From Beitbart News: A few weeks before delivering his ode to Internet freedom, Putin signed a set of new laws that criminalized “disrespect for the society, government, official government symbols, constitution or governmental bodies of Russia” and publishing anything the government decides is “fake news.” One of the “official government symbols” that must be respected online at all times is President Vladimir Putin. The first enforcement exercise under the new censorship law occurred on April 2, when Russian news websites were forced to remove stories about spray-painted graffiti that referred to Putin as homosexual. The news sites protested the order to suppress their stories as “an act of censorship that is completely unfounded.” In his remarks Monday, Putin articulated the idea that only by giving the state vast powers to quash “fake news” can people be guaranteed the true freedom of accurate information; only by giving the state power to block predatory subversive voices can the great open plains of the Internet be made safe for herds of good citizens to roam free. Russia’s censorship laws, especially with the new enhancements imposed by Putin in March, are a grotesque parody of the conversation most Western nations are having about limiting freedom in order to purify it.
If Putin is no Christian, it makes him no different than the majority of political leaders. If he wants to control freedom of speech, he would fit right in with most political leaders. Maybe he's a little further ahead on that score, but the rest are catching up rapidly. The only difference might be what is considered to be "hate" speech or "fake" news, and what methods he uses to suppress it. No doubt Russia has its own version of SNOPES and Russian tech oligarchs have their own version of the Southern Poverty Law Centre, and its own version of the BBC, CNN, RTE, etc. along with newspapers owned by a select few of Russia's 1%. And no doubt all Russia's journalists have been brainwashed in universities where only one side of the argument is heard, and all those journalists know who butters their bread. No doubt, too, that there are select groups in Russia who enjoy special protected status. "Don't look at us, look at Russia" is becoming a hackneyed joke.
But does Putin claim to be Orthodox? I read that he had an icon of the Blessed Mother flown over some Russian territory. He’s fast friends with Kirill.
He's probably as Orthodox as our politicians are Catholic. In other words, he probably has a baptismal certificate.
