Chalcedon Blog

Putin, who has repeatedly praised the Russian Orthodox Church while emphasizing the separation of church and state, said during a visit to a church and monastery outside Moscow that Orthodox Christianity is an integral part of Russian culture. "One should not completely draw a line between the culture and the church,'' Putin said in televised comments. "Of course, by law in our country the church is separate from the state, but in the soul and the history of our people it's all together. It always has been and always will be.''

This is the best indicator by far that Putin is building a new Russia quite removed from the Bolshevism of Marx, Schiff, Trotsky, and Lenin. No wonder the media seeks to demonize him, since he represents resistance to the International Monetary Fund, and opposes wars in the Middle East--especially the possible Israeli-U.S. strike on Iran. Granted, keeping the "capitalists" (i.e., oligarchical monopolists) out of the new Russian infrastructure requires fascistic measures, Putin has set his nation's future over against those seeking to build a unipolar world (think "New World Order"):

"Some people are constantly insisting on the necessity to divide up our country and are trying to spread this theory," Putin told military cadets during a speech in Moscow on Sunday, Russian news agencies reported. "There are those who would like to build a unipolar world, who would themselves like to rule all of humanity..."