That is what Tim Costello asks in his article published in The Guardian on March 5th. He is a fellow in the Centre for Public Christianity in Sydney, Australia. He explains how the concept of Russian World, which Russian President Vladimir Putin strongly embraces, is interwoven with the Orthodox Church. And Patriarch Kirill of Moscow, the supreme leader of the Russian Orthodox Church, said publicly ten years ago that Vladimir Putin, who had arisen out of atheistic Soviet communism, had become “a miracle of God.”
Kirill and others in the Russian Orthodox Church believe God has raised up President Putin as a messianic figure to defend Christian values and deliver Europe from decadence by whatever means necessary, thus including this invading and destroying Ukraine and killing thousands of its people. But I think the result will be that Putin likely will make a majority of Ukrainians hate him for the rest of their lives. How could it be possible if Russia wins this war and subjugates Ukraine to rule a people who so strongly hate its ruler like that?
In 2013, Costello led an Australian delegation of three others to attend the G20 in Russia. He had a conversation with President Putin at that time. Putin asked him some questions about Christianity in the West. Costello relates:
“In our meeting with Putin, he said that he was insistent that young Russians start going back to church. He wore a cross around his neck and I later learned he had been secretly baptised by his mother as his father was an atheist. He seemed fascinated that I was a reverend and questioned me about faith.
. . . . . . . .
“Just as he probed me about Christianity in the west, he reportedly said in a speech in 2013: ‘We see many of the Euro-Atlantic countries are actually rejecting their roots, including the Christian values that constitute the basis of western civilisation. They are denying the moral principles and all traditional identities: national, cultural, religious and even sexual.’
“Kyiv must be taken, in his mind, to preserve the Christian battle. And there may be many Christians in the west who agree with some of his sentiments.
“A miracle defender of Christianity or the most evil man? Well, it is Ukrainian Christians among others whom he is now slaughtering indiscriminately and he has little understanding of Jesus, who said “blessed are the peacemakers”.
“No, this is a power vision threaded through with nationalistic Christian theology. And evil is the right word when a leader uses religion to justify in God’s name invasion, violence and annihilation.”
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