Putin has done more for Orthodox Christianity (excepting Roman Catholicism), than has any leader for hundreds of years.
As background, when Rome fell to the barbarians, the “seat of Christendom” moved to Constantinople, that had existed in tandem with Rome as the Eastern Roman Empire. Then when Constantinople fell to the Ottomans in 1453, the Russians assumed that the seat would become Moscow, by then the largest and most powerful Christian city-state. But because eastern Christianity had split with Roman Catholicism in 1054, instead it moved back to Rome.
And the Russians have stewed about this ever since.
For all his faults, Putin realized this slight still burned after all this time. So he did one of the most brilliant things a Christian leader could do: he called a conclave of all the Orthodox churches in Moscow.
But not Rome. Many of these churches had not spoken in hundreds of years, and were awed by the splendor of their Russian Orthodox hosts.
This alone, despite anything and everything else he has done, qualifies Putin as an “Orthodox Saint”, and is close to ordaining him as a “Christian Emperor”, putting him in the class of Justinian I or Charlemagne.
It also gives him tremendous moral authority in things Christian. He can criticize the Roman Pope, because he has about the same rank. And if he is indeed a Christian Emperor, he would actually *outrank* the Roman Pope.
As far as the political, or even tyrannical things he does, that is just par for the course in Russia. And he should note that while the secular stuff he does has mixed results, his efforts in support of Christianity are home runs.
In a special in regards to protecting the Middle Eastern Christians.
Plus I remember when the Russians hosted the Winter Olympics 3 years ago, had seen an opening video showing what looked like Christian missionaries from the Byzantine Empire bringing the Christian to the early Russians.
Putin has been functioning as the “New Czar” in earlier times he would have simply declared himself Czar. His family would now be the new ruling house. If we interpret this in Machiavellian terms it would be in his best interest, his family and more importantly Russia’s interest to do so. Why would it be in Russia’s interest for him to do this? Two words - stability & continuity! Russia right now is a unique combination of a New-Old state. (This ‘New-Old” condition is inherently unstable!) It’s “New” because its shed the long nightmare of the foreign ideology - Communism. It’s also “New” because it exists in the context of the modern world with modern technology, etc. It is “Old” because it now looks back to its pre-communist history and culture and sees much of it as positive, inspiring & useful. (Hopefully pulls out the right lessons!) However it has yet to answer the question ‘ What is it?’ Meaning what type of Nation-State. Western style parliamentary democracy, secular authoritarian state, religious authoritarian state, maybe even a monarchy (absolute or otherwise!) none of this automatically makes them our friend or our enemy. It needs to settle on something because those two words “stability & continuity” have to be settled because the next step is anarchy which would be bad for Russia, the USA & the world.
Right now my question is: “After Putin what?”
Please note none of the above makes me a Putin fan boy! If you wish to interpret what I have written that way. Your reading comprehension skills need work!
I think Constantine had moved the capital of the Empire to Constantinople about 80 yrs prior to Rome getting sacked by barbarians. Moving the capital was one of many improvements Constantine sought to implement.