Vladimir Putin: a miracle defender of Christianity or the most evil man? | Tim Costello

With Russia invading Ukraine, its president, Vladimir Putin, has been painted by many in the western media as the most evil man in the world.

At a personal level I have been required to reflect on my memories of the man and whether I sensed I was in the presence of evil. Back in 2013 I had a meeting with Putin in his dacha two hours out of Moscow. It went for over an hour and half. He was courteous and inquisitive and even agreed to some of the requests we were making. I and the delegation of three others came away thinking he could be reasonable. None of us thought him evil. But now I wonder?

The occasion then was the G20 when Russia had the presidency and Putin was the first leader to invite civil society leaders to meet and participate at the highest level and enjoy an equal access and platform with the business G20. I was leading the Australian delegation and we urged him to stop beating up Russian NGOs and to widen the space for civil society dissension and debate. Amazingly he did not disagree.

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. I pushed the envelope and raised why he had sentenced Pussy Riot for singing in the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour in Moscow and he said the church had been deeply offended. I said but a church, despite its offence, believes in the primacy of forgiveness not punishment for a blasphemy, and he looked at me with blinking incomprehension as if to say why would they forgive? But did I sense I was in the presence of evil? No.

This spiritual space is an important clue often overlooked. In 988 Vladimir king of the Rus was the first Christian convert. In Kyiv he summoned the whole city to the banks of the Dnieper River for a mass baptism. Holy Mother Russia was born. In 2019 the Ukrainian church broke with the Russian church and declared its independence. But Putin and the Russian church will not accept this because it is the site of the imagined mother church for all the Rus.

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.

Tim Costello is a fellow at the Centre for Public Christianity in Sydney