francisB
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Vladimir Putin, otherwise denounced as an authoritarian goon and kleptocrat of the highest order, is being hailed by some as a savior. Many believe Putin a bastion of Western Civilization for some very bad reasons.
Pat Buchanan among Putin admirers
Some people should know better. Pat Buchanan, right-wing commentator and former Nixon staffer, has been on a tear recently, declaring Russian PM Vladimir Putin a defender of Western Civilization, such as an April 2014 op-ed on HumanEvents.com and on his own website in December 2013.
Putin, he argues, stands against western decadence by cracking down on gay rights, abortion, pornography, proclaiming Christianity paramount and so on. Thus, he defends “traditional values” unlike the heathen United States, where the mostly-conservative people are being let down by a growing secular government and liberal attitudes.
Buchanan also lauds the world’s Muslims for the same reason. Al Qaeda does love them.
He isn’t alone
Nova Roma
Granted, Putin has also declared himself as such; other sources, such as an article on the Huffington Post by the Rev. Dr. John Chryssavgis (high-ranking Greek Orthodox church official) and Accuracy In Media’s website AIM.org, have likewise taken note of these claims.
Putin even goes so far as to declare Moscow the “Third Rome,” successor to Constantinople (now Istanbul; Constantinople has been a long time gone and it’s nobody’s business but the Turks) as the seat of Christian civilization, which Buchanan and the other sources mention.
No sir, I don’t like it
Is anyone else buying this crap? Let’s start with the Russian Orthodox Church itself. As AIM points out, the church has a long history of cooperating with the Russian government. Many think Russia was wholly atheistic during the USSR. There was, to be sure, some harsh religious repression. However, Stalin became a patron of the church before World War II and the Moscow Patriarchy (sort of like dioceses for the Catholics) quickly heeled to his wishes.
Keith Armes, a former international relations scholar at Boston University specializing in Russian studies, wrote a fantastic article in Demokratizatsiya detailing church-state cooperation in the 1990s, using information from KGB archives. In short, the church was an important tool in white-washing government activities. It also cooperated with the KGB, disseminating propaganda and admitting agents into the rank-and-file clergy as well as church hierarchy.
Reuters reports the church-state link is just as strong today; Putin’s policies are widely backed by the church, with little question from the pulpit. Heck, Pussy Riot was put in the paddy wagon outside a cathedral protest!
Some civilization
Putin a savior of Western Civilization? Depends on how you define that. As far as promoted social values…even idiots know every activity proscribed against by church doctrine gets contravened. Muslims bootleg booze. People everywhere, gay or straight, have been having sex out of wedlock for a very long time. (Putin had a mistress during his marriage.)
People IN wedlock have even been told sex is bad – as if they weren’t deprived already!
However, the western tradition of authoritarian government, corruption, Orwellian surveillance and crushing dissent…yeah. He’s a defender of that for sure.
Pat Buchanan among Putin admirers
Some people should know better. Pat Buchanan, right-wing commentator and former Nixon staffer, has been on a tear recently, declaring Russian PM Vladimir Putin a defender of Western Civilization, such as an April 2014 op-ed on HumanEvents.com and on his own website in December 2013.
Putin, he argues, stands against western decadence by cracking down on gay rights, abortion, pornography, proclaiming Christianity paramount and so on. Thus, he defends “traditional values” unlike the heathen United States, where the mostly-conservative people are being let down by a growing secular government and liberal attitudes.
Buchanan also lauds the world’s Muslims for the same reason. Al Qaeda does love them.
He isn’t alone
Nova Roma
Granted, Putin has also declared himself as such; other sources, such as an article on the Huffington Post by the Rev. Dr. John Chryssavgis (high-ranking Greek Orthodox church official) and Accuracy In Media’s website AIM.org, have likewise taken note of these claims.
Putin even goes so far as to declare Moscow the “Third Rome,” successor to Constantinople (now Istanbul; Constantinople has been a long time gone and it’s nobody’s business but the Turks) as the seat of Christian civilization, which Buchanan and the other sources mention.
No sir, I don’t like it
Is anyone else buying this crap? Let’s start with the Russian Orthodox Church itself. As AIM points out, the church has a long history of cooperating with the Russian government. Many think Russia was wholly atheistic during the USSR. There was, to be sure, some harsh religious repression. However, Stalin became a patron of the church before World War II and the Moscow Patriarchy (sort of like dioceses for the Catholics) quickly heeled to his wishes.
Keith Armes, a former international relations scholar at Boston University specializing in Russian studies, wrote a fantastic article in Demokratizatsiya detailing church-state cooperation in the 1990s, using information from KGB archives. In short, the church was an important tool in white-washing government activities. It also cooperated with the KGB, disseminating propaganda and admitting agents into the rank-and-file clergy as well as church hierarchy.
Reuters reports the church-state link is just as strong today; Putin’s policies are widely backed by the church, with little question from the pulpit. Heck, Pussy Riot was put in the paddy wagon outside a cathedral protest!
Some civilization
Putin a savior of Western Civilization? Depends on how you define that. As far as promoted social values…even idiots know every activity proscribed against by church doctrine gets contravened. Muslims bootleg booze. People everywhere, gay or straight, have been having sex out of wedlock for a very long time. (Putin had a mistress during his marriage.)
People IN wedlock have even been told sex is bad – as if they weren’t deprived already!
However, the western tradition of authoritarian government, corruption, Orwellian surveillance and crushing dissent…yeah. He’s a defender of that for sure.