In order to justify and ‘sacralise’ Russia's war against Ukraine, the Moscow Patriarchate is introducing the quasi-religious imperial ideology of the ‘Russian world’, in which this war is presented as ‘sacred’ and as a ‘metaphysical’ confrontation of the Orthodox ‘Holy Rus’ with the ‘satanic West’.
The debate over the cause of the war in Ukraine often centers on a single question: “Was it Putin’s imperial impulses that led to the Kremlin’s invasion, or the West’s disregard for Russia’s security concerns?”?
When Vladimir Putin reviewed his troops during Russia’s Victory Day parade there was more than one ironic twist in the air. Aside from the threat of Ukrainian drone attacks, hanging over Moscow was the reality that Russia’s vaunted military power is a mirage.
Frozen Russian assets have become a hot topic not only in Ukraine but also in Europe, the United States, and Russia itself—though for entirely different reasons in each place.
