The Russian people are becoming weaponized – a vehicle for Vladimir Putin and his palace guard at the Kremlin to use at their disposal. If Moscow wants to annex Crimea, the people will support it. If Moscow wants to support the regime of Bashar Assad with military force, as the latter drops barrel bombs on his people, the people will support it. If Moscow wants to further expand the Russian empire at the expense of some other nation-state, the people will, of course, support it.

The Kremlin’s accomplice in this effort is the Russian Orthodox Church. During a recent stay in Moscow, I went to an art exhibit created and sponsored by the church. The subject matter was the art commissioned by the Soviet Union to be used as propaganda for the Communist Party, giving form to their utopia. I was struck by one part of the exhibit, where the church had offered its own analysis of the paintings hanging on the wall. The image of an old woman confronting the Nazis in her bare feet was really Moses confronting the Egyptians. The young boy reading a letter from a Soviet soldier at the front to the rest of his family was really spreading the Good News of Jesus Christ – and so it went, on and on. I found the analysis fascinatingly manipulative. Dozens of young Russians gazed in awe at the paintings, simply unaware of the real history of the Cold War and the Soviet Union. They believe what they are told.

Putin has used the church to wrap himself in the Orthodox religion, and this is another way to impact Russian emotions. In the Russian people’s eyes, the president is doing God’s work. He is making Russia into the Third Holy Roman Empire, a Christian stronghold opposing the Islamic forces of evil.