia and the West will not fade away. One of the reasons is that culture, including that of Russian Orthodoxy, is at stake’.[18] Still, Putin has the undeniable merit of dramatically increasing the strength of Russian Orthodox Christianity, with over 20,000 churches being built from 2000 onwards. As Dr Coyer points out,
Around 25,000 Russian Orthodox churches have been built or rebuilt since the early 1990’s, the vast majority of which have been built during Putin’s rule and largely due to his backing and that of his close circle of supporters. Additionally, the Church has been given rights that have vastly increased its role in public life, including the right to teach religion in Russia’s public schools and the right to review any legislation before the Russian Duma.[19]
Little wonder the Russian Orthodox Patriarch calls Putin a “miracle of God”. With the war in Ukraine, however, the Russian President has been painted by Western leaders as “the most evil man in the world”.[20] Of course, this is all propaganda. Putin often draws attention to the fact that the West has moved away entirely from traditional Christian culture and values that had founded and sustained this civilisation. Arguably, Putin’s “war” is not against Ukraine but against a “decadent” and imperialist West. The Russian leader stated in a speech in 2013:
We see that many Euro-Atlantic countries [i.e., the West] have taken the way where they deny or reject their own roots, including their Christian roots which form the basis of Western civilization. In these countries, the moral basis and any traditional identity are being denied – national, religious, cultural and even gender identities are being denied or relativized.
There politics treats a family with many children as equal to a homosexual partnership; faith in God is equal to faith in Satan. The excesses and exaggerations of political correctness in these [Western] countries indeed lead to a serious consideration for the legitimisation of parties that promote the propaganda of paedophilia.
The people in many European States are actually ashamed of their religious affiliations and are indeed frightened to speak about them. Christian Holidays and celebrations are abolished for “neutrality” renamed, as if one were ashamed of those Christian holidays. With this method one hides away the deeper moral value of these celebrations. And these countries try to force this model onto other countries, globally.
I am deeply convinced that this is a direct way to the degradation and primitivization of culture. This leads to deeper demographic and moral crisis in the West. What can be a better evidence for the moral crisis of a society [in the West] than the loss of reproductive function? And today nearly all “developed” Western countries cannot survive reproductively, not even with the help of migrants.
Without the moral values that are rooted in Christian and other world religions, without rules and moral values which have formed and been developed over millennia, people will inevitably lose their human dignity, become brutes. And we think it is right and natural to defend and preserve these moral Christian values.[21]
On 21 February 2023, while delivering a State of the Nation address to the Russian people, Putin accused Western elites of deliberately distorting historical facts in order to impose their “woke” ideologies. He mocked what he perceives as “Western stupidity,” adding that the “decadent” West is deliberately waging a “culture war” against Russian Orthodox culture. Putin declared:
Their main target is, of course, the younger generation and our younger generation. And here, once again, they lie constantly. They distort historical facts, constantly attacking our culture, the Russian Orthodox Church and other traditional religious organizations in the country. Look at what they do to their own people: the destruction of the notion of family, culture and national identity. Perversion, child abuse, and even paedophilia are declared the norm – the norm of their way of life.
I would like to say to you: Look at the Holy Scripture, the sacred books of all the other religions of the world. It’s all said there – including the fact that marriage is the union of a man and a woman. But even these sacred texts are now being revised. As it has become known, the Church of England, for example, plans to consider the idea of a gender-neutral God. What can I say? May God forgive them for they do not know what they are doing. [22]
Alexander Etkind is a leftist academic who was born in Leningrad and is now a professor of history at the European University Institute in Florence. He unwittingly vindicates the worse feelings of the Russian leader towards the West. According to him, “by promoting Trump and Brexit” and supporting “far-right” movements across Europe, that is, conservative-nationalist movements, as well as practicing “climate denialism” and “increasing homophobia”, Vladimir Putin, according to him, is basically a genocidal “far-right” dictator.[23] Etkind distinguishes the traditional Orthodox values advocated by Putin, which he disparagingly calls “paleomodernity,” on the one hand, and the “gaiamodernity” of the West that embraces “climate awareness” and the transsexual agenda, on the other, which he thinks is great.[24]
According to a Levada poll released nine years ago, 60 per cent of Russians believe that the West, the United States in particular, poses a serious threat to their country. 31 per cent believe that Washington could attempt to invade and occupy Russia. Perhaps even more significantly, 36 per cent of the population is convinced that the United States is attempting to impose its “alien and decadent” values system on Russian society.[25] Hence, ‘Russia has an advantage in its citizens’ mindsets, in that they are more fiercely dedicated to their homeland. By contrast, a 2015 Pew Research Center poll found that Europeans overwhelmingly would not be willing to fight for their countries’.[26]
Like many Americans, the majority of Russians strongly believe in their nation’s uniqueness and sense of destiny. They also believe that their present leader has restored their nation’s status of a great power, which the Russians believe is destined by Divine Providence for leadership and the advancement of Christian Orthodox values, particularly in Eurasia.[27] Credit where credit is due. By fighting against the “woke West” and reconnecting Russia’s renewed cultural identity with traditional Orthodox Christianity, Vladimir Putin deserves credit for effectively reviving Russia’s sense of pride and exceptionalism.
