The War Theocracy: The Instrumentalization of Faith in the Russo-Ukrainian Conflict

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Russian President Vladimir Putin and Patriarch Kirill of Moscow on National Unity Day in Moscow, Russia, November 4, 2019. (Photo: REUTERS/Shamil Zhumatov/Pool)

The conflict between Russia and Ukraine is often analyzed through the lens of missiles, sanctions, and military alliances. However, there is a deeper and invisible layer that underpins the Kremlin’s aggression: instrumentalized faith. In my most recent article, originally published by the Center for International Relations Studies, I explore how the Russian Orthodox Church ceased to be a purely spiritual institution and became the ideological pillar of Vladimir Putin’s expansionism, reviving medieval concepts to justify a modern invasion.

The heart of this strategy lies in the doctrine of Russkiy Mir (Russian World) and the mystique of “Holy Rus.” By asserting that Russians and Ukrainians share a “single baptismal font” and that Kyiv is Moscow’s inalienable spiritual cradle, the Moscow Patriarchate removes Ukrainian sovereignty from the political sphere and transfers it to a spiritual jurisdiction. In this logic, the war is not presented as a dispute over land, but as a metaphysical crusade necessary to save the Russian soul from an alleged moral decadence coming from the West.

This sacralization of the conflict poses an unprecedented danger to international diplomacy. When geopolitical adversaries are labeled “enemies of God” and the battlefield is described as a space for the purification of sins, avenues for negotiation are blocked. One does not negotiate the sacred. The fusion between the interests of the State and the divine will generates a religious imperialism that dehumanizes the other and turns territorial compromises into acts of apostasy, making the end of hostilities a knot that is almost impossible to untie.

Throughout the full text, I analyze how this Russian “Conservative International” has sought allies even within liberal democracies, infiltrating culture wars to fragment global resistance. It is a warning about the moral suicide of an institution that, by blessing the destruction of temples and the death of the faithful, condemns the faith itself to isolation.

To read the complete and detailed analysis on religious imperialism, access the full article: https://www.ceresri.org/en/post/war-theocracy-the-instrumentalization-of-faith-in-the-russian-ukrainian-conflict

Recommended books for those who wish to delve deeper into the topic:

1. Motherland: A Philosophical History of Russia

2. The story of Russia