President Vladimir Putin’s decision to transfer one of the most sacred symbols of the Russian Orthodox Church, as the war in Ukraine drags on, shows more than ever the presence of politics in religion.
The 15th-century work of art will be housed in the Cathedral of Christ the Savior, a vast church that was blown up under Joseph Stalin but rebuilt after the fall of the Soviet Union in the 1990s.
“Putin is interested in keeping the church on his side in this war to show that he respects the church,” said Regina Elsner, a theologian and researcher of the Russian Orthodox Church at the Berlin-based Center for East European and International Studies.
Archbishop Kirill of the Orthodox Church and a close ally of Putin, one of his supporters in the Ukraine war, considers this battle a “metaphysical” war for Russia’s survival against Satan and the degenerate West seeking to destroy Russia. More than a century after the atheist Bolsheviks came to power in the October Revolution of 1917, he said believers could only dream that the icon would be restored.
However, moving the holy icon of the Russian Orthodox Church has its opponents. Russian art historians are opposed to removing the icon, saying there is no way to safely transport the centuries-old wooden work over long distances, which requires strict temperature and humidity control. But it is clear that Putin cannot resist the request of the church.
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