President Putin’s rush to engage with Orthodox Christianity has more to do with politics than piety as he emphasises the differences between Russia and the rest of Europe.It may have escaped most people’s attention – especially the attention of most Europeans for whom Easter is now merely an occasion to buy funny-shaped chocolates – but the celebration of the resurrection of Jesus Christ came unusually early this year for Christian believers belonging to Western churches, yet was very late for those in the Eastern Church, who only celebrated the feast on 1 May.This unusually long time lag between the two …read more
Putin’s Russia: Concocting an Ideology to Justify an Estrangement
