MOSCOW – The Russian Orthodox Church is expanding its influence in what was once an officially godless state – and President Vladimir Putin appears eager to harness that resurgent power of faith to promote his own agenda.
Long consigned to society’s margins in the Soviet era of “scientific atheism,” religious activists in today’s Russia can get theater performances banned and exhibitions closed. Their next target is to end state funding for abortion in a land where nearly half of all pregnancies end in termination.
Putin has condemned recent attacks on art exhibitions and efforts to hound performers from the stage, but he says owners of galleries and theaters mustn’t provoke society by showing works that could cause offense.
“Any freedom has another dimension: responsibility,” Putin told arts and entertainment figures gathered last month in St. Petersburg. “There is a very narrow edge between dangerous buffoonery and freedom of expression.”
The moral authority of the Orthodox Church has grown steadily under Putin, who sides with the church in promoting traditional family values and opposing gay rights. He, in turn, cites Russia’s Christian roots to justify the annexation of the Crimean Peninsula from Ukraine, noting that a prince of medieval Russia was baptized there more than a millennium ago.