Are there religious undertones to the Ukraine Russian conflict?

[Throck]

Are there any religious differences fueling this war? Muslim, Jewish, Christian, Catholic? Or is the conflict pure political economic?

[BootinUp]

1. The author/historian Anne Applebaum was just saying

on MSNBC how Ukraine's democracy and nationalism has a more civic connection and not ethnically based.

[mwooldri]

2. Not really.

Ukraine and Russian Federation both have Orthodox Christianity as their main religion.

Conflict is purely because Putin has a sad. He wants the USSR back again.

[Beastly Boy]

3. I can only see one religious undertone in the conflict.

Both Russians and Ukrainians are overwhelmingly Orthodox Christians. Putin waging war on the Orthodox Christian population of Ukraine is not going to play well with the people of Russia. And if Putin gets to deploy the military units from Kazakhstan or Chechnya (both predominantly Muslim) in his invasion of Ukraine, the sentiment against Putin in Russia will only grow.

[Duncanpup]

6. Kazakhs told kremlin no on sending soldiers

[Beastly Boy]

7. Shows that Kazakhstan's leaders have a better grip on reality than Putin does.

[Duncanpup]

8. I agree friend

[Igel]

4. Yes.

Look at the DNR and LNR.

They closed Ukrainian orthodox churches, often beating the priests and church-goers during services. The Ukrainian church declared itself separate from the ROC.

Ukraine as a Baptist training center and 100k or more Baptists. These often head into Russia. Putin's very pro-Russian Orthodox and anti-non-ROC. It's not "religion" all the time, but the ROC is linked strongly and forms a strong part of Russian culture. The DNR and LNR basically shut down the Baptists in the Donbas and closed their churches. Many fled. Putin doesn't like western heretical religions in his personal space.

Jews were also widely beaten by the "anti-fascists". Remember, Soviet-speak had "fascist = doesn't like the USSR." Orwell said it basically meant "something unpleasant" back in the 1940s, so that stands to reason. Now it means "doesn't like Russia and doesn't feel the love for Putin."

The DNR and LNR also did a number of GLB "hotspots" and organizations. They were entered, literal gay bashing happened as they were raided and shut down. With occupants left with concussions, skull factures, missing teeth, and broken bones.

Part of the ROC's allure for Putin is that it don't include "western" values. Like tolerance for GLB (which in this case means not hitting them with a billyclub when you see them walking down the streets--recalibrate "tolerance" back to actual "tolerance" instead of "appreciation" when talking about these ideologs.)

[Throck]

5. Thanks

Weirdly complex and compartmentalized.

[ck4829]

9. It's weird how our righties are giving it *OVERTONES* somehow though

They act like Putin is some sort of standard-bearer for their warped version of Christianity.

[orwell]

10. I read a very interesting blog post on this...

...from a former NSA counter intelligence officer.

He claimed that the recent split between the Russian Orthodox Church, which is fully embedded in the Russian military, and the newly autonomous Ukrainian Orthodox Church is very much at the heart of Putin's decision to invade.

The ROC is livid over this split. Putin has used the ROC to increase his power and control in Russia, adding a "spiritual" component to his desire to reestablish the Soviet Union sphere of influence. He participates publicly in ROC rituals and goes to services with cameras in tow. He has aligned with Orthodox clerics as a means of rationalizing hate for LGBT citizens, people of color, feminism, and Muslims. (Round up the usual suspects...)

In other words, this is the same fake "Christian" playbook that is being used by our authoritarians to control our Duck Dynasty" rubes here in the US.

God, Guns, and Gays seems to be the recipe for hate and intolerance anywhere you want to cook it up...