Peter Parker’s glasses let you easily translate Russian propaganda. Amazing!

What's ironic is just how many people here think Russia is on some sort of Orthodox Crusade wholeheartedly...the country's religious veneer is a shell. Very few go to Mass. Very few actually espouse Christian beliefs. It's mostly an attempt to derive state legitimacy by tracing roots to something that was, once upon a time, VERY much the defining feature of Slavic nations post Saints Cyril and Methodius.

It never really survived the Soviet Union though. A revival of Christianity in actuality would mean the end of Russia as it is, which doesn't serve Putin's interests.

And yet you get a ton of people arguing that Putin is somehow this holy figure...oofta.

Very good points. It’s the Russian state reaching for whatever legitimacy it can, and sullying Orthodox Christianity in the process.

There was a big Russian propaganda/alt-Right freak-out last week when Ukraine banned the “Ukrainian Orthodox Church.”

What they overlooked or deliberately obscured in their outrage was the fact this is the Ukrainian Orthodox Church — Moscow Patriarchate (UOC—MP), which is designed as a way to rule Ukraine religiously from Moscow and is run by this guy, who is one of Putin’s right-hand men.

But there is another Ukrainian Orthodox Church that doesn’t take directions from Moscow. It is based in… actually… you guessed it… Ukraine!

All that said, UOC-MP survived and even thrived in Ukraine, pre-war times. But having missiles falling on you left and right after having being “blessed” by this guy does change the equation a bit.

War frays a lot of international ties, sadly, and religion is no exception.

Indeed.

Times NATO has attacked Russia since its establishment in 1949: Zero

Reasons this would never happen: Nukes

Well, that was easy