Augusto Zimmermann is Professor and Head of Law at Sheridan Institute of Higher Education. He is a former Associate Dean, Research, at Murdoch Law School. During his time at Murdoch, Dr Zimmermann was awarded the University’s Vice Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Research in 2012. He is also a former Commissioner with the Law Reform Commission of Western Australia (2012-2017).
Professor Zimmermann is the co-author of ‘Merchants of Death: Global Oligarchs and their War on Humanity’ (USA Press, 2024), available at
[1] Philip Short, Putin: His Life and Times (The Bodley Head, 2022) 432.
[2] Richard Pipes, Russia Under the Bolshevik Regime (Vintage Books, 1994) 338-339.
[3] Nicholas Werth, ‘A State against its People: Violence, Repression, and Terror in the Soviet Union’, in: Stéphane Courtois et al., The Black Book of Communism: Crimes, Terror, Repression (Harvard University Press, 1999) 124.
[4] Rebekah Koffler, ‘Is Russia’s Putin a devout Christian or ha she weaponized religion to advance his personal ambitions?’, Fox News, 27 March 2024, at https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/is-russias-putin-devout-christian-has-he-weaponized-religion-advance-personal-ambitions
[5] Philip Short, Putin: His Life and Times (The Bodley Head, 2022) 433.
[6] Philip Short, Putin: His Life and Times (The Bodley Head, 2022) 371.
[7] Rebekah Koffler, ‘Is Russia’s Putin a devout Christian or ha she weaponized religion to advance his personal ambitions?’, Fox News, 27 March 2024, at https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/is-russias-putin-devout-christian-has-he-weaponized-religion-advance-personal-ambitions
[8] Philip Short, Putin: His Life and Times (The Bodley Head, 2022) 371.
[9] Ibid.
[10] Ibid, 441.
[11] Ibid, 433.
[12] Ibid, 441.
[13] Rebekah Koffler, ‘Is Russia’s Putin a devout Christian or ha she weaponized religion to advance his personal ambitions?’, Fox News, 27 March 2024, at https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/is-russias-putin-devout-christian-has-he-weaponized-religion-advance-personal-ambitions
[14] Tim Costello, ‘Vladimir Putin: a miracle defender of Christianity or the most evil man?’, The Guardian, 6 March 2022, at https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/mar/06/vladimir-putin-a-miracle-defender-of-christianity-or-the-most-evil-man
[15] Ibid.
[16] ‘A perverted religion, outright Satanism: Putin attacks the West while praising Russian values’, Daily Mail, 30 September 2022, at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gxS9YIBeJbY
[17] Paul Coyer, ‘(Un)Holly Alliance: Vladimir Putin, The Russian Orthodox Church And Russian Exceptionalism’, Forbes, 21 May 2015, at https://www.forbes.com/sites/paulcoyer/2015/05/21/unholy-alliance-vladimir-putin-and-the-russian-orthodox-church/
[18] Ibid.
[19] Ibid.
[20] Tim Costello, ‘Vladimir Putin: a miracle defender of Christianity or the most evil man?’, The Guardian, 6 March 2022, at https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/mar/06/vladimir-putin-a-miracle-defender-of-christianity-or-the-most-evil-man
[21] ‘The Real Putin? Epic Speech Reveals All’, Think Again Australia, 15 March 2022, at https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/mar/06/vladimir-putin-a-miracle-defender-of-christianity-or-the-most-evil-man#commentshttps://www.bitchute.com/video/zCfVP3LRT4u2/
[22] ‘Putin mocks ‘gender-neutral God’ proposed by Church of England’, Daily Mail, 21 February 2023, at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ib79nDamfno
[23] Alexander Etkind, Russia Against Modernity (Polity, 2023).
[24] Ibid.
[25] Paul Coyer, ‘(Un)Holly Alliance: Vladimir Putin, The Russian Orthodox Church And Russian Exceptionalism’, Forbes, 21 May 2015, at https://www.forbes.com/sites/paulcoyer/2015/05/21/unholy-alliance-vladimir-putin-and-the-russian-orthodox-church/
[26] ‘Paul Coyer discusses Putin and the Russian Orthodox Church’, Institute of World Politics, 11 June 2015, at https://www.iwp.edu/past-events/2015/06/11/paul-coyer-discusses-putin-and-the-russian-orthodox-church/
[27] Rebekah Koffler, ‘Is Russia’s Putin a devout Christian or has he weaponized religion to advance his personal ambitions?’, Fox News, 27 March 2024, at https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/is-russias-putin-devout-christian-has-he-weaponized-religion-advance-personal-ambitions
