Putin Wants Russia to Be ‘an Orthodox Iran’ and Himself Its Ayatollah, Orthodox Archpriest Says

Paul Goble

            Staunton, Jan. 4 – Vladimir Putin’s simultaneous commitment to institutionalizing traditional values and his statement that “Orthodoxy is closer to Islam than it is to Catholicism’ show that the Kremlin leader’s “ideal Russia” would be “an Orthodox Iran,’ according to Archpriest Andrey Kudochkin.

            The cleric who is part of the Spanish-Portuguese Bishopric of the Russian Orthodox Church’s Western European exarchate says that if Putin achieves that goal, it would be “a catastrophe” for Russia (ahilla.ru/protoierej-andrej-kordochkin-idealnaya-rossiya-postroennaya-na-traditsionnyh-tsennostyah-eto-pravoslavnyj-iran/).

            The world of those who like Putin want to institutionalize “traditional values” is that of the Middle Ages, Father Andrey says. “Medieval man is religious,” but “at the same time, he has no moral problem with torture, public executions, or starving a city by means of blockade. None of this conflicts with religious rhetoric or talk about morality.”

            Following this paradigm, the cleric continues, “the head of state is not just a manager but an ayatollah who independently interprets spiritual matters while the Church acts as his amplifier. And that is precisely why Putin said that Orthodoxy is closer to Islam than Roman Catholicism.”

            It is also why the Kremlin leader has proclaimed “the martyr’s principle that ‘we as martyrs will go to heaven while our enemies will simply die.’ And it is why Iran’s Shahid drone has become one of the most recognizable symbols” of Putin’s vicious military campaign against Ukrainian cities.

            This is an appalling grotesque, Father Andrey concludes. And a tragedy because one can hardly advance into the future while locking oneself into a mythologized past, a position that portends disaster ahead for Russia just as it has brought disaster to Iran.